Chris "Jesus" Ferguson is a professional poker player who has won five World Series of Poker bracelets, including the 2000 WSOP Main Event. He is one of the most recognizable players in poker with his nicknames "Jesus" coming from his trademark long black hair, beard, sunglasses, and hat.
Ferguson was born in 1963 in in Los Angeles, California. Both of his parents had doctoral degrees in mathematics and his father taught game theory and theoretical probability at UCLA. Ferguson attended UCLA where he earned a Ph.D. in computer science (specifically artificial intelligence).
Ferguson's learned to play games with his father when he was a kid. He played poker on weekends with friends during his high school years. During his college years, he built his skills on IRC playing poker for play money in chat rooms, then taking trips to Las Vegas where he played low-limit poker games. He played very tightly and saw that he could grind out a small profit and have a positive expectation. He switched up in limits after winning a big blackjack tournament. After he graduated in 1999, he started playing professional poker as his primary occupation, while consulting part time.
He is one of the most popular players on the tournament circuit and plays in many of the larger buy-in tournaments. His playing style is highly mathematical and he uses game theory and computer simulations to analyze his play. He is a relatively reserved player who doesn't give away any tells to his opponents.
In 1994, he began playing in tournaments in California and in 1995, he entered his first WSOP.Ferguson beat T. J. Cloutier on the river at the main event of the 2000 WSOP to win the $1.5 million prize. On the final hand of the tournament Cloutier held AQ and Ferguson had A9 but Ferguson caught a 9 on the river and won. In 2004, he entered the WSOP main event, earning $120,000 for his 26th place finish (out of 2,576 players).
Ferguson finished runner-up to Phil Hellmuth in the 2005 National Heads-Up Poker Championship. He finished second again in 2006, this time to Ted Forrest. In 2008 he made the finals for the third time, this time defeating Andy Bloch and winning the title.
Ferguson has said that he has turned $1 into more than $20,000 playing online poker over six months as a personal challenge. To show that it could be done, he then turned $0 into $10,000 on Full Tilt by first winning freeroll tournaments.
In 2004, Ferguson helped launch the online poker site Full Tilt Poker.
As of 2009, he has 5 WSOP bracelets, 60 WSOP cashes, 11 WPT cashes, 2 WPT final tables, and total live tournament winnings exceeding $7,800,000.
Year | Event | Prize |
---|---|---|
2000 | $2,500 Seven Card Stud | $151,000 |
2000 | $10,000 No Limit Texas 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 |
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indited for stealing FULL TILT poker players $$$
He got $25 million..Lederer $42 mil, and others including Raymond Bitar $41 mil, Rafe Furst $11 mil + another well known player (un named)+ other
investors for A TOTAL OF app $443,860530 taken
between 4/07 to 4/11