Nice Guys Can Finish First 
by Bill Burton 
An Interview with World Series of Poker Champ Greg ŒFossilman' Raymer

AUGUST 2004

The winner of this year's 35th annual World Series of Poker, Greg ŒFossilman' Raymer, proves once again that nice guys can finish first, even out of a huge field of contenders. This year's WSOP at Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas was bigger than anyone could have possibly imagined. Last year 839 players entered the event to take a shot at poker's most prestigious title of "World Champion." There was speculation that there could be around 1,200 players entering the final No-Limit event of the WSOP. That estimate was totally shattered as the final number turned out to be 2,576 players. Many of them, like Raymer, had won entry via online poker sites and other satellite tournaments held around the world. 

The record number of players presented some real problems for tournament director Matt Savage and the management of Harrah's, who purchased the rights to the WSOP when they bought the Horseshoe Casino. Having only 120 tables to accommodate 1,200 players, an 11th hour decision had to be made about how to handle the record crowd. It was decided that the first day of play would actually take place over two days with half the field playing each day. Saturday and Sunday each started with 1,200 players seated. 

Since there were 2,576 players, it was determined that 176 players would serve as alternates taking the seats of those who busted out during play. The alternates were also divided into the two groups for each day. After the two first day starts, there were only 1,071 players left standing to start the official second day on Monday. Five days later on Friday night, a new world champion was crowned. Greg ŒFossilman' Raymer, a 39-year-old patent attorney from Stonington, Connecticut, had won the record five million dollar first prize and the coveted gold bracelet. 
Meet Greg ŒFossilman' Raymer 

Greg is anything but the stereotypical poker player many people imagine. He attended the University of Minnesota and then went into a biochemistry Ph.D. program at the University of Mississippi in Raleigh. He left the program because he did not want to work in a lab, but not before earning a Masters Degree. He then moved on to law school and became an attorney. "I wanted to be a patent attorney," he said. "You can't do that without some kind of science background, so it seemed a perfect way to make use of my science background." Greg eventually settled in Stonington, Connecticut taking a job as one of the 175 patent attorneys at Pfizer, Inc. 

Greg says that he played nickel poker in college, but it wasn't until after he graduated and was working for a big Chicago law firm that he started to seriously study poker. While Greg may not be as well known to the general public, he is known and respected in the poker community. 

Greg was heavily involved in the RGP (Rec.Gambling.Poker) Internet newsgroup for several years, sharing information with poker players from around the world. He still logs on to catch up with the news. But over the past few years he has been more involved in the forum at Two Plus Two.com the website run by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth, two of the most highly respected poker authors.

Greg is a true student of the game. He constantly reads about, studies, and analyzes the game of poker from every angle imaginable. Players who read his posts on the forum know that he willingly shares information and opinions with others, explaining his views and backing them up with logical and intelligent reasoning. He always does this in a friendly, civil manner without making the person asking the question feel stupid. As one of his friends noted, Greg may criticize a play, but he will never criticize the player. 

Greg lives only a few miles away from Foxwoods Casino with his wife Cheryl, and his seven-year-old daughter, Sophie. He is a regular player there. He plays in the mid-upper level cash games as well as the weekly tournaments held at the casino. He is a winning player and has captured more than his share of wins at the tables. He enjoys collecting fossils, earning the name ŒFossilman' because he brings some of his favorites to the table when he plays. Greg also plays poker online. He won his entry into the World Series of Poker by winning a $160 double shootout at the Poker Stars online cardroom. Anyone who has played against him or watched his play from the rail knows that he is a force with which to be reckoned. 

I first met Greg a few years ago at Foxwoods through our mutual friend John DeRose. Since that time I have had the opportunity to talk with him and watch him play on several occasions. While he may be aggressive and feared at the poker table, Greg is just the opposite away from it. He is a humble, kind gentleman who is well respected by people who know him. We've all read about or seen some of the professional players on TV throwing temper tantrums or yelling at other players. This is not something that you will see from Fossilman. With his win at the WSOP Greg has become the new ambassador of poker for the next year. In the course of that time many people around the country will get to know him as the true champion that he is and I'm sure he will fill his new role admirably. Greg is truly one of the nice guys and I was happy to see that he won the WSOP. 

