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Chris Ferguson – The Poker Champ Who Scammed His Fans

With a father who held a doctorate in theoretical probability and was a university professor at UCLA, Chris Ferguson was exposed to the mathematics of games of chance at a very early age. Apparently, he was playing poker at only 10 years old. As the years passed, he made good use of the new internet by practising online against other players. Not only did he gain the skills necessary to conquer the World Series of Poker and be named Player of the Year, but he also built up a loyal following.

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Who is Chris “Jesus” Ferguson?

Of all the famous poker players from around the world, the story of Chris Ferguson is one of the most interesting, both for its origins and later for his downfall. All casino jackpot games contain an element of risk. Whether playing slots or table games, there’s always a chance that you could lose everything. The same is true of poker. Though the game does involve some strategizing, you still need luck on your side. If you go to Bodog Casino, you can try to find the perfect mix of luck and skill in their many variants of online poker.

However, there are some players who are able to win consistently. One of these is Chris Moneymaker, who is known to be a cold and calculating type of player. There are plenty of other more colourful characters, and probably the best example of these in recent local history is Chris “Jesus” Ferguson.

The Jesus Of The Poker Table

The “Jesus” in his name doesn’t allude to the ability to perform miracles at the poker table. Rather it points to his demeanour, as he likes to wear long hair and a long brown beard. As you’ll discover, this isn’t the most interesting trivia about this character. Unfortunately, there were some aspects of his character that were a lot less positive.

The Early Life Of Chris Ferguson

It could be said at Chris’s poker-playing destiny began on his father’s knee. Thomas Ferguson held a doctorate in theoretical probability and was a teacher at UCLA. As you can imagine, this is a subject that ties in closely with jackpot poker playing strategy. Apparently, he has already started poker by the age of 10. Later, Chris himself was to go to the same university.

The First Online Card Rooms

Chris Ferguson’s college years began well before the poker boom in the early 2000s. But they were, nevertheless, a heyday of online card rooms. This allowed Chris to take part in, what was essentially, the precursor of the internet poker we know today. In this early prototype of poker, he played via the IRC Chat Protocol. Because he was determined to become the best poker player in the late 1990s, it is said that this is why Chris worked hard in the practice rooms to develop his skills.

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Poker Career

With a mathematical background and a ton of practice under his belt, it’s no surprise that Chris would find success as a pro poker player. It wasn’t long before he started going to casinos to win the jackpot. Back in the day, he was the original wunderkind of a poker player. While still a college student in 1994, he entered his first WSOP tournament. It’s at this point he decided on his trademark look which consisted of sunglasses and a cowboy hat. This proved to be a useful disguise so that no one would know he was just a college student. Of course, the sunglasses were very helpful as a concealed his expressions. In many ways, this mysterious outfit proved totally compatible with Chris’s way of playing.

A Cool Customer

It must be said that Chris Ferguson is a cool customer at the poker table. He always maintains impeccable manners and plays amazing jackpot winning strategies. It’s obvious that under the cool facade he’s using mathematical gameplay. Back in those days, in the late 90s and early 2000s, everything was defined by a more obnoxious and louder style of advertisements and branding. This meant that the calm and collected manner by which Chris chose to play was a rarity and made him stand out.

Chris Ferguson’s Poker Earnings

Over the years, Chris Ferguson has amassed a sizeable fortune through an impressive poker playing career. As of writing, he holds 6 WSOP bracelets and has won a total of around $6 million from WSOP games alone. He gained the bracelet again in the 2017 World Series and the same year he won the Poker Player of the Year. You could probably achieve these heady heights if you practice enough. Why not head over to Bodog Casino to try your hand?

The Full Tilt Poker Scandal

It was at this point in his high-flying career, that something unseemly and dark gradually came to light. In 2004, Chris Ferguson was one of the founding fathers of the online platform Full Tilt Poker. At the time this was the biggest online poker card form of the era bar Pokerstars. As time passed, the players on the platform began to feel that dodgy tactics were being used to fleece them. Then in 2011, a court case was brought against Full Tilt Poker by the FEDs, with the whole setup being accused of being nothing more than a global Ponzi scheme. Many players had sizable amounts of cash in their online accounts which were being systematically raided by the owners, who were at the same time replacing the lost funds with new players’ money.

What Did Chris Ferguson Know?

A couple of other characters, Howard Lederer and Rafi Furst were indicted. Yet Chris Ferguson managed to escape any real consequences. No one knows for sure his involvement in the fraud or whether he was responsible for any mismanagement. Obviously, with the nickname of Jesus, he probably wasn’t the evil mastermind who exploited hundreds of thousands are regular players. But his silence on the matter after the events led many to believe he played a bigger hand in the debacle than he admitted. Because the site agreed to pay millions of dollars in fines, no one went to prison. Nevertheless, though he took a character hit for a while, he was able to bounce back. Today his popularity remains relatively unscathed.