Chris Ferguson

Chris Ferguson is unusual amongst top flight poker players in that poker isn’t his primary focus in life. His “day job” is as a researcher and he has worked for the California State lottery and the Bureau of the Census among others and he plans to eventually work on Wall Street, either trading or analyzing stocks.

Chris has a strong interest in computer technology and has used this to analyze various aspects of poker play and improve his game at the tables. As the son of a father who teaches games theory and statistics at UCLA and a mathematician mother, it was perhaps inevitable that Chris Ferguson should develop into a top poker player.

He was an early starter at poker and used to play his friends at age 10, then later cleaning up at college, but didn’t start playing seriously until 1994.

With his long hair and beard Chris “Jesus” Ferguson looks an imposing figure although the real Ferguson is quiet and studious by nature.

Ferguson’s poker achievements have included six appearances at the WSOP final table, although he has been disappointed so far not to have finished in the top three so far. He’s also won the Legends of Poker as well as many other smaller tournaments.

Chris cites Full Tilt Poker stablemates Phil Ivey and Howard Lederer as the players he admires most in the game today, although he says he fears no one at the tables. His attitude is that everyone has a distinct playing style and once he can figure it out he can beat them.

Chris Ferguson has another side to him away from the poker tables that some people would find surprising – he is an avid dancer. He concentrates mainly on a dance known as the West Coast swing but does all the ballroom dances – waltz, tango, foxtrot and mambo and ran the UCLA dance club for three years.