Chris ferguson 10k challenge, fake or not

Some of you probably already heard of chris ferguson's 10k challenge on full tilt. He reached the goal of 10k in 1,5 year or so (i'm not sure). I had a lot of respect for that and watched videos of that on the full tilt site & was really enthousiastic.

But just now i found this site pokertableratings.com where you can search for your money earning in cashgames. First i searched myself and it was pretty accurate. So I searched a few pro's and some random ppl online and some friends. But then i thought about the 10k challenge, and how i was suppose to see the progress but all i see is a big loosing streak! His total earnings says: -3k and on sharkscope his earnings (sharkscope only finds MTT/SNG) -1,6k.
Is the 10k challenge fake?
Or did the 10k challenge happen so far in the future that we can't see any of that data no more?

It cant happen in the future.. But it prob says that cause its not like he stopped playing on that name after the challenge, after doing it he probably jumped on a big cash table or did something with the money.

1. PTR,SS,OPR are not 100% acurate. If you use a program like Pokertracker or HEM try comparing your database numbers with thouse of the sites. I gurantee you they will not match 100%.
2.He did reach 10k from 0 but he also played before and after the challenge so some of thouse loses could be old/new.
3. PTR is a relativly new site and if im not mistaken has only been tracking FTP since Jan of last year.


So yeah its not fake...

It definitely happened - pretty sure some members here even played with him at the lower stakes while he was working his way up.

I think it happened too... He played before and after the challenge so those data can't be accurate....

HE went from 10k from zero, did he freeroll to earn money. What is the site where you can read about this. I never heard it.

Start here >>> http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/chris-ferguson-challenge

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its %70 accurate for sure, they lose track of a few pots and mess up on some of the numbers. im sure that anyone who is determined can do the challenge but its also possible that he gave up.

shows even a pro has to struggle for some time to climb up in his BR
..I would say i would try this but....I think we all are there right now! lol

I definately think that this is possible and Im pretty sure weve got someone on this site who has done and finnished the Ferguson challange.

He did... they're not going to 'pretend' he did (what would that say for integrity?).
If you're trying to track via Sharkscope... you will be missing alot of his results (sharkscope didn't use to track MTT's until fairly recently... the 10k challenge was long before SS began tracking MTTs, (they've always tracked SNGs).
There are other result tracking sites where specific dates can be entered into it (ie. let's say Ferg challenge started in Feb.'06 and ended in Oct.'07,.. you can punch in the exact dates (whatever they are... this is just hypothetically speaking for purpose of an example).
Pretty sure it'd shove Chris reaching the $10K goal.

...must've been gruelling for him to have to play such shitty poker in the micro donk levels... I wonder how much they paid him to bother with it?

OP.. if you can find the dates that Ferguson started the challenge.... and then when he completed it... I'll run the dates and see what it says.

actually.. to be more specific.. it shows that a pro has to really struggle to get a freeroll cash to get started on trying to build a bankroll from nothing... and then struggle some more in the mini-micro limits so he doesn't go busto with a limited # of buyins.

Even a 'pro'... not sure if you realize this.. but alot of the 'pros' (or at least the ones who ar e associated with Fulltilt and have their names written in 'red') are not necessarily the players who have good results in the MTTs online. In fact it's the minority of them that are even competitive with the MTT leaderboard. There are also many more 'pros' who are playing on Fulltilt that are not written in red in comparison to the ones who are.
Quite a few of the 'pros' (as in Fulltilt pros), have terrible results in online MTTs.

^^^ Quite a few FTP pros have horrible results in all of poker but get deals because there easily marketed.

Well i certainly havent heard any of those results before but that surely doesnt take in the fact that he has obviously played before and after the 10k event. Maybe he had a huge losing streak before hand and this is why u see the results.

I obviously thoguht it was real while he was doing it as he was playing extremely low stakes and entering into most of the freerolls. So yeah....i think its all real.

It was smart of OP to look at pokertableratings.com to see how Ferguson did. As someone else pointed out though, the site is fairly new and only tracks results from FullTilt since 4/1/2008 (Thus, it would have missed entirely his 0-10K effort). Just to note it is pretty accurate but they even state the accuracy is 95+ %, so not perfect. Also, they only track at $.5/$1 NL and higher, and $2/4 Fixed Limit and higher. So lower limits will be missed entirely.

Actually on Fulltilt they even track 2NL ($0.01/0.02).
{they don't track Pokerstars micro levels << unless this has also changed?}

Hmm... things haven't gone quite so great for Chris Ferguson after completing the 0-$10k challenge on Fulltilt. (at least as far as MTT's & SNG's go). Maybe he should've stuck to the micros?
Here's his current results (these are not tracked via SharkScope as many of you know, SharkScope wasn't tracking MTT's until recently (I think not until the beginning of 2009 if I'm not mistaken?) ).
MTT's 197-games played, avg.buyin: $260.47, ROI -55%,
Total Profit: -$27,854 (minus)
SNG's 38-games played, avg.buyin: $61.91, ROI -82%,
Total Profit: -$1,912

Go Chris Go!! Chris... if you want, you could just stake me for a bit and let me run your account up... or if you're interested in some coaching.. send me a pm.

