Chris Ferguson - Professional Poker Player

Updated 2008/2009
It may come as a surprise to most that Chris Ferguson, who looks like a typical Poker player is actually a PhD holder from UCLA. The computer genius comes from a family of mathematics experts and it is maybe that heritage that has given him the ability to work with Poker and enjoy so much success. He always sports a cowboy hat and sun glasses, a look he cultivated to hide his grad school student looks during his younger days.

Grad school was when he first started playing poker. He used to play Nickel and Dime poker during high school and used to make about two dollars an hour from it. This used to continue when he made regular trips to Las Vegas where he had many successful trips, with the rare failure. Ferguson was a PhD candidate at UCLA and spent around 13 years for his education there. He was kept quite busy then and did not play much of Poker until he discovered the Internet Relay Chat poker network. He was a regular there for a period of time and was so good that even after he stopped playing in 1994, he was still in the top two ranks for a few years.

After his stint at Internet Poker, he showed his class at poker tournaments. He started off with low limit games and won a satellite tournament in the World Series of Poker in 1996. He played in it every year after that and made it to the final table seven times. It was in 2000 that he tasted his first victory in World Series of Poker. This was against T.J. Cloutier.

Ferguson was dealt A 9, while Cloutier had A Q. Cloutier moved all in before the flop, and was called by Ferguson. The flop was 2 K 4, which helped neither player. The turn, Kh also was of no help. Ferguson would lose unless a 9 came up. The final card was a 9, giving Ferguson two pair, kings and nines, along with his first victory in the World Series of Poker. The year 2000 proved to be a great year for Ferguson as he also won the 7 Card Stud event.

Nicknamed ‘Jesus’, he has an interesting background, being from a family of mathematicians and some interesting facts have been revealed about him. He was the president of a swing dancing club in UCLA and had the ability to throw cards so fast that they would cut through bananas, carrots and even melons. In 2002, Ferguson started helping in the development of Full Tilt Poker which he hopes will allow players to develop their games and work on their strategies. Ferguson says that he plays for the competition and not the money and that he wants to learn from everyone for which the best way is for everyone to get a chance to learn. Ferguson has been and will be a player to be reckoned with for his mathematical skills and never ending thirst for knowledge.

He boasts of five WSOP bracelets, two in 2000 and 2003 and one in 2001. Ferguson’s live earnings exceed $7,300,000 and has had seven money finishes and one final table at the World Poker tour.