Chris Ferguson is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the premiere poker players in the world and one of the true icons of the game. Nicknamed 'Jesus' because of his trademark long hair and beard, Chris Ferguson just might consider himself a god, a poker god at that, and I don't mean that in a blasphemous way.

The year was 1999, when Ferguson got his PhD in Computer Science from UCLA. He was 36 then, spending almost half of his life in the institution. After 5 years as an undergrad and another 13 long years as a PhD candidate, he was told it was time to leave.

And so he did, reluctantly.

And a year later, Chris Ferguson found himself at the middle of a poker table, beating poker veteran TJ Cloutier to win the 2000 World Series of Poker.

Ferguson and the game of poker goes a long way. Before, Chris Ferguson was making $2/hr playing with friends every weekend in a nickel-dime game. Soon, they would make their first pilgrimage to Vegas, where Chris had only two losing trips in 22 visits.

He got interested in other things until 1989, when Chris discovered the IRC Poker Network. On IRC, hundreds of players from around the world gathered in a text-only chat room to play poker. There was no money involved, only ego. Chris had two goals then: The first was to never go broke, even for play money. The second was to be at the top of the tournament leader board. When Chris stopped playing on IRC in the mid-nineties, his name had been in the 1 or 2 position on the board consistently for a few years.

It was 1994 when Chris made the decision to really apply himself and his knowledge of game theory to poker, concentrating only on tournament play. He started off playing in the small tournaments in and around LA. Not wanting to play over his bankroll, he wouldn't enter a World Series event prior to 1995. In 1996 he won a satellite into the main event and has played every year since. In the next three years, Chris would have 12 money finishes, making the final table 7 of those times, but never finishing higher than 4th place.

Until 2000. The Championship Event was his second bracelet that year, following a $151,000 win in the 7-Card Stud Event. A well-rounded player, his next bracelet was in 2001 in Omaha Hi/Lo Split, followed by two more wins in 2003. Chris Ferguson, as we know it, quickly became one of poker's best, being a champion of the World Series of Poker surely helps that point.

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