Christopher Philip Ferguson was born on 11 April 1963, in Pacific Palisades, California USA, and is a poker player, best known for winning five World Series of Poker events. Some of the events he’s won include the 2000 WSOP Main Event and the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. All of these efforts have helped put his net worth to where it is today.
How rich is Chris Ferguson? As of late-2016, sources inform us of a net worth that is at $80 million, mostly earned through playing professional poker since 1994. He is also the founder of the online poker website Full Tilt Poker, which has had issues with the US Justice Department in the past. As he continues his career, it is expected that his wealth will increase.
Chris Ferguson Net Worth $80 million
Chris’ parents both have doctoral degrees in mathematics, so some of their expertise obviously rubbed-off on their son, who attended UCLA and would later earn a Ph.D. in computer science, focusing on virtual network algorithms. He spent five years as an undergraduate and 13 years as a graduate student before finally completing his studies in 1999.
Prior to completing his studies he was already playing poker, and would continue to improve his skills while in college. He played IRC poker online and would then start competing in tournaments; his first World Series of Poker opportunity came in 1995, but it was five years before he would win his first WSOP main event, gaining him $1.5 million in cash and increasing his net worth significantly. He continued to compete professionally, and won $120,000 for a 26th place finish in the WSOP 2004 event, before starting his online poker site Full Tilt Poker.
The following year, Chris finished as a runner-up in the 2005 National Heads-Up Poker Championship. He continued this streak by reaching the finals in 2006, and would eventually win the competition in 2008. According to a report in 2010, his live tournament winnings had already exceeded $8 million, and this continued to build up his net worth – he has 63 WSOP cash finishes which amount to more than half of that amount. He became a guest on “Poker Night Live”, and mentioned that he turned $1 into $20,000 by playing poker.
In poker he is known as a quiet player and uses a motionless pose to avoid communicating information. He studied a lot of game theory, and has a mathematical approach to the game. Players nicknamed him “Jesus” because of his trademark long hair and beard.
In 2011, the United States Department of Justice questioned Chris and other directors for a civil complaint against the website Full Tilt Poker. The allegations were that the directors were pocketing the money that was deposited by players, which Ferguson quickly denied. He believed that it might be mismanagement, and the case was eventually dismissed two years later under limitations of the website and that the missing money be paid by Ferguson.
For his personal life, there is no public information on any romantic associations. it is known that Chris was a president of a swing dancing club at UCLA. He also practices throwing cards and has honed his skills to the point that he can cut carrots as well as bananas with them..
