There may not be a poker player more well-liked by poker fans worldwide than Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. He projects the look of a world class poker player, a cowboy dressed in black. Yet no player's appearance more belies the real man than Chris Fergson. Chris Ferguson has a PhD in computer science and is the most calculating and analytical players in the game. Though it may not look like it at first glance, this cowboy has a wide streak of computer geekiness in him.

BACKGROUND

Chris Ferguson has an academic pedigree. His mother is a professor at U.C.L.A., with a PhD in topology. His father is also a professor at the school, with a doctorate in statistics and gaming theory. Thomas Ferguson's chosen field of academia served a young poker prodigy well, for the young Chris was constantly playing one game or another with his father. Chris was playing poker by the age of ten. Analytical poker was already being ingrained in the youth.

Chris plays online at Full Tilt Poker
But Chris was destined for higher fields of learning. Like his parents, Chris Ferguson made U.C.L.A. his proving ground. He began to pursue a degree in computer sciences, gaining a bachelors degree in five years. Chris would spend the next 13 years as a graduate student, acquiring a PhD in artificial intelligence at the end of it all. This might seem like a long time for a student, but Chris was a man of many interests.

For instance, Chris was the president of the UCLA Ballroom Dance Club for three years. He was on the ground flour of the Internet Relay Chat, or IRC, a technology which was connecting computers as far back as 1989. Years before most people knew of the potential of a "worldwide web" of computers, Chris was playing games on the IRC. One of those games was poker. He would play with friends on a chat room for imaginary money.

But Chris Ferguson had other pursuits. For money, he got into the world of day trading. This was how he financed all his other pursuits. In fact, day trading is probably what Chris Ferguson would tell you to this day what he does for a living. He is on record saying that poker is a hobby he does for the challenge, and he would like to one day work for a Wall Street firm.

A WORLD CHAMPION OF POKER

These divergent pursuits did not keep Chris from becoming a star of poker. He was entering local money tournaments in California as far back as 1994. In 1995, Chris Ferguson entered his first World Series of Poker. He began appearing in the WSOP from the mid 1990's onward, bringing an analytical style that was copied by others. But Chris avoided the tourney circuit, preferring to play poker online, as if he was researching the phenomenon of card playing.

2000 brought Chris "Jesus" Ferguson to the attention of the poker world at large. His theories of poker won out at the World Series of Poker that year, as he defeated T.J. Cloutier at the final table of the WSOP main event. Chris would become a fixture at the biggest tournaments from that time on. His long hair and brown beard won him the name Jesus. He topped off his costume with a black cowboy hat and sunglasses, because Chris knows that a larger-than-life persona is an edge at the felt table. Chris never wears a cowboy hat away from the card room.

Chris Ferguson has lived in Pacific Palisades, California for several years. In 2002, his love of computers and poker intersected. Chris started work on FullTiltPoker.com, which came online in 2004 as one of the premier poker rooms on the internet. He is part of the design team at FullTilt, which includes a selection of the best players in the world. Chris does extensive commercial work for several different businesses. That's what happens when you have 5 WSOP bracelets and you look like Jesus.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

♠ 1st place at 2000 $10,000 World Series of Poker No Limit Holdem Main Event.
♠ 1st place at a 2000 World Series of Poker Seven Card Stud event.
♠ 1st place at a 2001 World Series of Poker Omaha High-Low event.
♠ 1st place at a 2003 World Series of Poker mixed Holdem/Stud event.
♠ 1st place at a 2003 World Series of Poker Omaha High-Low event.
♠ 1st place at a WSOP Tour Circuit event at Las Vegas.
♠ 1st place at a WSOP Tour Circuit event at Rincon.
♠ Has record for most finishes in the money at a World Series of Poker (2004).
♠ Has 36 cashes in his World Series of Poker career.
♠ Nearly $3 million dollars won all-time at the World Series of Poker.

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This page was last updated on June 5th, 2006.