From $0 to $10k
Mood:  accident prone
Earlier this year I talked about Chris Ferguson, a popular pro that makes a living off Full Tilt Poker, one of the top Texas Holdem sites online today. In that entry I briefly mentioned that he had once turned $0 into $10k. This is a great story as it is common to hear someone complain that they cannot “afford” to gamble. The Chris Ferguson Challenge demonstrates that it is possible to turn nothing into several thousand dollars on money poker sites with a lot of work and dedication.

The Chris Ferguson Challenge was easy to understand: get the Fulltiltpoker download, start with an empty account, and one day finish with a $10,000 bankroll. 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 best US poker sites, a player must adhere to strict bankroll management guidelines. With this in mind, Ferguson had a few rules for his challenge:

1) Play freerolls until a bankroll accumulates.
2) Never enter a Sit & Go on the Full Tilt Poker download for over five percent of the total bankroll except for $2.50 stakes.
3) Do not enter an MTT for greater than two percent of the total bankroll except for $1 stakes.

This challenge took a long time from start to finish because winning freerolls on the best Mac poker sites usually means beating massive fields. In fact, it took more than seven months before Ferguson had his bankroll steady at $6.50! As a professional, Ferguson understood the need to keep plugging along, however. His first major breakthrough came with a runner-up finish in a 683 field. It was a $1 tourney and he won $104.

This significant increase for the bankroll did not mean the end was close by, however. To make a lot of money fast you must be incredibly lucky, even on US friendly poker sites. In fact, another 9 months went by before he finally reached the $10k mark to complete his own challenge.

An important fact to note from the Chris Ferguson Challenge is that it is highly unlikely to succeed at such a challenge while lacking bankroll management. If you want to learn a couple things about bankroll management, go ahead and search for some free poker training on the Internet. If you want to be successful at this game, you must know how to protect your bankroll.