I spoke to Greg by phone one week after he won the title and five million dollars. He was in his office back at work. I asked him about the World Series and what his plans for the future held. 

BB: Congratulations on your win. 

GR: Thanks.

BB: Did you play in any other events before the big one? 

GR: No. I got out there on Wednesday and I played a little no-limit Hold'em, pot-limit Omaha and some single table satellites just to try and pick up a little extra money. 

BB: What was your reaction when you heard how large the crowd was for this event? 

GR: By Wednesday when I arrived there were already about 1,500 listed as registered. And everyone was saying that number was wrong that there were actually more that were signed up but they hadn't updated the board. I was amazed. Even though I knew it was going to be huge, I didn't expect that number. Before I flew out there if you had said to me there would be over 2,500 players, I would have said, "no way." I thought there might be over 2,000, but over 2,500 I never would have imagined. Now Harrahs is predicting something about 7,500 for next year. I just can't imagine where you are going to get that many players. Even with all these online sites offering satellites at very low entry fees so anyone can win their way in, I don't see them coming up with 7,500 players. However, I would have been completely wrong if I had been giving this interview back in January about the field for this year. 

BB: You won your entry online in a $160 double shootout. Was that the only one you played? 

GR: No. I actually played $2,600 worth of satellites before I won my way into the WSOP. It proved to be a good investment. 

BB: Did you play the first day on Saturday or did you play on Sunday? Do you think it made a difference? 

GR: I played on Saturday. In fact Dan Harrington (who finished in fourth place) polled everyone at the final table and he was the only player who had played on Sunday. I thought I might have preferred Sunday, you know get in the zone, stay in the zone kind of thing, but in hindsight when I was sitting there on Sunday relaxing with nothing to do I was glad that I had played on Saturday and had the day off. 

BB: I heard that you had booked a flight home for the following Wednesday. 

GR: I had my flight booked home for Tuesday and told my boss I would be back to work on Wednesday because I knew that by the end of the day on Monday, 85 percent of the field would be gone. I figured more likely than not that I'm gone, and if I'm not gone, I would be happy to pay the fee to change my flight time. The worst case scenario would have been to play on Tuesday and not make it to Wednesday because then I would not have been in the money, and I would have had to pay extra and maybe upset my boss because I didn't come back as promised. I figured that it would be about 50 percent that I would have been done on Monday.

Actually, I felt for any given person that you wanted to pick in the field no matter how solid they are and good they are at surviving deep into a tournament, it had to be better than 50 percent that they would be out on Monday. I would have bet even money on anyone you wanted to pick that they would be gone. It turned out that about 88 percent of the field was eliminated, so I think anyone there was better than 50-50 to be gone by then. 

BB: So you ended up changing your flight for a few days after your win. I heard you flew home coach. 

GR: Yes. Our flight was booked on Southwest and we already had paid for our tickets. I'm going to be glad to go first-class when someone else is paying, but I can't see spending $1,000 for a wider seat and free drinks for four hours. 

BB: What about luck? Anyone who has played in a tournament knows that you need just a little luck regardless of how skillful you are. You mentioned in the post-game interview that you had a little luck. 

GR: You know I'm going to be catching some grief because right at the beginning of the final table I put my money in as a big dog against the guys who finished eighth and ninth place and beat them. I got all Mike McClain's money in with my pair of pocket 10s with his pair of aces and then I flopped a 10. People are going to see that and remember it. Then they're going to see a few hands later when I called Mattias Anderson's all in with ace-10 when he had ace-king. I made a straight on the river. They're going to see that and remember it and say this guy put his money in bad and got lucky. The truth is those were the only two hands in the whole tournament of any significance where I put in the money and then got lucky. Every other hand where I was behind and caught a lucky card, the money went in after I made my hand, not before. 

