What is Chris Ferguson's Estimated Net Worth?
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Q: What is Chris Ferguson's Net Worth?
A: Edit: Given the events of the past few months, this article is obviously ridiculously inaccurate now
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On a recent episode of "Poker After Dark", Chris Ferguson was needled by his opponents for not wanting to play seven-deuce for $500 (if a player at the table won a hand with 7-2, then every other player at the table would have to pay him $500).
The players at the table couldn't understand why Ferguson wouldn't want to play, considering that he was worth "$431 billion". The natural question becomes - how much is Chris Ferguson worth?
 This article is obviously speculative in nature - there are only two people who know what Chris Ferguson is worth, and that is Chris Ferguson and his accountant. But we can guess..
Let's consider a few facts:
1. Chris Ferguson was involved during the early days of Full Tilt Poker, meaning that he very likely owns a substantial portion of the company. Ferguson wouldn't just "own" a percentage of Full Tilt Poker in his own name - rather, I'm sure that he controls offshore companies that own his stakes in the family of companies that make up Full Tilt Poker.
2. Chris Ferguson is very smart (Ph.D in Computer Science).
3. Chris Ferguson has over $8 million in lifetime tournament cashes.
Chris Ferguson seems like he would be very good with his money - I really can't see him spending any time in the pits or blowing his money in ways that other poker players do. Given his extremely analytical nature, I think that we can also safely assume that Chris Ferguson has made many smart investment choices over the years.
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Assuming that Ferguson does have an ownership interest in Full Tilt Poker (and I can't see how he wouldn't), let's guess that he owns 10% of the company.
In her lawsuit against Full Tilt Poker, Clonie Gowen claimed that the company was worth $4 billion. Forbes recently estimated that Full Tilt Poker generated $100 million in profits per year on $500 million in annual revenue - I think that these numbers are a bit low, but let's go with them. Assuming that these numbers are correct, a $4 billion valuation doesn't seem outlandish.
So, assuming that Ferguson controls 10% of Full Tilt Poker, then his piece of the company would be worth $400 million or so.
Assuming that Full Tilt Poker generates $100 million in profits per year, you can safely assume that Ferguson is taking home some pretty hefty distribution payments from the company every month. I wouldn't be surprised if Ferguson was raking in seven-figure distribution payments every month.
Obviously Ferguson's stake in Full Tilt Poker makes up the bulk of his net worth. However, given Full Tilt Poker never-ending fountain of cash, combined with Ferguson's presumed investment prowess and $8 million+ in lifetime tournament cashes, I think that we can safely assume that Chris Ferguson's net worth is approaching $450 million. This number obviously depends greatly on his actual stake in Full Tilt Poker and all of its satellite companies.. we'll very likely never know this exact number (unless online poker is regulated and licensed in the US and Full Tilt Poker ends up going public).
Again - I'm just guessing about these numbers. I could be totally off.
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