Greg Raymer

Greg Raymer

If you happen to see a player wearing a pair of sunglasses with opaque hologram lenses made to look like reptile skin, you have probably spotted Greg Raymer. The “Fossil Man” is so named because of his hobby of collecting fossils and using them as card protectors during games.

Raymer was born into an Air Force family, and spent his childhood moving around the country. He started playing poker in college, and made extra money card-counting at the blackjack tables at the local Indian casinos during graduate school and law school in Minnesota. After graduating he spent three years as a patent attorney in Chicago before moving to San Diego and then Connecticut to work in pharmaceutical law.

While working as a patent attorney in Chicago, he turned his attention back to poker and started perfecting his knowledge of the game by reading books and participating in online forums on the Two Plus Two site. He also became a regular on the rec.gambling.poker newsgroup.

Career: When he moved to Connecticut in 1998, Raymer started playing in tournaments at the nearby Foxwood Resort Casino. He also saw considerable success in tournaments around the country, and continued to play online as well. In 2001, he entered the World Series of Poker for the first time, and finished 12th in the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo Split Eight-or-Better.

He kept returning to the WSOP over the next few years until, in 2004, he won a $160 satellite event on PokerStars that funded his entry to the WSOP No-Limit Texas Hold’em Main Event. This event had grown so popular by then that Raymer found himself sharing the field with 2,575 other players. He managed to rise above them all, though, and wound up taking the record $5 million first prize.

Raymer’s big win propelled him to instant celebrity overnight. He picked up a sponsorship deal from PokerStars, and is still one of the Team PokerStars Pros. He plays in the PokerStars room as “fossilman”. However, there was also a downside to his new-found fame. Later in 2004, he was on his way back to his room at the Bellagio when he was met by two men who attempted to rob him, although he eventually escaped without being harmed.

After his 2004 WSOP win, Raymer gave up his job to devote his time to poker. Since then he has placed well in several WSOP events as well as the PokerStars World Cup of Poker, where he came in first in both the Main Event and the $320 Pot Limit Omaha in 2007. He is selective about which tournaments he plays, partly because of his lawsuit against WPT Enterprises. Raymer is also known for his public disputes with Daniel Negreanu and Mike Matusow. Despite his currently limited exposure to the big games, he has clocked up lifetime winnings of over $6 million.

Personal information: Greg Raymer lives in Raleigh, N.C. with his wife and daughter. He has postgraduate degrees in biochemistry and law. He is a keen golfer and also enjoys sudoku and other puzzles. He is allergic to alcohol. In 2006, Raymer disclosed that he might run as the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential candidate in 2008.