Anyone Can Cut Cards. But He Can Cut With Cards.
Friday, April 7, 2006; Page C03
We know Chris "Jesus" Ferguson is one of the world's great poker stars. What somehow escaped our radar is his other talent with playing cards.
The World Series of Poker champ is impossible to miss: long hair, beard, black cowboy hat. Along with fellow pros Howard Lederer and Greg Raymer, he's come to Washington to lobby against a ban on online poker. But on Wednesday night, we find him playing Texas Hold 'Em with about 40 local hotshots at the University Club.
  He slices! He dices! He raises! He calls! Poker hotshot Chris Ferguson is a threat to players' pocketbooks and produce. (Roxanne Roberts -- The Washington Post) Save & Share |
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Ferguson, 42, settles at a table surrounded by poker groupies half his age dying to go head-to-head, then race home and blog about it. Bets are placed, cards and chips tossed with studied nonchalance. The table talk: why they don't like pro Phil Hellmuth (whiner), how good Internet players are (really good), and the way Ferguson throws a card so hard it slices fruits and vegetables.
What?! "Bananas, pickles, celery, carrots," he says with a good-natured grin. Bananas, sure, but carrots? No way , we scoff. His devoted fans jump to his defense, having seen the trick on one of the ubiquitous poker competitions on cable.
Someone runs to the kitchen, and a large carrot appears at the table, then another. Unprintable jokes are exchanged. More flop, turn , river . Ferguson plays a few more hands while signing autographs and posing for pictures with adoring fans -- and we're pretty sure he lets the amateurs win.
Suddenly, action stops. A volunteer holds up the carrot, and Ferguson, standing about six feet away, begins to hurl cards at it. Fffftt! Fffftt! Fffftt! A dozen cards bounce off the carrot. Fffftt! Fffftt! Suddenly, a two-inch piece slices off. Carrot bris!
The room explodes in applause; the successful card is retrieved. The Joker. Ferguson wins once again.
Ready for Your Close-Up? Three TV Pilots Shot in D.C.
Turns out that D.C. could be the setting for at least three new TV dramas in the fall. In the wake of crews shooting pilots here for "Capitol Law" (hot young lawyers) and "Twenty Questions" (young bureaucrats, government conspiracies), scenes were shot over the weekend for "Sixty Minute Man," the story of a suburban dad who gets amnesia and goes into trance-like states for one hour every day and begins to suspect he's part of -- you guessed it -- a conspiracy.
None of the stars -- David James Elliott of "JAG" fame, and Colm Meaney , an Irish actor you've seen in a million things -- came to town for the shoot, which included scenes of a body being tossed off the Key Bridge. Producers will find out in May whether ABC will pick it up.
This Just In
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| ABC's Bob Woodruff is home, with a shrapnel scar still visible.(Ida Mae Astute - ABC News via Getty Images) |
Hey, Isn't That . . . ?
· Margaret Thatcher , downing some bubbly with a small posse at the Four Seasons on Wednesday evening before heading over to a dinner in her honor (Dover sole, asparagus soup) at the downtown Ritz-Carlton. As the 80-year-old Lady Maggie walked in, the pianist started playing "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square"; as she departed, he broke into "Rule Britannia," and guests in the lobby stood to applaud her -- "like something out of a World War II movie," a witness said.
· Nick Lachey , in the Rockville studios of Hot 99.5 yesterday morning, flacking his new album (he was a boy-band star before that whole made-for-TV marriage thing) and reminiscing about coming to Washington over spring break -- uh, instead of Daytona? He explained he meant back in high school, the folks dragging him to see the cherry blossoms. The erstwhile reality star seemed weary yet laid-back and totally buffed up, said host Mark Kaye -- "bigger than he looks on TV," which must be some kind of celeb first.