CHRIS FERGUSON

'Chris "Jesus" Ferguson' (born Christopher Philip Ferguson April 11 1963, in Los Angeles, California) is a professional poker player.
Ferguson attended UCLA where he earned a Ph.D. in computer science (focusing on virtual network algorithms) in 1999 after five years as an undergraduate and 13 years as a graduate student. His Ph.D. advisor was Leonard Kleinrock. Ferguson's parents have doctoral degrees in mathematics and his father, Thomas Ferguson, teaches game theory and theoretical probability at UCLA. His style is highly mathematical, using a strong knowledge of game theory and developing computer simulations to improve his understanding of the game.
Ferguson was playing poker before age 10. In college he honed his skill on IRC playing poker for play money in chat rooms. In 1994, he began playing in tournaments in California and in 1995, he entered his first World Series of Poker. Ferguson beat T. J. Cloutier at the main event of the 2000 WSOP to win the $1.5 million prize.
Ferguson finished runner-up to Phil Hellmuth Jr in the 2005 National Heads-Up Poker Championship. He made the final again in 2006, but again finished second, this time to Ted Forrest.
Ferguson is nicknamed "Jesus" because of his trademark long brown hair and beard. He is a relatively quiet player who often adopts a similar motionless pose in situations where he could be "read". He adopted his trademark wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses consciously, trying to disguise the fact that he was an academic.
On television some interesting factlets about him have been revealed, including his presidency of a swing dancing club at UCLA as well as his ability to throw playing cards fast enough to cut through bananas, carrots, and even melons. He claims to have painstakingly turned $1 into more than $20,000 on an online poker site over six months, as a personal challenge. He also claims to have succeeded in a similar scheme to turn $0 into $10,000 on Full Tilt Poker by first winning freeroll tournaments, and then playing with the prize money.^[1]
In 2005 Ferguson came to London where he took part in the inaugural British Poker Open, a live tournament that became the UK's biggest live televised poker event in history. He then returned to London in 2006 for the European Poker Masters and the Million Dollar Cash Game, Europe's biggest ever high-stakes poker game with a $100,000 buy-in.
Ferguson is part of the design team for Full Tilt Poker, an online poker website that opened in July 2004.
As of 2007, his total live tournament winnings exceed $5,900,000.^[2]

Contents

World Series of Poker bracelets

Notes

External links

World Series of Poker bracelets

Year	Tournament	Prize (US$)
2000	$2,500 Seven Card Stud	$151,000
2000	$10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship	$1,500,000
2001	$1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo Split Eight or Better	$164,735
2003	$2,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Split Eight or Better	$123,680
2003	$2,000 1/2 Limit Hold'em - 1/2 Seven Card Stud	$66,220

In addition to these bracelets, Ferguson also has two wins in the World Series of Poker circuit events. Ferguson is one of two players, Peter Feldman being the other, who have accomplished such a feat to date.^[3]

Notes

1. Chris Ferguson Challenge
2. Hendon Mob tournament results: Chris Ferguson
3. Hendon Mob tournament results: Peter Feldman

External links

★ Official site

★ Full Tilt Poker profile

★ Poker Babes profile

★ Poker Pages interview