Chris Ferguson Interview Part I

Here is a few excerpts from an interview with Chris "Jesus" Ferguson done by Adam Schwartz and Mike Johnson from Rounders: The Poker Show. There are some great tips here for internet poker players and live players alike. Chris plays online at Full Tilt Poker, so come and sit down to try your luck against him at the tables.

Adam: How did you handle handle tournament poker in the beginning when your variance was so big?

Chris: You have to start playing smaller tournaments, and you really need a much bigger bankroll than people understand to play tournaments. You literally can go a full year without winning. So you need a lot of financial backing if you are just going to do the tournament circuit alone.

But I think if you really just want to make money, if you want to be a professional, I think the best way to do it is to play cash games. I think it's probably easier and you will make money more consistently.

Mike: I've heard over and over again that the best players are the guys who play cash games...you specialize in tournaments and you've proven that you are successful doing that, do you roll your eyes when you hear people say this?

Chris: Not really, they can believe what they want. I really think that I approach the game of poker as if I'm playing a cash game. I don't really think that you should play tournaments differently than you should play a cash game and I think I'm really well prepared to play cash games.

They really aren't that different. I think you're going to come up against tougher competition in the really big cash games than you do in most tournaments, so I have a lot of respect for the cash game players.

A caller asks Chris about the adjustments that have to be made in order for someone to start playing in the limit poker games instead of no limit...

Chris: You have to make huge adjustments for limit compared to no limit. As you point out, there is actually a lot more bluffing in no limit where you are making larger bets relative to the pot. In limit hold 'em, on the river the bet size in limit is often about 1/10 of the pot. Because your opponent is betting such a small amount relative to the pot, you really have to call him down with just about any hand, so there is very little bluffing in limit hold 'em.

The main thing in no limit is the bluffing. If you can't bluff, you're not going to win as a no limit hold 'em player.

Adam: And deciding when to bluff as well right?

Chris: "Yeah, and you also have to know when to call, where in limit if you just start with a good hand and then call everything you're gonna be ok.

Adam: Do you still study the game even after all of the success you've had and try to find new ways to improve your game?

Chris: My game is improving all the time. I feel like I've improved a lot this year. Anytime that someone says "I really know how to play poker", I don't believe them. I know that they just don't know what they have to learn. Anytime that you stop learning you are in trouble and I really feel that I have improved my game a lot this year.

Mike: A lot of people look at your table appearance on television and wouldn't think that you've spent half of your life at UCLA, first of all who the heck goes to university for 18 years, secondly, how the heck did you become a poker champion?

Chris: (Laughing) Someone who really loves UCLA goes there for 18 years. I just love life on the college campus. I think for me it was a way of avoiding real life.

Mike: I've heard that before. You studied computer science, obviously there's a lot of mathematics involved with that, we know what you've done with Full Tilt Poker and that's become quite a successful endeavor, but at the poker table; does the computer science and the academics that you have spent a lot of your life around help you in becoming a better poker player?

Chris: I definitely think it does. What most of it is, is that away from the poker table I think that my strength is that I work harder than anyone else away from the table when I am really analyzing the game. It's actually a passion of mine; not just playing poker, but I think even more so, just studying poker is sort of a passion of mine. I am always looking for holes in my own game.

I ask myself daily...if my opponent knew exactly how I played, not knowing what cards I had, but if he knew how I played, what would I do to take advantage of that.

Adam: Do you think there will ever be a time in your poker career when you decide that it's time to move on to something else or do you love the game so much that you just can't ever see yourself doing anything else?

Chris: You know, you can never really see too far into the future. In 5 years...well...I can guarantee that I'll be playing the next five years for sure. I think it will always be a big part of my life, but it may not be as big of a part of my life as it is now. One thing that I will tell you; as long as I am breathing I am going to be playing the main event at the world series of poker

A caller asks Chris... "In tournament poker; do you take more chances early on, or do you not even pay attention to that and the chip counts and just play your game?"

Chris: It really doesn't matter. I think people are always trying to force the issue. In other words, people might say "How many chips do I want to have after level 4?", or "How many chips do I want to have when I make the money?"

That is backwards thinking. What you want to do is just go out there and play poker. You just simply play poker, and let the chips literally fall where they may. And by the way, a 5600 player tournament really isn't that much different than a 50 player tournament, except once you get through 50 people you've got 100 more to go.

You forget how many people are in the field, you are just there playing poker and if you get through the field; you get through it. Obviously it's a lot harder with 5,600, but if you make the final table in that field you get a cool million so you don't have to win.

Adam: How would you describe your style, do you do a lot of switching gears at mid-tournament?

Chris: I don't switch gears just to switch gears. It's not like I'm going to switch gears to fool people. I switch gears because of what my opponents are doing. So I like to think that I don't really have a style. People ask me what my style is, or people tell me what my style is. They will tell me "Chris, you are so tight" or "Chris, why are you always raising?"

It all depends on the situation. I'll have either one of those styles. If my opponents are going to let me push them around, I'm going to do a lot of raising. If they're not, then I might start to do a little bit more trapping if they're going to be aggressive. So my style is really to adjust to what my opponents are doing.

Mike: You play at table after table with 7 or 8 players that all know who you are, but you know nothing about them, how hard is it to not get complacent and just assume that you are better than a lot of these internet poker players? How do you not take them for granted?

Chris: I really give everyone that I play against a lot of respect. I think in the old days about 10 years ago if you saw someone at the table that you didn't know, you could pretty much figure that they didn't know what they were doing that much. But really nowadays, there is a lot of good players out there that nobody has ever heard of and nobody has ever seen.

When I am up against them, I just assume that they are a good player until they can prove otherwise. Then I look for chinks in the armor that I can take advantage of.