Christopher Philip Ferguson (born April 11, 1963) is an American professional

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

player. He has won six

World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker p ...

events, including the 2000 WSOP Main Event, and the 2008

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Ferguson is a

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus ( ...

by training and education. On September 20, 2011, the U.S. Justice Department filed a motion to amend a civil complaint, complaining that Ferguson and three other directors of the poker website Full Tilt Poker were running a

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comi ...

that paid out $444 million of customer money to themselves and the firm's owners.

Early life and education

Ferguson was born in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wo ...

. Both Ferguson's parents have doctoral degrees in mathematics and his father,

Thomas S. Ferguson Thomas Shelburne Ferguson (born December 14, 1929) is an American mathematician and statistician. He is a professor emeritus of mathematics and statistics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Education and career Ferguson was born in O ...

, teaches game theory and theoretical probability at UCLA. Ferguson attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

, where he earned a Ph.D. in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includin ...

(focusing on virtual network

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) in 1999 after five years as an undergraduate and 13 years as a graduate student. His Ph.D. advisor was Leonard Kleinrock. While at UCLA Ferguson appeared on the Ricky Jay Television Special "Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women" as an assistant.

Poker career

Ferguson began playing poker at the age of 10. In college, he honed his skill on

IRC poker IRC poker was a form of poker played over the IRC chat protocol before the surge in popularity of online poker in the early 2000s. A computer program was used to deal and manage the games. Commands could be typed in directly with a standard IRC cl ...

playing online for play money in chat rooms. In 1994, he began playing in tournaments in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

and in 1995, he entered his first

. He is a relatively quiet player who often adopts a characteristic motionless pose to avoid providing information to his opponents. He adopted his trademark wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses consciously, to point towards a table image that does not display outright the fact that he was a college student. Ferguson is nicknamed "

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

" because of his trademark long brown hair and beard. His style is highly mathematical, using a strong knowledge of game theory and developing computer simulations to improve his understanding of the game. In the 2000 WSOP Ferguson won his first bracelet in the $2,500 Seven-Card Stud event for $151,000. He followed this up by defeating

T. J. Cloutier Thomas James "T. J." Cloutier (born October 13, 1939) is a professional poker player from Richardson, Texas. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2006. Cloutier was also briefly a professional football player in the Canadian Football ...

heads-up at the Main Event to win the $1.5 million prize. In 2004, he earned $120,000 in the Main Event for his 26th-place finish (out of 2,576 players). Ferguson finished runner-up to

Phil Hellmuth Phillip Jerome Hellmuth Jr. (born July 16, 1964) is an American professional poker player who has won a record sixteen World Series of Poker bracelets. He is the winner of the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the Main Even ...

in the 2005 National Heads-Up Poker Championship. He made the finals again in 2006, but again finished second, this time to Ted Forrest. In 2008, he made the finals for the third time, this time defeating Andy Bloch and winning the title. At the 2017 WSOP, Ferguson set a record with 23 cashes. He also won his sixth bracelet, and first in 14 years, at the WSOP Europe in the €1,650 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better event. With these results Ferguson won the WSOP Player of the Year award. As of September 2020, his total live tournament winnings exceed $9,500,000. His 168 WSOP cashes account for over $6,800,000 of those winnings.

World Series of Poker bracelets

An "E" following a year denotes bracelet(s) won at the World Series of Poker Europe In addition to his six bracelets, Ferguson was the first player to have won three

World Series of Poker Circuit The World Series of Poker Circuit is a series of poker tournaments held annually at a variety of casinos since 2005 as a build-up to the World Series of Poker (WSOP). All Championship events are competed in no limit Texas hold 'em; preliminary ...

rings.

Full Tilt Poker scandal

In 2004, Ferguson co-founded the online poker site Full Tilt Poker.What Would Jesus Bet?
Alec Wilkinson, The Sporting Scene, The New Yorker, March 30, 2009 On September 20, 2011, the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and a ...

amended an existing civil complaint against Full Tilt Poker, alleging that directors Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, and Rafe Furst "lined their own pockets with funds picked from the pockets of their most loyal customers while blithely lying to both players and the public alike about the safety and security of the money deposited." A lawyer for Ferguson denied the allegations, suggesting that the issues may have been the result of mismanagement not malice. While the legality of

online poker Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...

remains controversial, Ferguson's case was dismissed on February 19, 2013.

Personal life

Ferguson's interests include being president of a swing dancing club at UCLA, as well as his ability to throw

playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a ...

s fast enough to cut through bananas, carrots and even melons. His card throwing ability was showcased on a side segment called ‘The Nuts’ on the ESPN broadcast of the World Series of Poker.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, Chris 1963 births American poker players World Series of Poker Main Event winners World Series of Poker bracelet winners WSOP Player of the Year Award winners World Series of Poker Circuit event winners National Heads-Up Poker Championship winners Poker After Dark tournament winners University of California, Los Angeles alumni People from Los Angeles Living people