They always say, and it's very true, that you cannot win a major tournament without getting lucky. For me the true luck was not putting bad beats on people, it was avoiding bad beats and also getting my big hands paid off. (A bad beat is when a hand that is a favorite to win gets beaten by a lesser hand). I only took two truly bad beats in the whole tournament and that was at the final table when Dan Harrington made three nines on the river. That was a $3,500,000 pot. And the other time was further back when there was about five tables left on Wednesday and I got all in with pocket aces against pocket 10s and the guy caught a 10 on the river to beat me. But those were the only two times I actually suffered a bad beat, in the proper sense of the word. The only two I handed out were the two at the final table. 

BB: Which for the amount of times you played is amazing?

GR: Absolutely. I was playing online and a player drew out on me on the river. He mentioned in the chat window that he just put a bad beat on the world champion. I told him I had taken more bad beats in the last 45 minutes than I did in the six days at the WSOP. 

BB: That brings me to my next question. Now that you are the World Champion, do you think people will play differently against you? 

GR: I presume they will. I know Chris Moneymaker said that he found people to be gunning for him and it took him a while to get used to that and adjust his play accordingly. I think some people will be gunning for me as well, but the intelligent players are just going to be trying to play their normal best game. They're not going to be doing anything different because you're the world champ. If they do anything different it is perceived something different in you, not because they're thinking, "I want to beat the world champ." 

But if I enter a tournament and there is some rich guy who is not a highly skilled player he may just be thinking that it's cool to be playing against the champ and have the attitude that he is going to go out of his way even if it means putting his money in bad to try to knock me out, because then he will have the story of a lifetime for his poker buddies. The hard part is figuring out when it is that someone has that kind of mind set and when is someone just playing their normal best game and ignoring the fact that I won the WSOP. If I'm playing against a Howard Lederer or Phil Ivy, then I know they are not going to be gunning for me but will be playing their best game. 

BB: There were several photos of you wearing the lizard sunglasses during the tournament. Tell me about them. 

GR: Two years ago before the first time I played in the World Series, I was in the gift shop at the Tower of Terror in Florida with my wife and daughter. I was looking around and I came across those sunglasses and thought Œthese are cool, I'll have to wear them in the World Series and no one will want to stare at me. They won't want to give me those big evil stare downs.' And there is some truth to that. I mostly wear them as a joke, but there are some players who really hate looking at me when I wear them and I can see why. I've starred at other players and it's really hard to stare at their face other than their eyes. I prefer to look at your hands and chest and body for other visual clues. Because when I look at your face I really don't seem to be able to focus on anything but your eyes. 

BB: On one of the poker forums there was talk about banning sunglasses. What is your opinion on this? 

GR: In terms of it being more viewer friendly on TV, I can see their point. But at this point and time it has become a traditional part of poker. It doesn't give anyone an unfair advantage, so if I was in charge, I would not ban sunglasses. Just because I don't see that it's any big deal. 

But if the TV producers are saying it makes a better show for them to have the audience see your eyes in the camera then I would say that is ok too. I'm all for increasing ratings and hopefully we will reach the point where some of the advertising money will reach its way back to the players. Right now it only gets back to the players indirectly if they gain some fame or notoriety from the TV show. Then they are able to turn that into some money through various means. But it seems more justifiable to give the money to them more directly through tournament sponsorship.

There are some players who are not going to want to take advantage of making money by endorsing products or making personal appearances and signing autographs. So those people aren't going to be able to take advantage of the fact they were on TV. Where as if the network was adding $100,000 to the prize pool or something like that to the prize pool, then that player would get a little extra directly. 

BB: ESPN was taping the event, was there a dress code for the taping of the final table?

