Chris Ferguson was born in California (Los Angeles) on April 11th, 1963. He is well known for having spent almost half of his life as a student, spending 18 years in upper level education after high school. Chris Ferguson has a Ph.D in computer science, among other degrees. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree, as Chris Ferguson’s own parents both share his title of “Dr.” - as both of his parents have Ph.D’s in mathetmatics. Ironically, Chris’s father teaches game theory at the University of California.
Chris was introduced to the game of poker at an early age, he says he started playing poker with family members before he turned ten! His educational background leads him to take a highly mathematical approach to the game - often turning to (and even developing) computer models to help him take his game to the next level.
For those who remember Internet Relay Chat, Chris Ferguson first started playing poker online in one of the many first chat rooms, just for play money. He started playing live poker tournaments around the West Coast (mostly California) in 1994 and entered his first World Series Of Poker in 1995. While his official title at Full Tilt poker is not made public, he is credited with helping to launch the second biggest online poker site in 2004 - a lot speculate that he chipped in working with the algorithm, which was the focus of his studies while pursuing his doctorate.
Career Highlights
2000 World Series Of Poker Main Event Champion - (Chris Ferguson bested T.J. Cloutier in heads up play for a prize of over $1,500,000)
2005 2nd Place National Heads Up Poker Championship - (finishing runner up to the great Phil Hellmuth).
2006 2nd Place - National Heads Up Poker Championship - (again runner up!)
2008 National Heads Up Poker Championship - First place! $500,000
On top of these notable achievements Chris Ferguson has won five World Series Of Poker bracelets:
2000 $2,500 Seven Card Stud - $151,000
2000 $10,000 WSOP Main Event - $1,500,000
2001 $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo $164,735
2003 $2,000 Omaha Hi-Lo $123,680
2003 $2,000 Limit Hold’em / Seven Card Stud $66,220
It’s a true testament to Chris Ferguson’s career that he was able to make the finals three times in the fours years the National Heads Up Championship has run, and three of the four times Chris makes it to the finals.
At the time of this writing Chris Ferguson had made over $7,000,000 in live tournament poker, landing him among anyones top list of poker players ever to play the game.
Chris Ferguson is often referred to as “Jesus” due to his apppearance and his famous poker posture that leaves him absolutely silent and motionless. The nickname is a touch ironic as “Jesus” is a self professed Atheist. He is well known for his reading skills, and usually wears a cowboy hat and sunglesses at the poker table. He is also famous for his card tricks ability, most notably being able to throw a playing card at high enough velocity to slice through fruit and vegetables!
For a fun fact for all you freerolling dreamers reading this biography, Chris Ferguson has achieved two amazing things while playing online poker just to “prove that he could”. First, he turned $1 into more than $20,000 in just over six months by playing online poker within strict bankroll guidelines. When told he couldn’t do it again, he “upped the ante” by announcing he would make $10,000 playing online poker and starting from zero! That’s right, he freerolled himself to a dollar again and turned it into over $10,000!
On a final note, if you can’t find Chris “Jesus” Ferguson at the poker table, swing by your local dance club where Chris can often be found swing dancing with a partner. It’s a little known fact that this is Chris’s second biggest passion, aside from poker freerolls of course.