Born in Los Angeles, Chris "Jesus"
Ferguson is one of the most recognizable players in poker. He has a unique
look with his trademark long wavy black hair, well-groomed beard,
sunglasses, and hat. But his clothing is just part of his image as a poker
player. Outside the poker world, he never wears a cowboy hat and looks
more like a university professor than a poker player. Some people like the
image of being a good player but chris prefers the image of not being a
good player, believing that his opponents will try to outplay him and he
can take advantage of it. He hopes that players who play against him think
because he looks like a cowboy that he probably dofesn't understand the
game very deeply. He is one of the most popular players on the tournament
circuit and plays in many of the larger buy-in tournaments. Since he
doesn't have a lot of time to spend at poker, he decided to primarily play
tournaments because he felt that the competition in them would be the
greatest. He figured that the best way to learn to play better is to play
against the top players and says he learns best by playing against the
best.
Chris's introduction to gambling
came at a very early age when his father, Thomas, who teaches statistics
and game theory at U.C.L.A. (his mother also has a Ph.D. in mathematics),
played games with him when he was a kid. He continually analyzed games or
invented new ones, so he grew up with a very strong background in
gamesmanship. Even back in the fourth grade, he was playing poker and in
high school. Early in his college career, he took occasional trips to Las
Vegas where I played $1-$2 and $2-$4 games. By playing very tightly and
waiting for extremely good hands he found that he could make $4 an hour
but he played for the challenge, to see if I could make a living at poker.
After coming into a large amount of money through by winning a big
blackjack tournament he decided to take a step up into higher
limits.
Chris began playing poker
seriously in 1993 and won the World Series of Poker in 2000 by beating TJ
Cloutier on the river. On the final hand of the tournament TJ held AQ and
Ferguson had A9. The flop was 2K4 with another King on the turn. If the
board paired, the pot would have been split and Ferguson would have been
saved, but he caught a 9 on the river and
won.
Chris earned a Ph.D. in computer
science (Artificial Intelligence) and his strong mathmatical skills have
played a big part in his success. He does a lot of work with poker on the
computer by analyzing situations, trying to simplify the game by making
certain assumptions and then solving them to arrive at some basic rules
that are useful in natural play. Although he has made a good name and some
money at poker that isn't his primary focus - he plays poker more for the
challenge than the money. Most if his income comes from his other jobs -
he is a research assistant and has also done consulting work for the
California State lottery and the Bureau of the Census, as well as for
individuals. Eventually he says that he would like to be a professor of
game theory at a major university or work for a company on Wall Street,
analyzing stocks or trading. He is married and resides in Pacific
Palisades, California and lists Eric Seidel, Dan Harington, Mike Sexton,
and Daniel Negranu and players he respects the
most.
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Alan Goehring
