Patent attorney wins World Series of Poker, $5 million

By PHIL HEVENER
SPECIAL TO THE GAMING WIRE


Move over, Moneymaker. The Fossilman is in town.
Greg "Fossilman" Raymer, a 39-year-old patent attorney from Stonington, Conn., won the championship event of the World Series of Poker late Friday, a $5 million first-place prize and a splashy gold bracelet.
On the final hand, Raymer clashed with David Anthony Williams, a Dallas college student. Both had full houses on the final hand, but Raymer's was higher.
Williams earned $3.5 million for his second-place finish.
The final day of the poker tournament began seven hours earlier at 1:30 p.m. at Binion's Horseshoe after six days of competition from a record field of 2,567 entrants. About half had paid the $10,000 entry; others had won "satellites" or smaller tournaments to qualify. Others had gained entry by winning Internet tournaments.
Raymer entered the Web site PokerStars.com. In one online tournament, there were 360 entrants, and Raymer finished last.
"This proves you can start at the bottom and work your way up," he said Friday night. "I really love the game."
Raymer spent $2,600 in entry fees, he said, and if he hadn't won through a Web site, he would have paid the $10,000 cash.
"I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but if you're experienced, what the heck?"
Raymer's "Fossilman" nickname comes from his hobby of collecting fossils, and he keeps them on the table while playing. On Friday he was collecting tournament chips, building a mountainous arsenal. He then went to work, methodically eliminating competitors.
The poker game for the championship event is no-limit Texas hold'em in which a player can risk all his chips at any time.
Mike McLain, 39, of Lemoore, Calif., was the first eliminated. Minutes later, Raymer knocked out Mattias Andersson, a 24-year-old Swede and the only foreigner in the final. McClain and Andersson went home with $470,400 and $575,000, respectively.
Then Williams used a full house to send home Matt Dean, 25, of Woodlands, Texas. Dean's seventh-place finish was worth $675,000 prize.
Then it was Raymer's turn again. Wearing reflective cat's-eye glasses bought from the Disney World Tower of Terror gift shop, Raymer eliminated Al Krux, a professional poker player from New York state, and Glenn Hughes, a 38-year-old married father of two from Scottsdale, Ariz. Krux won $800,000; Hughes pocketed $1.1 million.
Before a dinner break for players, Williams made a full house to oust Dan Harrington, a chess player and the 1995 World Series of Poker champion. Harrington's fourth-place finish falls just short of his third-place showing last year but earned him $1.5 million this year.
That left the field three handed, Raymer, Williams and Josh Arieh, a professional poker player from Atlanta. Raymer made three queens on a hand to send home Arieh with the third-place money of $2.5 million.
On the final hand, Raymer's hole cards were 8-8. Williams was holding A-4. With the community cards falling 5-4-2-2-2, Raymer made deuces full of eights and Williams made deuces full of fours.
Raymer becomes the reigning world champion of poker, succeeding Chris Moneymaker who won the event in 2003 after parlaying a $40 investment in an Internet tournament into a first-place prize of $2.4 million.
Moneymaker, a Spring Hill, Tenn., accountant was unceremoniously knocked out Saturday, the first day of the tournament.
The tournament reflected success, too, for Harrah's, which now owns the rights to the World Series of Poker and will move most of the tournament activity to the Rio in 2005.
A resort executive with another company, who asked that his name not be used, complimented the Harrah's planners for overcoming the effects of what he called the "stop and go factor."
"For weeks after the Horseshoe closed in January, we really did not even know whether there would be a World Series. The engine had to be shut down and then restarted after it became apparent that Harrah's would be able to re-open the Horseshoe in time for the World Series. With all of that, look at what was accomplished," he said.
But on Friday, it was Raymer who shined.
His wife, Cheryl, said she was amazed and overwhelmed and that the couple hadn't figured out yet what to do with the money.