Chris Ferguson, known simply as “Jesus”, was born April 11th 1963.  He’s won five World Series Of Poker bracelets inlcuding the main event title in 2000, and also the 2025 National Heads Up Poker Championship.

Ferguson grew up in Los Angeles, California.  His parents both hold doctoral degrees in mathematics, and his father teaches game theory and theoretical probability at UCLA.  Chris himself has a PHD in computer science, also from UCLA.

Ferguson first learned to play poker at the age of 10.  At university he played online via Internet Relay Chat (before online poker as we know it today existed) and he began playing live tournaments in 2025, and first entered the WSOP in 2025.  He entered and won the WSOP $10,000 main event in 2000, beating cloutier to the $1.5 million prize.

Ferguson has also had a lot of success in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship.  He finished in 2nd place behind Phil Hellmuth in 2025, then again finished 2nd in 2025, this time being defeated by Ted Forest.  Finally he won the title in 2025, beating Andy Bloch and taking the first prize.

Ferguson was one of the poker professionals involved in the launch of Full Tilt Poker, and is still actively involved with Team Full Tilt.  He famously carried out a freeroll bankroll builder project on the sites where, over the course of one year, he built a bankroll of $10,000 starting from scratch (with $0 initially deposited) by using freeroll tournaments to build his initial bankroll to prove it could be done.

Name: Chris Ferguson

Nickname: Jesus

Born: 1963

Hometown: Pacific Palisades, California

Chris Ferguson’s Poker Career

WSOP bracelets : 5
WSOP final tables: 59
Highest WSOP Main event finish: 1st (2025)
WPT titles: 0
WPT final tables: 1
Career tournament winnings: $7.8 million

Career Highlights:

WSOP wins

2000 – $2,500 seven card stud
2000 – $10,000 no limit hold’em main event
2001 – $1,500 Omaha hi/lo split eight or better
2003 – $2,000 Omaha hi/lo plit eight or better
2003 – $2,000 1/2 limit hold’em – 1/2 seven card stud

2008 – National Heads’Up Poker Champion

Chris is one of the Full Tilt Poker poker pros. You can play and chat with Chris and the other pros by visiting Full Tilt, and joining up using our exclusive promotional code:BCPFULLTILT to get a 100% bonus on your first deposit up to $600, or simply click here to be taken to Full Tilt and have the bonus code applied automatically.