Two-time World Series Series of Poker bracelet winner Howard Lederer has made his return to the yearly summer festival. Lederer have been absent on the Series since his former company Full Tilt Poker found itself within the crosshairs of the government in early 2011.

Lederer, 51, entered event no. 16, the $10,000 Deuce-to-Seven Single Draw Championship, on Saturday. His last recorded live cash was on the Aussie Millions in January 2011.

His return to action came just days after Chris Ferguson, who was also an owner of Full Tilt Poker when it went insolvent while holding onto hundreds of millions worth of player deposits, made his surprise return to the WSOP.

Lederer first returned to the Las Vegas cash game scene in 2012, while Ferguson, a five-time bracelet winner, hasn’t been spotted playing poker in any respect within the years because the indictments against probably the most world’s top poker sites facilitating games for Americans.

Last month, Lederer issued a written apology of sorts, which generated speculation that he can be attending this summer’s WSOP. Unlike Lederer, Ferguson hasn't ever commented at the matter publicly, and for that he has drawn much more criticism.

Ferguson’s returned was met with some vitriol from the poker community. Former WSOP champion Greg Merson on Twitter told everyone to slow roll Ferguson “as time and again as possible this summer.” Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu said Ferguson showing up on the Rio Convention Center “feels like an immense slap within the face.” Another poker player posted a video to Twitter of him confronting Ferguson while the 2000 main event champion was playing in a tournament.

The 53-year-old Ferguson had two cashes through Sunday, both top-20 finishes. His 13th place within the $565 buy-in pot-limit Omaha for just about $10,000 came from a starting field of 2,483.

It appears Ferguson has little to no rust on his tournament game.

Rafe Furst, a 3rd bracelet winner formerly behind the whole Tilt site, hasn’t been seen on the WSOP during the last five summers. All three poker players settled their respective civil cases with the federal government without admitting to wrongdoing. Each man paid an excellent and forfeited undisclosed amounts of cash to the federal government.

Ray Bitar, the previous CEO of Full Tilt, was the one one to be charged criminally, and he pleaded guilty to violating the UIGEA and conspiring to commit bank and twine fraud. He was capable of avoid prison because he needed a heart transplant. Earlier this year, there have been reports that Bitar had recently married.

The federal government said that $159 million was stolen from Americans by Full Tilt Poker. As of this past spring, roughly $112 million were repaid to victims.

The Full Tilt Poker platform was acquired by one-time rival PokerStars in a 2012 settlement that still gave the dept of Justice enough money to repay players. Amaya Gaming, PokerStars’ parent company, decided to retire the poker platform last month in a business move. The net poker room was still profitable, Amaya said.

Read More... [Source: CardPlayer Poker News]