GR: They asked us to dress nicely and told us that logos were strictly forbidden. You could not wear any type of logo at all. If you needed a baseball hat, then you could wear a Binion's Horseshoe hat. I think one player may have had a plain hat that just said Las Vegas on it. You could not wear a Poker Stars hat or even a hat with your favorite baseball team. They didn't want you wearing anything from a company that may be paying you for the advertisement. 

BB: What are your best poker skills? 

GR: Well I'm a scientist, so certainly when I started as a poker player the math and statistics of the game was something I picked up quickly. I'm pretty sure when it comes to that aspect of the game, that I don't have any serious flaws.

What I have really been working on for the last five to eight years is improving the other parts of the game; the psychology, the player reading and manipulation and so forth. In other words improve the data for which I am applying the math. If I can put you on a narrower range of hands because I've done a better job studying you, picking up your tendencies of tells, then obviously I can make a much better decision once I apply the math to that new data set. Whereas if you just say, "well this guy bluffs sometimes and he has the nuts sometimes, so he could really have anything right now," you could still use math but the estimates you are putting into the equation are so loose that the answer that comes out isn't necessarily that useful. 

BB: What one bit of advice would you give a new player who wants to emulate you?

GR: I'll give them two bits of advice. Number one is don't gamble with money you can't afford to lose. Number two is if you are going to play this game for something other than entertainment purposes, then you need to treat it a little bit more like a job. Buy good books, read and study and spend a lot of time away from the table thinking about poker. 

BB: It's only been a week since you won the title and you're back at work. What are your plans for the future?

GR: I have some projects to finish up before I leave here. 

BB: Are you retiring? 

GR: I'll be a professional poker player and spokesperson. If the celebrity dies down and there is an extremely high chance that it will, then I may look at other options. It will last for one year at least, until the next person wins the WSOP. The celebrity may die at that point or it may die slowly. Once the opportunity to make money from appearances or product endorsements dies down, then I will look at other options. I can make more money as a patent attorney working fewer hours than playing poker full time and still have plenty of opportunities to play in poker tournaments. 

BB: The winners of the World Series of Poker have become instant celebrities and to some extent the ambassadors to poker. How do you see yourself in that role? 

GR: Well since I won my entry from Poker Stars, for the first month they are paying me to be their spokesperson. I will be wearing their logo while making appearances, playing in poker tournaments and doing interviews. That may work out to a longer deal. They will be sending me to play in many of the major tournaments around the world. I'll have the opportunity to meet and talk with players during these events as their spokesman. 

I also want to keep working hard and win other tournaments to solidify my standing in the poker world. I wouldn't want people to look at the WSOP win and say, "OK this was just a guy who got lucky. He's a lucky novice who doesn't even know what he is doing." 

BB: The money is nice, five million dollars is a life changing win, but what about the WSOP bracelet? 

GR: It's wonderful because it gives me other opportunities that I wouldn't have. If five million fell in my lap through the lottery or something like that, I wouldn't be traveling the world for free playing in all these poker tournaments. Somebody posted the question on the Two Plus Two forum (http://twoplustwo.com/) asking which would you choose: the money or the bracelet? Most of the people just said "Give me the money," and they're right in the strictest sense. But when I replied, I said don't forget the bracelet comes with quite a bit of money. It's probably not five million but I will be able to make more money this year than if I kept my job. I'm getting all kinds of offers for DVDs, TV shows, books and the like. There are just so many possibilities that are coming about from winning the tournament. 

BB: Well I wish you all the best. I can't think of a better person to represent the poker community. 

GR: Thanks. 

ESPN taped the World Series of Poker and they will be broadcasting several of the 33 WSOP tournaments that were held leading up to the final event in a weekly series that started airing Tuesday July 6th. It will conclude on September 14th. 

• Bill Burton is the Casino Gambling Guide for the Internet portal About.com (casinogambling.about.com). He is the author of Get the Edge at Low Limit Texas Hold'em, available for $15 postage paid. Send checks to Bill Burton, PO Box 310299, Newington, CT 06131-0299 or at: www.billburton.com.

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