Greg "Fossilman" Raymer

2004 WSOP Main Event winner

Greg Raymer is a famous face of poker since 2004 when he won the WSOP main event.

As Greg Raymer regularly participates in tournaments, events, charities, coaching sessions, televised poker shows, you probably saw his face before. He is easily recognized because of his friendly and unpretentious look.

Another reason why Greg's face is easy to remember is that he often wears his amazing one of a kind sunglasses that are orange and look like the eyes of a reptile.

Greg is nicknamed Fossilman not just because of his sunglasses but also because he is a reptile collector in his spare time. He uses some of them to cover his hole cards at tournament events.

The 2004 WSOP Main Event

As is often the case, Greg was not a well-known poker pro when he won the world series of poker championship. He was just a skilled amateur who loved the game. So his victory came as a surprise to most poker pundits.

Raymer played at the WSOP while he was a patent lawyer by profession (he has both a law degree and a degree in chemistry). He started playing blackjack (and counting cards) before he discovered poker at a Foxwoods Resort casino and fell in love with the game. As he was making money, he played higher and higher stakes and participated in the WSOP for the first time in 2001.

Greg Raymer was not the favorite at the final table which included 4 pros: Josh Arieh, David Williams, Al Krux and the 1995 main event winner Dan Harrington. But Greg came with the chip lead and maintained his advantage up to the heads-up confrontation with David Williams.

In the final hand Greg had a pair of eights against Williams' A4 on a board 54222. As William called his shove, Greg reached victory and earned what was then the largest prize in WSOP history: 5 million dollars.

Greg Raymer Pokerstars team member

After winning the most coveted poker title on earth, Greg gave up his law career and became a full time poker pro under the sponsorship of PokerStars. This was a natural move as Greg's favorite online poker room was already pokerstars. And the fact that he won his WSOP main event seat at a $160 satellite tournament at pokerstars surely must have made him feel thankful.

Greg Raymer keeps a low profile and only participates in a few tournaments every year as he also spend time playing online poker at pokerstars. With his light schedule, Greg has had relatively good results.

His most impressive result was his 4th place at the 2009 WSOP $40,000 No Limit Hold'em event where he won $775k. He also finished 25th at the 2005 WSOP main event, getting close to defending his title successfully. In addition Greg has reached a few WSOP final tables. He has a total of 13 WSOP money finishes and 2 WPT money finishes.

But Raymer's skills do not stop at live poker tournaments. He is also doing very well at online poker tournaments at pokerstars. Greg won the $320 Pot-Limit Omaha with rebuys event at the Pokerstars WCOOP (world championship of online poker) in 2007 within a field of 772 players, earning $168,362.

He also finished twice second at the Pokerstars Sunday Million, which has a one million dollar guarantee (now increased to a 1.5 million dollars guarantee).

You can see Greg Raymer playing at pokerstars under the username 'fossilMan'. If you register at pokerstars you will get a chance to play poker with the world champion.