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By Chris “Jesus” Ferguson as told to Sam Jemielity

With his black cowboy hat and his messianic hair and beard, poker pro Chris "Jesus" Ferguson looks like a cross between a Wild West gunfighter and that guy who walked on water. Since getting kicked out of UCLA in 1999 after 13 years of work on a PhD in computer science, Ferguson has notched one of poker's most impressive resumes, with millions of dollars in tournament winnings. In 2000, Ferguson won the World Series of Poker, outdueling poker legend T.J. Cloutier to walk away with a $1.5 million pot. Ferguson has also taken his poker skills online, both at his official site chrisferguson.com and at the online poker site, fulltiltpoker.com. Having once famously turned a $1 buy-in into $20,000, Ferguson is on a similar personal quest on fulltiltpoker.com to play his way from zero dollars (starting in free-to-enter Freewheel games) up to $10,000. After 15 months, his bankroll is now up to $714. Hey, no one said poker was easy -- even for pros. To find out how you might make it to the final table, Playboy.com asked Ferguson to lay down some of his best World Series of Poker tips. Now, the next time you have a crucial hand in poker, just ask yourself one question: What would "Jesus" do?

One mistake many people make in the World Series of Poker is that, after playing for three or four days, they are not willing enough to risk going broke. People tend to tighten up too much in the middle stages because they don't want to go home. They've been playing hard for several days, and they don't want to risk everything on a single hand. They don't take the correct, calculated risks that they should, particularly when it involves risking everything.

People often ask me, What should I do when I do play in the World Series of Poker? Play like you would play in your home game. Some players change the way the play because the stakes are higher. Maybe your game is good enough to win the World Series of Poker and maybe it isn't. One thing for sure is that you won't win suddenly trying to play my game, or anyone else's for that matter. You can't let the stakes get to you. You have to play a game you're used to. Changing your game will result in you getting into a lot of situations you're not used to, and that can't be a good thing. Whatever game got you to the WSOP, that game is either good enough to win or it's not. But changing it certainly is not going to win it all for you.

Okay, this tip doesn't directly apply to winning the World Series of Poker. But I want to share it because it will help you become a more successful poker player and is also very important if you ever want to be a pro. I'm currently running a little experiment on fulltiltpoker.com, where I am trying to start from zero money, play Freeroll tournaments to build up a little bankroll to play in real money games, with the goal of eventually building a $10,000 bankroll. I have a few rules however. I never buy in for more than 5 percent of my bankroll or $2.50 which ever is greater, so if I hit a losing streak, I have to drop down to smaller stakes games. It's frustrating to do it, but it's got one big advantage – you don't go broke. You're always playing in a game you can afford. I'm a little over a year into my zero to hero quest and up to $714. And as long as you keep playing, you'll keep improving, and that's the best way to develop a game good enough to win the World Series of Poker. Come join me at FullTiltPoker.com with a zero to hero quest of your own, and try to thwart me in my quest. I can't guarantee you'll ever make it to $10,000, but I can guarantee that it won't ever cost you anything.