‘The Fossilman’ Crowned King of Poker World

Wednesday, 2 June 2004

Amateur card shark, Greg Raymer, became the biggest winner in sporting history on Friday after winning the World Series of Poker at Binion’s Horseshoe in Vegas. Nicknamed ‘The Fossilman’ because of the fossil collection he carries around for good luc

Amateur card shark, Greg Raymer, became the biggest winner in sporting history on Friday after winning the World Series of Poker at Binion’s Horseshoe in Vegas. Nicknamed ‘The Fossilman’ because of the fossil collection he carries around for good luck, the 39-year-old attorney from Connecticut outlasted over 2,500 players to scoop the $5 million prize and the most coveted title in poker.
'It was wonderful,' said Raymer. 'I played the best poker of my life and I got as lucky as I've ever gotten in my life. It's a dream come true.' And it’s a dream come true for Pokerstars.com too, as this is the second World Champion in a row to qualify as an unknown through the site. In fact, four of the top nine finishers were Pokerstars.com qualifiers; and while they represented only 12% the total entrants, Pokerstars.com qualifiers collectively took home over 40% of the total prize money awarded.
'There is absolutely no question that PokerStars players dominated the 2004 World Series of Poker,' said Lee Jones, PokerStars Poker Room Manager. 'Each year we have provided qualifying tournaments, one of our players has become the World Champion of Poker. This year the runner-up, David Williams, was also a PokerStars qualifier.'
This years competition was absolutely huge, hence the world record prize pool of $49 million. Organisers, Harrahs, have announced that next year’s tournament will have to move too the Rio in order to accommodate the ever-growing mass of participants.



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