Profiting at Poker Making Money at Online Poker & Live Poker
Personal Life
Greg Raymer, popularly known as Fossilman, was born in Minot, North Dakota on June 25, 1964. When he was just a few months old, his father ended his military service and his family moved from North Dakota to Lansing, Michigan. His family moved numerous times, and so at the age of 11 he moved to Clearwater, Florida where he studied at Dunedin Middle School. They again moved to St. Louis, Missouri.
While in St. Louis, Raymer graduated from Parkway South High School after which he was enrolled for a major in Chemistry in the University of Missouri-Rollo. While in college, he became a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. Following his undergraduate studies, he joined the University of Minnesota, from where he graduated with a Masters Degree in Biochemistry in 1989. He furthered his studies and graduated in 1992 from the University of Minnesota Law School. He then became a patent lawyer and practiced the profession for over a decade. He spent his last six years providing legal representation for Pfizer, a pharmaceutical company. He left the corporate world after winning the WSOP in 2004.
Raymer collects fossils as a hobby, thus the nickname “Fossilman”. When he plays poker, you will almost always spot him with a small fossil that he uses as a card protector. Somewhat of a good luck charm as others would call it.
Poker Beginnings
Greg Raymer began playing poker long before he won the WSOP in 2004. He began to sharpen his vast skills in the game in 1992 while playing in some small tournaments. The first time he cashed in a winning in a poker tournament was in 1996 while he worked as a patent attorney in Connecticut. He thereafter slowly transformed into a force to reckon with at the Foxwoods Casino and Resort.
Poker Success
Fossilman has earned eight caches, inclusive of a victory in various poker events held at Foxwoods between 1998 and 2003. In 2001 he cashed in $10,000 at the World Series of Poker. It was during this event that he used a fossilized rock as his card cover and wore lizard-eye hologram sunglasses. It was also during the PokerStars event that he defeated world renowned poker champions and professionals such as Dan Harrington and Josh Arieh. His biggest win was the World Series of Poker Championship Event of 2004 where he won a whooping 5 million dollars.
In total he has had 49 cash winnings which all amount to $7,157,730. This is quite a good figure for poker winnings. His first place finishings amount to 8 in total. He has 1 WSOP Bracelets.
Poker Fame
Raymer is famous in the poker world, and with good reason. Fossilman has operated Fossilman Poker Training, a poker training school, since 2011, and has conducted classes around the US and Canada. He was once also one of the original Team PokerStars Pro’s. He has also been an ambassador for Poker players as he voiced the need to view poker as a game of skill rather than gambling. In 2006, Raymer considered running for Vice-President of the United States as a candidate of the Libertarian Party. He however did not end up running.
