Knowing When to Fold ‘Em

Q &A with Palisades’ Poker Champ Chris Ferguson

In person, Chris Ferguson looks like a slim, young college professor. His famous poker-playing pictures, on the other hand, present a different image: one of him in a dark cowboy hat and Oakley sunglasses. The 42-year-old Palisadian, nicknamed “Jesus” because of his super-long hair and gentle manners, is reputed to be one of the nicest guys in poker. He is also one of the pickiest. He plays only the most select tournaments but, more often than not, he wins big. PokerPages.com rates Chris Ferguson the seventh highest money-maker on the poker circuit. He has won $3 million over the past five years and is proud owner of five championship bracelets in the World Series of Poker. Palisadian-Post contributor Nancy Myers caught up to Ferguson this spring and conducted the following interview: NM: How did you get started playing poker? CF: I grew up in the Palisades. My father taught Game Theory at UCLA and my mother is a mathematician. My dad used to bring home games for me and my older brother to play and analyze. I’d walk to Marquez Elementary School, meet my friends in what was called the “art alley” behind rooms 2, 4 and 6, and play cards. Games were a way of life for me. I had a knack for remembering cards and figuring out odds. By the time I was 10, I could beat my brother’s friends at poker. That was quite a thrill for a younger sibling. When I attended Palisades High there was a regular group of about 20 players and we’d get together on weekends. I’d tell my parents I was babysitting because I was making about the same money I would have made doing that. NM: How did your expertise evolve over time? CF: I learned by playing against the best players I could find. That meant I had to come up with money to get into the most expensive games I could afford. I thought the cheaper tables would be a waste of my time. I felt they didn’t attract serious players because there wasn’t much money to lose. It turned out to be true. So I played in the $200-$300 tournaments because even the average player took the game more seriously when he had money to lose. It wasn’t about gambling. It was about playing the best I could play. As my winnings grew, I started playing the $10,000 buy-in tournaments. NM: Growing up, did you play other sports or games? CF: I played a lot of basketball and baseball at Paul Revere and PaliHi. I also loved Othello; it’s a board game with black and white chips on a grid. My brother and I created a computer program for playing Othello. We actually programmed the computer to play and then it showed us how to play the game better. So we taught the computer more, it showed us more, and so on. NM: Is that when you began your interest in computers? CF: Actually, I learned to play poker online in 1989. I went into a chat room and played poker for pretend money. It was a lot of fun. In fact, I spent a lot of my college time here. I graduated from UCLA with a degree in math/computer science, then earned a Ph.D. in computer science with an emphasis on artificial intelligence. Now, I own a computer software business called Tiltware, which makes software for poker. The outcome is FullTiltPoker.com, a poker-playing Web site. NM: At what point did you realize poker might become your main career? CF: I decided I wanted to become a great poker player in 1994. It never occurred to me I would become a professional. I loved the game and knew I was talented. My goal was to learn how to play poker, not to make a living at it. I didn’t do it to look cool or be able to sleep in late. NM: Do you ever gamble on anything besides poker? CF: Not really. I don’t play in cash games either. I prefer tournaments because there’s a goal in mind’to win. It doesn’t get monotonous because as the money builds, the cost to stay in the game increases. This changes the strategy and helps keep me interested. NM: What does your family think? CF: I have a very close relationship with my family. My parents think I should do something more valuable with my time, but they have pretty much given up. My brother engineered the sounds for FullTiltPoker.com, so I think he approves. I don’t have a wife to approve because I am not married, although some day I would like to be married. Currently, I am traveling way too much. NM: What do your colleagues think? CF: My colleagues are fellow poker players. We all work together at FullTiltPoker.com. We went online May 2004, and are doing fantastically well. We have made three television commercials for the site. I star in one. NM: How has Internet poker changed the game? CF: In a casino, you’re lucky to play 50 hands an hour whereas online you can play 300 hands an hour. There’s more opportunity to practice. When you play at a table it can be slow. It’s very hard to play tight and fold a lot of the time, but you should. It gets boring, so sometimes players go out on a limb and risk too much. Online poker is faster and you can play more than one game on your computer monitor at a time. You don’t have to go out on a limb. If you fold one hand, perhaps another in another game will hold your interest. NM: You’ve obviously got a very memorable image with the hat, sunglasses, long hair and nickname. How much do you think that image has helped make you one of the best-known and most marketable players? CF: It was a conscious decision; the cowboy hat, sunglasses and long hair. When I started playing in 1994 I didn’t want to look like a college student. I never thought I’d be a celebrity, but taking the costume off allows me to walk around the Palisades without a lot of recognition. NM: Did you have to work on developing a poker face? CF: I don’t think my personality changes when I play. I’m an aggressive player and naturally sneaky; but away from the table I’m laid back and approachable. NM: What’s the best strategy to use in terms of managing a career in poker? CF: Build a bank roll by flipping hamburgers. Use money you know you can reproduce, like money from a regular job. If you lose it you can always work and make it up. Play at lower stakes until you’re ready to up the ante. A great way to learn is to play online because you can play more. NM: How is your math background essential to your success? CF: It’s my strong suit. The hardest part is concentrating at the table. It can get tedious. At the World Series, I have to play every day for 30 days straight, four to 12 hours a day. It’s exhausting. Sometimes, early in the tournament I don’t concentrate very much. I play easy to conserve strength. NM: How much of poker is luck? CF: The longer you play, the less luck is a factor. A single hand of poker is about 99 percent luck. After eight hours of playing, it is about 88 percent luck. Over a year, it is 10 percent luck. And, over a lifetime, perhaps only one percent is luck. NM: Do you study your opponents? What books or course of study do you recommend? CF: Absolutely. It is essential to understand your opponents. With the large numbers of players competing now, many are new to the scene. So I have to pay more attention and make quicker judgments about my new opponents. I think the best book ever written about poker is David Sklansky’s, “A hold’em for the Advanced Player.” My father’s class at UCLA teaches critical thinking along with game theory. It is not specific to poker, but it is helpful. NM: Can you name the worst thing about being a poker professional? CF: Traveling. I’m really a homebody and love flicking the remote from the couch. I used to only play tournaments in Los Angeles and the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Lately, I’ve added tournaments in Ireland, Aruba, Costa Rica, Monte Carlo, on a Caribbean cruise, a Mexican cruise, in New York, New Jersey, Mississippi, San Jose and Reno. NM: What would you like to see changed about the way poker is shown on television? CF: Nothing. I’m so happy. If you asked me two to three years ago, I’d have said we needed to clean up the public’s perception about poker. Good poker takes incredible skill. I think that’s what shows on television today. The best players really do get to the top. NM: Does it concern you that many poker players go broke? CF: You can be a great poker player but not a successful one if you don’t manage your money properly. On this subject, I’d like to share a little story. Over the holidays I was at my parents’ house and my mom sent me to Gelson’s to buy some yogurt, cereal and bananas. I forgot my wallet so I asked the manager to hold my selections while I drove home. He told me to hurry because the store was about to close. I decided to dig for loose change in my car, and I returned to the store with a pile of change. Turns out, I didn’t have enough for all three items. By the time I left, customers were looking at me strangely. So I’d like to inform all Palisadian-Post readers that I’m not broke from playing poker, I just left my wallet at home.