Chris Ferguson Interview Part II

Here is Part II from the Rounders Podcast interview with Chris Ferguson. If you haven't read the first part yet, you can find it here; Chris Ferguson Interview Part I. Chris is a former WSOP Main Event Champion and is well known for running his bankroll from $1 to $20,000 while playing internet poker. Chris can be found playing exclusively at Full Tilt Poker.

Adam: You have a background of computers and artificial intelligence, I wanted to ask you about your thoughts on software designed to play internet poker, or poker bots as they're called...do you think this is a significant threat to internet poker?

Chris: I don't really know, I don't think it is right now. It may be in the future. I really haven't seen evidence that there are a lot of them out there. Certainly, there are not a lot of good ones out there, but certainly there is a lot of money to be made with internet poker.

Mike: We would be remissed if we didn't talk a little bit about your look and your famous appearance. You've sort of established yourself with the long hair, the sunglasses, the hat and the beard. Do you feel now that you've kind of trapped yourself? What if ever want to just shave and cut your hair and wear a baseball hat, do you you feel you'll have to keep this appearance for the rest of your life?

Chris: That's an interesting question, I'll tell ya. In 2000, before I won the World Series of Poker, I had had my long hair for about 6 years at that point. And literally...I was going to shave my head and get a crew cut after the World Series of Poker, I'm not kidding. Then I went and won the damn thing so I figured it was about keeping the look, because now...I have been on TV winning by far the biggest poker tournament ever at that point. So I figured I had to keep the look for a couple more years. If poker hadn't really taken off in 2003, 2004 and 2005, I probably would have cut it then. But look for me to cut my hair in the next 3-4 years.

Mike: You've basically coined the phrase "Pump it or dump it" when it comes to tournament poker. You are constantly preaching it in all of the tips that I read from you...that people shouldn't limp in and shouldn't call particularly when they are in early position or first to act. This is pretty much black and white for you. Explain why you feel so strongly about this even with something like a pair of two's or something like that?

Chris: Well a pair of twos, if you are in early position you should just fold. I guess here is my reasoning, and the reasoning is pretty clear when you are playing against better opponents. You should definitely play this way when you are against better opponents. You'll very rarely see me limp into a pot, just about never in poker tournaments.

I'm talking about when it's folded around to me, and I'm next to act and no one has come in, I'm either going to raise it or I'm going to throw my hand away. There really aren't any exceptions, but I'll explain the rationale.

If it's folded around to me, I have no money invested in this pot. So if I think I have the best hand...why don't we play for more money? If I don't think I have the best hand, since I have no money invested I should just fold. So there is no hands that I feel I should really call with. It's only when you have money invested in the pot already that you should consider calling.

In fact, in limit poker, if someone raises in front of me, I either re-raise him of I fold it. I don't like sending a message that I have a good hand but not a great hand. Why would I send that message? I just want to say..."You don't know what I have."

It saves me a little bit of trouble. Now I am not splitting my hands into two categories; my calling hands and my raising hands. Now my opponents really don't know what I have, this is the way I see it.

Mike: You also tell people to either bet their really good hands or really bad hands, but to stay away from playing medium hands. That really is a beginner mistake, why is this?

Chris: Well I'm talking particularly about the river. So if we have gotten down to the river, I don't want to bet my middle strength hands on the river. The reason is that if my opponent calls me, he is going to beat me. I am not going to get him to folds any hands that I can beat by betting my middle strength hands, he is only going to fold hands that are worse than my hands, but he is going to call with anything that is better essentially.

Obviously I want to bet my good hands, if I am acting crazy I might check raise or something like that, but the thing is, where you might never want to bet your middle-strength hands, you might want to bet your worst hands. The reason is...if you check your worst hands, you're gonna lose for sure. If you check your middle hands, you might win anyway. But if you bet your worst hands, you might win. You might turn a  losing hand into a winning hand.