Poker Players

Chris "Jesus" Ferguson

In 1999, Chris Ferguson got kicked out of UCLA. He was 36, and had spent more than half his life there. After 5 years as an undergrad, and another 13 years as a PhD candidate getting a doctorate in Computer Science, he was told it was time to leave the nest of academia. He went reluctantly.

But he didn't go far. A year later and only 300 miles away, it was new school meets old school as Chris defeated TJ Cloutier to win the main event in the 2000 World Series of Poker. You could almost argue that this is when Chris' poker career began, but that's a hard moment to define, even for him.

Chris can't remember a time when he wasn't playing cards, but he might say his poker career started in the 4th grade, when his trip queens lost to a heart flush costing him thirty-five cents in a hand of five card draw. He was determined never to go broke again.

In high school, Chris 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.

In 2002, Chris returned to the world of online poker, when he decided to put together a team to design the software for and represent Full Tilt Poker. He continues to play an integral role on the design process, hoping not only to create the best deals and best software in the business, but also to give all players including the smaller ones a chance to improve their games, and maybe bring something new to the table. Something that maybe Chris can learn from someday.

Because although UCLA may have told him it was time to go, Chris has never really left school. You can chat and play poker with Chris on Full Tilt Poker.

Phil Hellmuth

In 1989, Phil Hellmuth became the youngest person ever to win the World Championship of Poker at age 24. Since then he has won eight more World Championship titles and has been named by his peers, "The best poker tournament player in the world." In 2003, Phil tied Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan, as the leading WSOP bracelet winner and ranked 3rd overall in Top Money Winners among men with over $2.8 million won in 34 finishes. In all, Phil has won over 50 poker tournaments since his career began in 1988 including becoming the first American to win the European Poker Championship in October, 2000.

Using his visibility to the game's advantage, Phil is dedicated to helping the public understand the skill involved with the game and the community created among its players. You can chat and play poker with Phil on Ultimate Bet.

Jennifer Harmon

Jennifer has been a professional poker player for over ten years. She plays the high stakes game at the Bellagio with some of the best players in the world. She earned her way into the game after some trial and error. She admitted going broke when she first started playing poker because she was playing in games that were too large for her bankroll. She learned from her mistake, borrowed some money and worked her way back up to the top. She said that she is no different from any other professional poker player because all professionals have gone broke more than once in their poker career.

Harman resides in Las Vegas and is married to Marco Traniello. Her family doesn't stop there. She has several dogs that live with her and a few more she shares with Todd Brunson (who used to be her boyfriend and they still remain friends).

Many players who achieved the level of success in the "big" game that Jennifer has would not take the time to play in tournaments. That is not the case for her. She enjoys playing tournaments because they are challenging and exciting and she always learns something from them. When asked about "Ladies Only" events at the World Series of Poker, she said that they are always held on the same day as another open event. She would rather play the open event because it has a bigger prize pool.

During the 2004 World Series, Jennifer had a kidney transplant. Her niece donated her healthy kidney and Jennifer has been doing well since. One of her goals is to make other people aware of the option of being a organ donor. She wants to hold the Jen Harman Challenge which will be a charity event to donate money to educating people about donor awareness.

Despite missing the WSOP in 2004, Jennifer Harman has two World Series of Poker bracelets in open events. In 2000, she won the Deuce to Seven Draw event (it was the first time she played that event). In 2002, she won the Limit Holdem event. She has also made several World Poker Tour appearances including, the Bellagio Five Diamond event.

Her accomplishments don't stop there. She is also an author. She wrote the Limit Holdem chapter in Doyle Brunson's book, Super System 2. You can chat and play poker with Jennifer on Full Tilt Poker.

Gus Hansen

Most people know Gus Hansen from his appearances on the World Poker Tour. He won both events at the Bellagio and at the Commerce Casino. He is a very talented no-limit player and has attained a reputation as the craziest poker player in the game because he is not afraid to play any hand and play it very aggressively. Before he played poker, Gustav Hansen was a ranked backgammon player. He is from Copenhagen, Denmark and started playing poker in Santa Cruz, California and plays in many of the larger buy-in events. You can chat and play poker with Gus on Full Tilt Poker.

Howard Lederer

Growing up in New Hampshire in a family of five, Howard spent much of his childhood on the family room floor engrossed in card games. The Lederer family played all sorts of card games together, including poker. Howard credits his father for preparing for the competitive world of high stakes poker. The heady feeling of beating Dad stoked his competitive streak at a young age. To this day, Howard believes his father never intentionally lost a game to him.

Erik Seidel

Erik has made his living at the poker table for many years. He plays high stakes poker in Las Vegas and also plays tournaments with larger buy-ins. He has earned himself six World Series bracelets, including the $1,500 Omaha at the 2003 series, 1992 Limit Hold'em, 1993 Omaha High-Low, 1994 Limit Holdem, 1998 No Limit Deuce-to-Seven Lowball and 2001 No Limit Hold'em. From what I have observed, patience seems to be a key to his success. I asked Erik if he agreed with me and he said, "I think patience is one of the skills I have, malleability another perhaps."  He went on to say there are many areas that he works on and has improved on, like his sense of tournament structures and pace, and how different formats call for different styles of play.

