The Chris Ferguson Challenge

A few months ago I described Chris Ferguson, a popular pro that spends a lot of time on a Full Tilt Poker download. That article mentioned something interesting that he had done: he turned $0 into $10k just to prove a point. I find this story very interesting since it is common to hear someone complain that they cannot “afford” to gamble. The Chris Ferguson Challenge shows that anyone can earn thousands of dollars on their Full Tilt Poker download by working hard and never giving up.

The steps of the Chris Ferguson Challenge were straightforward: open an account on the Full Tilt Poker download, start with nothing, and eventually achieve $10,000. Ferguson made public that he would donate this bankroll to the Save the Children Foundation when he was finished.

It is very important to know that to succeed on the top Texas Holdem sites, a player must adhere to strict bankroll management guidelines. Because of this, Ferguson made the following rules:

1) Download Full Tilt Poker and play freerolls until there is a enough real money in the bankroll.
2) Do not enter a Sit & Go for greater than five percent of the total bankroll. The one exception is for $2.50 buy-ins.
3) Never enter an MTT for over two percent of the total bankroll. The one exception is for $1 buy-ins.

This challenge took a long time from start to finish because winning freerolls on money poker sites requires a lot of good variance. In fact, it took more than seven months before Ferguson had his bankroll steady at $6.50! Understanding the need for patience, Ferguson simply continued with what he was doing. He finally boosted the bankroll in a significant way with a runner-up finish in a 683 field. It was a $1 tourney and he won $104.

This relatively large increase for the bankroll did not mean that Ferguson could relax, however. It is tough to turn a quick profit, even on the best US poker sites. It wasn’t until 9 months after his $1 MTT score that he finally succeeded.

The key lesson to take away from the Chris Ferguson Challenge is that it is almost impossible to accomplish such a feat without sufficient bankroll management. For tips on this, I strongly suggest you consult an applicable poker video. If you have been in the game for a while, you probably know that protecting your bankroll is essential for long term success.