Chris Ferguson

Chris Ferguson Profile Summary

Chris Ferguson's Net Worth in 2024: $80 Million

Regarded as one of the greatest poker players of all time, six-time WSOP winner Chris Ferguson is one of the biggest names in the professional poker world. Born in California, he took a keen interest in the game of poker when he was just a kid and honed his skill until he entered his first WSOP event in 1995. Ferguson comes from a family of mathematicians and holds a PhD in computer science. His style of poker is devised around mathematical algorithms. He has an estimated net worth of $80 million.

First, you gotta play for very small stakes. You have to beat the smaller game before you move into the bigger game

What Does Chris Ferguson Do?

Chris Ferguson is a six-time WSOP winner and three-time WSOP circuit winner, putting him among the most successful poker players of all time. He’s amassed an outstanding 63 money finishes throughout his poker playing career, and won the WSOP main event in the year 2000.

A math prodigy, Chris Ferguson began playing poker as a kid, and never stopped playing since then. He played online and at live tournaments in LA, and at a semi-professional level, all the way up to his 30s. Ferguson’s poker career took a turn for the better in 1995, when he first entered a WSOP poker tournament, moving up from the live scene that saw him earn money during his 20s.

Ferguson used to be one of the main directors of Full Tilt Poker, one of the most popular online poker sites of the first decade of the XI century. The controversial website got into serious legal issues in 2013, related to the company being operated as a Ponzi scheme, which had a severe impact on Ferguson’s public image.

This caused Ferguson to disappear from public life for a few years, before making his return to the WSOP in 2016and staying on as an active player all the way up to 2020, when he made his last appearance on a GGPoker.com event.

Still, he never managed to fully rebuild his reputation after it took such a drastic dip. His disappearance from public life after the original collapse of Full Tilt Poker and his unapologetic behavior led him to become an outcast of the poker community.

How Did Chris Ferguson Get Rich?

Chris Ferguson got rich by being extremely good at two things: playing poker and mathematics. Both are correlated, as his game is largely dependent on his mathematical knowledge. Throughout his career, he has won over $9,500,000 in live tournament winnings.

According to the WSOP official website, his performances in main events, circuits, and other official competitions account for around $6,875,000 of his poker-playing income.

Full Tilt Poker Controversy

In 2004, he co-founded Full Tilt Poker with Howard “The Professor” Lederer. The website was very famous among players in the early 2000s, and amassed a global player-base that consisted of thousands of members and high-stakes gamblers.

The company was always struck by controversy, having been first sued in 2008 in Nevada by Clonie Gowen for failure to meet a sponsorship agreement. Ferguson was directly involved in Full Tilt controversies from 2009, when he was accused of illegal practices and money laundering.

In 2011, the US Department of Justice accused the company of defrauding over $300 million from their players.

Full Tilt Poker paid their own directors and associates $444 million, allegedly through the Ponzi scheme that the company was operating under. Ferguson eventually reached a settlement, in which he allegedly paid over $2 million, yet he never apologized to the community until he released the infamous “Chris Ferguson apology video” in 2019. It has, since then, been taken down from Vimeo.

How Does Chris Ferguson Like to Gamble?

Ferguson has a very mathematical approach to poker. He uses computer simulations, game theory, and mathematical algorithms to develop a better understanding of the game.

He is known to wear a hat and sunglasses. He developed his particular style during his early poker-playing days and has kept it since then as it allows him to better hide his poker face. Chris is also a very quiet poker player, known to rarely speak compared to other players and as someone to keeps to himself when at the tables.

What’s the Most He’s Ever Won in Poker?

Ferguson’s biggest ever win came when he won the 2000 World Series of Poker Main Event. It led him to a prize of $1,500,000.

However, if we take into consideration his income from Tull Tilt Poker, it’s likely that it has greatly contributed toward his current fortune. We can’t know for sure, though, as most of this information is undisclosed.

How Does Chris Ferguson Spend His Money?

It is not currently known how Chris Ferguson spends his money. He’s always been someone that would rather keep to himself (in and out of poker tables), so very little is known about how he spends his money apart from the fact that he lives in a very wealthy area of Los Angeles, right beside Santa Monica.

Gambling Stats

• Biggest Win: Ferguson’s biggest ever tournament win was the $10,000 No Limit Texas Hold’em World Championship event, where he took home a prize of $1,500,000.
• Biggest Loss: Ferguson has a very strategic approach to poker, where he downsizes his stakes when he loses and ups them when he wins. He mostly plays tournaments and doesn’t take unnecessary risks, so there aren’t any big losses that are particularly noticeable. However, his last WSOP participation in the year 2020 ended with him in 1749th place, his worst ever performance in a live tournament.

No One is Too Big To Fail

Chris Ferguson’s meteoric rise to success is only comparable to his catastrophic fall from grace. Once nicknamed Jesus, he’s now closer to a fallen angel than to a poker messiah.

There is a lot to be learned about Ferguson, though. He’s a clear indication that his poker ability is highly tied to his mathematical knowledge, which further emphasizes the idea that players with a good understanding of maths have an edge over others when playing poker.

His bankroll management advice, as well as his 150+ money finishes and influence over the poker community during the first decade of the 21st century, make Ferguson one of the most iconic poker players to have ever lived.