Jesus Walks... and dances.

A biography of Chris “Jesus” Ferguson by Damian M. Moorman, Dayton2Vegas.com

Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, born on April 11, 1963, in Los Angeles, California, has won over six million dollars in poker tournaments over the last fifteen years. He is a Doctor of Philosophy from UCLA and is known as one of the best tournament poker players of all time.

Ferguson is also one of the smartest poker players to play the game. Chris comes from an extremely educated family. His mother has a Ph.D., as well as his father, Thomas Ferguson, who presently teaches game theory at UCLA. Chris is also an expert in game theory, which he utilizes at the poker table. He earned his Ph.D. from UCLA in computer science in 1999. After graduating from UCLA, Ferguson focused very hard on poker. The following year he won his first World Series of Poker bracelet in a Seven Card Stud event and then his second at the Main Event Championship. He won 1.5 million dollars for his 2000 Main Event win. Not a bad year for the Doctor of Philosophy!

Ferguson won five bracelets at the WSOP from 2000-2003. He is known for being able to compete at the highest levels in many different forms of poker. His bracelets range from Seven Card Stud, Limit Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Lo Split Eight or Better, and No-Limit Hold’em. Ferguson is a very analytical player and is famous for his motionless posture and unreadable poker face. Ferguson is the only player in the world to have won three WSOP circuit events.

Chris Ferguson earned the nickname “Jesus” mainly for his appearance at the table. His trademark image consists of his long dark hair, beard, black shades, and a cowboy hat. While often times Ferguson displays what could be called miraculous judgment at the table, his appearance is responsible for earning him one of the best nicknames in poker.

A legendary story surrounding Ferguson is that he once turned his online poker bankroll of $1 into over $20,000. Since there were many doubters of his well-known story, Ferguson decided to silence his critics. As a member of Full Tilt Poker, Jesus Ferguson vowed to turn $0 into $10,000. Ferguson documented all of his tournament and cash game results. He took on this highly publicized challenge to teach young poker players about the important and underrated concept of bankroll management. After 16 months, Ferguson reached his goal when he crossed the $10,000 mark while playing in a $25/$50 No-Limit cash game. He didn’t stop there as he managed to take $0 all the way up to $30,000 in less than a year and a half. He didn’t do it for the money. In fact, all the money that was made on this endeavor was given to charity by Jesus, go figure.

Ferguson has also done very well in poker tournaments outside the WSOP. In the short four year run of NBC's National Heads-Up Championship, Jesus has stood out from the rest of the field. He has made it to the finals three times which is an unbelievable accomplishment. He defeated Andy Bloch on March 2, 2008 to win the Heads-Up Championship and the $500,000 prize. He also came in second place out of the field of 64 pros in back-to-back years in 'o5 and '06. He has cashed in many World Poker Tour events and is looking for his first win this year.

Jesus Ferguson is one of the greatest tournament poker players of the last fifteen years. Along with Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, and Phil Ivey, Ferguson has dominated huge fields to win tournaments consistently. His amazing results at the WSOP have taken Jesus to legendary status in the poker world. He is on the top ten all-time WSOP list for number of bracelets, top five list for most WSOP cashes (times in the money), and top twenty list for most WSOP winnings. New players rise and fall very fast in the poker world because they lack the control and patience of Jesus Ferguson. It’s a safe bet that he will be a consistent force in poker for many years to come.