Poker Player Profile – Chris Jesus Ferguson Poker Player

Chris Fergusson is a well known tournament poker player who is a founder of the online poker room Full Tilt Poker. He has won five WSOP bracelets.

Entry To Poker

Chris Ferguson was born in 1963. He started playing poker before he was 10 years old. When in college at the UCLA studying Computer Science he started playing Internet poker on IRC and became its highest ranked player. In 1994 he began playing in local poker tournaments and played his first WSOP tournament in 1995. Ferguson received his Ph.D. in 1999. Fortunately in 2000 he fared extremely well at the WSOP and thereafter took to professional poker.

Live Poker Tournaments

In WSOP 2000 he won his first bracelet in the Seven Card Stud Event. The same year he won the Main Event defeating poker professional Cloutier in the heads up. In WSOP 2001 Ferguson won his third bracelet in Omaha Hi/Lo Split Event. He won the last two of his five WSOP bracelets in 2003. Ferguson is the only poker player to have also won three WSOP circuit events. Since Ferguson started playing the WSOP tournaments he has won more bracelets, reached more final tables and has had more cashes than any other poker player. Ferguson’s total live tournament earnings are about $10.9 million. He has had 11 first place finishes and 119 cashes.

Ferguson has excelled on the television poker show National hHeads Up Poker Championship. He finished in second place losing to fellow poker professional Phil Hellmuth in 2005. In 2006 he again came second this time losing to Ted Forrest. However in 2008 he won the tournament defeating Andy Bloch.

Ferguson does not play cash games. Also of late he has been concentrating on the larger live poker tournaments with bigger buy-ins.

Online Poker

Ferguson had started playing online poker on an IRC Channel much before the present day online poker rooms had been established. He used his experiences there and also his computer science knowledge to launch the Full Tilt Poker online site in 2004. He led a team of poker players and software designers to ensure that Full Tilt Poker had the best online poker site in the industry. Ferguson often plays at Full Tilt Poker where he has his own poker table.

Ferguson has shown his mastery over online poker tournaments by turning $1 into over $20,000 in six months. He later demonstrated this again by turning $0 into $10,000. He did this by first entering and winning a poker freeroll tournament. He is continuing with the above challenge and had reached the $20,000 mark at one stage.

Other Poker Achievements

Ferguson uses his knowledge of mathematics at the poker table. He also uses computer analysis of different poker hands and poker scenarios to improve his poker. Ferguson is nicknamed Jesus because of his long hair and beard. At the poker tables he wears his trademark wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses. Although he is nicknamed Jesus he is an atheist.

Ferguson is a man off multifarious talents. He can cut a carrot or even a melon by throwing a regular playing card at high speed from a distance of 10 feet. He is extremely fond of dancing and is often seen swinging at a local club.

Ferguson lives in Las Vegas. He is single.