Chris "Jesus" Ferguson Near The Top of WSOP POY Leaderboard

Ferguson Currently in Second Place Behind John Racener

Published on July 3rd, 2017 2:42 pm EST

The King is leaning on the couch and drinking coffee out of his golden mug. The topic of conversation is poker.

Don't look now but Chris "Jesus" Ferguson is currently near the top of the World Series of Poker Player of the Year leaderboard.

Ferguson, who holds the distinction of being one of the most hated people in all of poker, has been a cashing machine so far this summer at the World Series of Poker.

As of this moment, Ferguson has a total of 13 cashes so far this summer, including a 4th place finish in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship and a 12th place finish in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship. With the increased emphasis on total number of cashes in the WSOP POY leaderboard calculations, Ferguson has a total of of 643.94 points despite not having won a bracelet this summer.

Here are the top five names on the leaderboard as of this moment:

John Racener, 691.66
Chris Ferguson, 643.94
Raymond Henson, 614.87
Ryan Hughes, 592.87
John Monnette, 583.92

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Last summer, both Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer elected to make their returns to the World Series of Poker for the first time since "Black Friday".

Ferguson and Lederer were two of the main players at Full Tilt Poker and they both collected tens of millions of dollars in dividend payments. When "Black Friday" took place, Full Tilt Poker quickly realized that they didn't have enough money to cover player deposits and eventually went under. If not for Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker's customers likely wouldn't have received their money back.

After Pokerstars did their deal with the US government and Ferguson and Lederer both signed settlement deals, Ferguson/Lederer likely felt as though enough time had passed and that they could return to playing at the World Series of Poker. Both men were subjected to a bit of abuse, though the reaction was mostly muted. In the end, both Ferguson and Lederer still maintain quite a few friends in the poker world.

While Lederer hasn't been seen much this year, Ferguson is on a mini-heater and has been playing as many events as he possibly can. The result? 2nd place on the WSOP POY leaderboard, much to the chagrin of the many people who believe that he is a pariah of the poker world and should be banned from the World Series of Poker.

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Filed Under: The World Series of Poker