Poker Pro Jordan Cristos Sentenced for Threatening WPT CEO
American poker pro Jordan Cristos faced multiple charges in June 2025. In November, he was sentenced to jail in a Las Vegas court for threatening Adam Pliska , the CEO of World Poker Tour (WPT), and a judge.
In the last five months, Cristos, whose live tournament cashes exceed $3.6 million, according to The Hendon Mob’s database, has been imprisoned in the Clark County Detention Center. He only cashed in at an online event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) during the summer, on June 8th.
Jordan Cristos’ Legal Issues Continue
The winner of the WPT Legends of Poker at The Bicycle Casino in 2013 was charged in June, facing multiple offenses like stalking, threatening, and domestic violence. On the 18th of September, Cristos received the sentence for the domestic violence case, and served 1 month of jail time for it.
However, that sentence marked only the beginning of his legal problems. The stalking and threatening parts of his alleged crimes, one for threatening Family Court judge Regina McConnell, and the other for threatening Pliska, were still waiting for him. He pleaded guilty to those charges, and District Judge Monica Trujillo sentenced him to 14 to 48 months in prison.
“I am extremely concerned by your prior history, by your repetitive behavior,” Trujillo told the poker pro during Thursday’s sentencing, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. “I do understand rehabilitation. However, it’s clear to the court that even when you had help and you had the required counseling, that for some reason … if something doesn’t go your way, that you continue to harass people and you continue to even violate multiple times prior orders.”
The Californian-born 38-year-old poker player didn’t completely admit to his crimes as he didn’t enter a standard plea. Instead, he entered an Alford plea, in which the defendant acknowledges the prosecution has sufficient evidence to convict, but still maintains their innocence.
Cristos, the winner of the U.S. Poker Open event in 2019, has allegedly threatened Pilska and McConnell, who had been handling Cristos’ child custody case.
According to the plea deal, prosecutors dismissed a different stalking case against Cristos, which stated he stalked the Director of Poker Operations, Leon Wheeler, at Resorts World in Las Vegas.
Despite his success in poker, Cristos has been known for his erratic behavior on social media within the poker community. Although his X account appears to be deactivated, he verbally attacked and insulted other poker players on the platform many times.