His other notable finishes at the World Series include second place in the main event in 1988, third in Pot Limit Holdem in 2002 and third in No Limit Holdem in 2003. Some of his other final table finishes are second place at the No Limit Holdem event at the 2002 United States Poker Championship at the Taj, second in No Limit Holdem at the United States Poker Championship and the Four Queens Classic in 2003, and a Pot Limit Omaha win at the 2003 Bellagio Five Star World Poker Classic. You can chat and play poker with Erik on Full Tilt Poker.

John Juanda

John Juanda is 33 years old and lives in Los Angeles. Born and raised in Indonesia, John didn't come to the U.S. until 1990, when he enrolled at Oklahoma State University. He went on to earn his MBA from the University of Seattle.

A bit of a chameleon, John was a high school track star for distances ranging from 200 meter sprints to 5000 meter races. He also made a name for himself as a door to door salesman, earning awards for his skill as a bible salesman. If he ever tires of poker, John is considering medicine as his next career.

Although, as the 2002 tournament Champion of the Year, and with 3 WSOP titles, and a WPO Championship title under his belt, John's not likely to tire of poker anytime soon. You can chat and play poker with John on Full Tilt Poker.

Annie Duke

While admired by some of poker's leading experts as one of the world's best women poker players, Annie prefers to take "woman" out of it when she sits down at the poker tables. And, since this mother of four earns her living beating some of the best players around, we'd say she has the right.

Annie was just 26 when she left a doctoral program in psycholinguistics at the University of Pennsylvania to begin playing poker in earnest. With a few tips from her brother, Howard Lederer (a pretty good player in his own right!), and several David Sklansky books under her belt, she sat down, started winning, and never looked back.

So far it seems like a wise career choice. In 2003 alone she has placed in the money 4 times so far, netting over $100,000! And, according to Binion's in Las Vegas, Annie is the top leading money winner among women (It is, after all, still primarily a man's world) in World Series of Poker history, earning more than $500,000 in 21 finishes and 11 final tables. This includes the 10th place finish in their 2000 $10,000 WSOP main event when she was 9 months pregnant with her third child. You can chat and play poker with Annie on Ultimate Bet.

Erick Lindgren

Erick grew up in Northern California, where his competitive streak was honed playing sports. He was MVP of his league as a shooting guard in basketball and an all league quarterback. After high school he moved on to college, but dropped out of Butte Junior College in his second year there. He knew early on his livelihood was tied to gambling, but he started out as a blackjack dealer before he got serious about poker.

Twenty-seven years old and single, Erick now makes Las Vegas his home. When he's not playing poker he spends his time traveling, or playing golf and basketball. Also a movie-goer, his favorite movie is Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. He's had a lot less time for his hobbies recently because he's been on such a roll with poker.

With his tournament winnings totaling over $2 million, Erick has won three major tournaments since December 2002. The largest and most recent victory is his win at the Poker Million III, where he walked away with the million dollar top prize. He won the 2003 WPT event in Aruba and took home $500,000 for that win. But Erick's winning isn't restricted to tournament play. While his winning hand at the Poker Million was the largest pot he's played overall, he's won $40,000 in a single hand in cash play. A positive thinker, Erick doesn't keep track of his bad beats, so we don't know the most he's lost in a single hand.

Erick considers his toughest opponents to be Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, and Daniel Negreanu because of their incredible knowledge of the game and their aggressive style. He tries to improve his play by watching and playing against the best. Based on his recent results, it's a plan that seems to be working. You can chat and play poker with John on Full Tilt Poker.

Phil Gordon

Phil has won nearly $1,100,000 in poker tournaments since taking the poker world by storm in the 2001 World Series of Poker championship event where he finished 4th and won $400,000 as well as a spot on the Travel Channel documentary ("Inside the World Series of Poker"). In 2002, Phil followed up his performance with 2 final table appearances, including a 6th place finish in Pot-Limit Hold'em, and a 3rd place finish in Omaha 8/Better. Later that year, Phil was invited by UltimateBet.com to play in the professional division of the World Poker Tour's inaugural tournament in Aruba where he beat out seven of the top players in the world to win the professional division and claim the $250,000 first place check. In 2003, Phil led expert analysis for the World Series of Poker championship event for Binion's Horseshoe live internet broadcast as well as daily reports for a national radio audience on Sporting News Radio's Murray in the Morning show. In March 2004, Phil won the World Poker Tour's "Bay 101 Shooting Stars" tournament in dramatic fashion and claimed the winning purse of $360,000. Phil's poker experiences have been chronicled in Cigar Aficionado, National Public Radio's "This American Life" with Ira Glass, Smithsonian Magazine, CNBC's "Squawk Box", Card Player Magazine, a classic episode of "Blind Date," and many other publications throughout the world.

