2004 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion Greg “Fossilman” Raymer is known for handing out authentic fossil card protectors to those who eliminate him, but not all players are so lucky.
Raymer, who is currently running deep in Event #61: $1,000 Super Seniors, revealed to PokerNews that his fossil giveaway comes with a “douche bag clause” that leaves some players who bust him with chips and a story, but no prehistoric card protector.
Card Protectors From Another World
Raymer gained his “Fossilman” nickname for his hobby of collecting fossils that date back hundreds of millions of years, a time long before humans and playing cards, when the earth was covered by swamp forests occupied by massive insects and amphibians.
At some point, Raymer decided to share that hobby with the poker community.
“It’s a new fossil every tournament,” he explained. “If I win, it goes in the trophy case with the others. If I don’t win, the person who knocks me out will be given the fossil.”
Sitting in front of him in this year’s Super Seniors event is an ancient dark orange mound imported from North Africa. Preserved within the ancient rock are two coiled-shelled cephalopods, which Raymer told PokerNews are more than 330 million years old.
“This is an amniote fossil — it’s actually a double, two different amniotes in the same rock,” Raymer said. “I buy them in bulk from Morocco.”
And if you bust Raymer from a poker tournament and don’t get a fossil, you might be a douche bag.
He told PokerNews he won’t give up the fossil if “they’ve activated the douche bag clause.”
“Which is very uncommon, it doesn’t even happen once a year on average … but if someone’s just acting like a giant douche, no fossil for them.”
Will This Fossil Make the Trophy Case?
The 330-million-year-old amniote duo is still up for grabs in the Super Seniors event, but it may be going in the trophy case. With just 18 players remaining, Raymer sits second in chips as he chases his second bracelet and the $355,263 top prize.
“Any event you go deep (in), it’s a lot of fun,” Raymer said. “We’ve made decent money but we’ve got a chance for a whole lot more. So you’ve got all that tension and excitement. And you want to get to the point where you just enjoy it.”
And it wouldn’t even be Raymer’s first Seniors victory of the year. In April, he took down RunGood Poker Series Grand Prix Pennsylvania $250 Seniors Event for $7,382, allowing him to hold onto another fossil.
“That one was so much easier than this. The deck hit me so hard that I was black and blue. I started that final table with over half the chips, I had about 90% of the chips three-handed. So it was just like good cards, good cards, hit flops, hit flops. This one they’re making me work a lot more.”
Raymer isn’t the only Main Event champion of the aughts to make a deep WSOP run this year. Just yesterday, Jamie Gold, who is celebrating the 20-year anniversary of his record-setting $12 million victory in the 2006 Main Event, finished 17th in $500 Salute to Warriors for $9,940.
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Connor Richards
Senior Editor U.S.