"I feel great," he said after the event. "It's kind of surreal because I wasn't expecting to win this bracelet at all. I was just trying to sneak in, just trying to advance a little bit. And it just kind of happened. It's the best way."
In many ways, this accomplishment seemed inevitable for Ferguson. He was already among the most accomplished players in WSOP history, with five bracelets and over $6,000,000 in earnings. But his last bracelet came in 2003. Since then, he won three WSOP Circuit rings, all in Main Events with buy-ins of $5,000 or $10,000, but couldn't quite find the winner's circle in another bracelet event.
He took a well-publicized hiatus from poker and didn't appear at the WSOP from 2011-2015. When he returned, though, it seemed like he never missed a step. He cashed 10 times in 2016, including one final table and two other top 20 finishes. He performed even better in 2017, finishing in the money 17 times, including two final tables. In one of them, he finished as runner up to Mike Wattel. Tonight, he finished where he'd fallen short in the past and walked away with bracelet number six and the €39,289 first-place prize.
A lot has changed since Ferguson's last WSOP victory, and a lot changed during his five-year hiatus. "I think the players are getting better and better. But I've always enjoyed playing against good players, and I've always done really well against the best players. Now everybody's a really good player, so I was kind of prepared for that."
In fact, he said the time away may have even helped his game. He said, "I just cleared my mind. For five years, I hadn't really thought about poker. I didn't really miss poker. It had been a big part of my life. I had actually been planning to take a break from poker, and it turned out to be bigger than I expected. I've always found that when I take a break from something, and you come back to it, you come back to it with a fresh perspective and often you'll do better."