Phil came to the world of professional poker via the high-tech industry. After entering college as a National Merit Scholarship Finalist at age 15, Phil graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology at 20 with a degree in Computer Science. After a 2 year stint at Lockheed Missiles and Space, Phil joined Netsys Technologies, Inc. in Palo Alto, California as its lead software engineer and first employee. Three years later, Cisco systems purchased Netsys for 95 million dollars in stock and cash.

Phil grabbed the money and took flight. He packed a backpack, gave almost everything else to Goodwill, and bought a one-way ticket to Africa. During the next 5 years, Phil traveled solo to over 50 countries on 6 continents. In Africa, he has dived with the Great White Sharks, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, tracked gorillas in Uganda, snowboarded down the highest sand dunes in the world, and rafted the Zambezi River. In South America he built a balsa raft to float the Amazon River Basin, trekked the Inca trail, sailed through the fiords of Patagonia and explored the pristine wilderness of the Galapagos Islands. In Australia, Phil covered 20,000 kilometers solo in a Land Cruiser, dodged kangaroos and wallabies, climbed Ayer's Rock, dove on the Great Barrier Reef, and judged a wet t-shirt competition in the middle of the outback. You can chat and play poker with Phil on Full Tilt Poker.

David "Devilfish" Ulliott

His journey to professional poker superstardom began at the age of 15 with strip-deck stud, the only poker game on offer in his northern England home. “Like everybody else,” says David, ”I started off by losing plenty of money at the game.” He must have been a fast learner because, “…now, if there's a game at all, I don't even get invited.” Branching out into pot-limit Omaha, the game of choice in British cardrooms and casinos, he eventually made the transition to Hold’em and tournament poker, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Thanks to his distinctive look and nickname, and his take-no-prisoners style of play, Dave has emerged as one of the best known and well-respected (and deeply feared!) professional players on the poker circuit today. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the devilfish is a Chinese culinary delicacy that’ll kill you if it’s not properly prepared. Forewarned is forearmed! You can chat and play poker with Devilfish on Ultimate Bet.

Phil Ivey

Phil Ivey is said to have a decade of professional poker experience. That’s quite an accomplishment, and says a lot about the changing demographics of serious poker today. A decade ago, most poker rooms were 90% old timers. Today there’s a lot more young blood. The demographic has shifted, and this is creating quite a change in the industry. Somewhat inadvertently, Phil Ivey has become a sort of icon of this change.

Phil Ivey grew up in New Jersey, and cut his teeth early on in Atlantic City. Apparently before focusing on poker professionally, Phil was an accomplished video game player. That, in itself, shows what’s changed in the world of poker. It’s an exciting time in a historic game.

Phil won his first World Series of Poker title at age 23, and followed up two years later by winning a record-tying 3 tournament bracelets in 2002. In addition to being a proficient tournament player, Phil Ivey is also an active live money game player. 2005 has been a good year already with two more WPT final tables and a second place finish in the WSOP Circuit Event at Harrah's Lake Tahoe, and the addition of his fifth WSOP bracelet in the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament. You can chat and play poker with Phil on Full Tilt Poker.

Mike Matusow

Like many other professional players, his career began as a dealer. After countless hours spent turning cards and analyzing hands, he decided to put his money where his mouth was and start playing for himself. He honed his skills playing late night games at Sam's Casino in Las Vegas and, after achieving some success, decided to play full time.

He earned his first WSOP bracelet in 1999 and his second in 2002. He had another strong showing at the 2005 WSOP, finishing ninth in the Main Event. Good anough for $1,000,000.00 in prize money. You can chat and play poker with Mike on Full Tilt Poker.

Kristy Gazes

She was born in Torrance, CA and like many other LA natives, she made her way into the entertainment industry after school. While she enjoyed her career as a documentary filmmaker, poker caught her interest and the rest, as they say, is history.

She initially started as a cash-game player, and quickly became a regular in many area high-stakes games. In fact, before 2003, she only played about five to 10 tournaments a year, preferring to sharpen her skills in as many different games as she could and earning her nickname of Kristy "Mixed-Games" Gazes.

While she still loves playing in cash games, she has been focusing more on tournament play in the past few years. Most recently, she won first prize in the FullTiltPoker.Net Championship at Wynn Las Vegas, which you can see broadcast on FOX Sports Net. You can chat and play poker with Kristy on Full Tilt Poker.

Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari

Antonio Esfandiari has packed a lot of triumph into his quarter-century of life on this planet. An immigrant from Iran, he quit college to become a professional magician, and turned 12-hour days of practice into a thriving professional career. Just 21 and not content with that precocious achievement, he next turned his attention to poker where... well, how can we put it? His attention has paid off in spades.

Here are just a few of his achievements during his lightning rise to the top: Winner of the main event at the 2004 L.A. Poker Classic. Winner of the $2000 buy-in pot-limit hold'em event at the 2004 World Series of Poker. Youngest player ever to win a million dollar prize in a poker tournament. Youngest player to win a televised WPT event.

Yes, this young wunderkind is living large. But he hasn't forgotten his roots. Immediately upon winning the L.A. Poker Classic, he shared his good fortune with those that matter most, his family. You can chat and play poker with Antonio on Ultimate Bet.

Andy Bloch