As mentioned above.. pokertableratings only goes back a ways.
Chris hardly has any hands played on Fulltilt cash tables.... only shows 740hands played, -13.83BB/100, -$2,597.00 (mostly played at $5/$10).

I'm guessing Chris's experience in the micros was just about enough for him for online poker??? The 'bug' didn't seem to kick in, or maybe that 18mos. challenge was enough time for any pro who's taking it down in live games to know they've had 'enough', lol.

Maybe Chris needs a personal invite to a Cardschat game? Would he have to get the required number of posts to obtain the password? Would we get in trouble if we shared the password with him?

I watched his BR video earlier today and in mentions losing 18K after building up his BR to 28K from 0. So seeing that -$27,854 doesn't surprise me so much. Plus you really only place in the money 1 out of every 10 games unless you're doing something very very right.

You can run up my account up You get $5. :P

its definitley true...i kinda followed his progress by loking at him to see what hes playing...i sat down on his table a few times, as in on freerolls and small cash games...
even if i dditn see him, idd still say its true, cause hes done interviews and stuff, and he seems a respected guy on the poker tour..so i dont think hed like about something like this..but defo true...

This challenge was completed a couple of years ago I think. He did this one ($0-$10,000) and gave it to charity, then did a $1-$10,000 and gave it away again.
I saw Chris play in Party Pokers premier league last year and nearly threw away two black 9's in the cut off as the short-stack (he went busto on them, but it was a standard play given his situation). Afterwards he said that had it been his own cash, he'd have shoved in an instant. The reason he agonised over it was because there were all his team-mates' prize money rested on his shoulders too. Perhaps he just loosens up when he's online with his own $'s. As long as he keeps making the cash in the big live tourneys (and he does, a LOT!) i'm sure he'll be ok.
With his challenge money going to charity though, I think he may have been more stringent with his rules.

Chris strikes me as one of the most genuine, honest figures in all of poker. I doubt very seriously he'd jeopardize his reputation on a marketing ploy of FTP's.

As a US player, I think the $0-whatever has gained a certain respect outside of just being an academic exercise. Under the UIGEA, as I understand it, it's illegal to deposit, but not to play. Well, there you go.

I've won several hundred dollars on certain sites starting with $0 with very limited playing time there. My wife has done the same. It goes without saying that Chris is way better than either of us. This is not only possible, but imminently doable with sufficient time, patience, and practice.

This challenge is basically what i have formed my BRM plan around and has been awesome for me...admittadely especially when first starting out was a little boring grinding 1/2c games but wasnt long tell i moved up . But really thats just poker any game can become dull and boring at certain tables where the action or hands are flat. I am a huge fan of Jesus he is my favorite pro and i would bet all i have that his challenge results are legit.

I have my doubts about it, why should he waste his time with this (time consuming) freerolls and micro stakes.
Most of the Full Tilt and PokerStars "pros", tv players, live players etc. have very bad stats and cant beat the game... ...they are jokers.
The true poker players are sitting behind their computers and dont get all the attention. They are geniuses and are able to beat the game.

And pokertableratings only counts ring/cash games.. doesn't count for tournaments, which he played a lot of.

Go to official poker rankings. you see of 2006 november hes up 100 dollars then in december and january he makes nothing. He gets frustrated and buys in for a 500 dollar tournament in febuary and then hits like 1200 dollars and then from the 1200 dollars he builds his roll. He didn't have the roll to buy in for a 500 dollar tournament and he didn't get in any satellites to win a ticket to that tournament and there is no way he could afford a tournament like that with over 3000 players. So hes a complete fraud. Honest my butt.

The thread is quite old, the issue is moot, and welcome to Cards Chat.

But quite an interesting revival in the light of current frauds.
Perhaps we were all too gullible back then. idk

Interesting choice of screen name and first post topic. Why so mad?

Ferguson wasn't only playing tourneys in his challenge, and cash games don't show up on OPR. Also, he wasn't ONLY playing for his $0-10k challenge during this time, and I suspect the $500 buyin tourney was with his own personal bankroll and not for the challenge. See, even red poker pros are only allowed to have one account on FTP.

Discredit the man all you want for his lack of moral fiber and business ethics (if he is indeed found guilty), but his Ferguson challenge is pretty sound and many have duplicated it and have used it as inspiration for growing large bankrolls from zero money invested.