Jesus Spews Chips

A seat came open at a table I was dealing in a $1000 buy-in tournament.  The player that came to fill it was Chris "Jesus" Ferguson.  His nickname comes from his obvious resemblance, when not wearing his cowboy hat, to traditional Jesus portraits.  He is also one of the best Poker players in the world having won the WSOP Main Event plus four other bracelets and also the National Heads Up Poker Championship.  As he sat down he mentioned that this was going to be quick because he needed to get back to the Omaha tournament.

The Omaha High-Low Split tournament had started the day before and Chris had done well making it to Day 2.  Making it to Day 2 of yesterday's $10,000 tournament I couldn't really understand why he would play in today's $1000 tournament.  From his demeanor and actions I think he had the same question.  At one point he actually said, "This will be a good way to collect fans.  I'm just going to be giving away chips."

He played a few small pots with people and simply called any bets or raises and then showed down a losing hand.  Under the gun, he just called the big blind.  The players at the table all reacted and stared at him with questioning expressions.  Apparently the players at the table were all well aware of Chris' reputation for following the "Raise or Fold" philosophy for playing this game.  Chris had written about it in several publications and here he was obviously not following it.  A player at the other end of the table raised and when it got back to Ferguson he said, "That's what I'm looking for." And then pushed all of his modest size stack forward, all in.

The raiser called.  Chris had a very weak hand and when the board ran out he lost and was eliminated.  He wished everyone the best of luck and was off to see if he could make the money in the Omaha game.

This was such an odd scene.  Chris Ferguson is typically studious, deliberate, quiet and at times even menacing at the poker table and here he was joking with players and literally just giving away his chips.  He could have unregistered for the tournament and gotten the $1000 back but I suppose he decided to have a little fun instead - and maybe collect a few fans along the way.