Greg Raymer’s Poker Book Aims to Turn Beginners into Winners

Greg Raymer may have gradually faded from poker’s limelight since winning the 2004 WSOP Main Event, but the North Carolina pro has decided that the time is now right to release his first poker book called ‘Fossilman’s Winning Tournament Strategies’. The poker champion and fossil collecting hobbyist has said that it should be published in time for next year’s WSOP, with pre-ordering available via the D&B website.

The book is primarily directed towards novice tournament players, but as Raymer explains, even more adept players will be able to derive some benefit from its strategy and unique techniques. Elaborating further, Raymer stated that his goal is to “make good players into great ones, and turn beginners into winners,” explaining:

“There is also a lot of advice that is more advanced, and not known or at least not well understood, even by some of the very successful and high-level tournament players out there right now.”

Why Now?

In the meantime, poker analysts have been pondering the timing of Raymer’s book, especially seeing that almost a decade and a half have passed since he bested a 2,576 player field at the 2004 WSOP Main Event to claim an enormous $5 million first place prize. Nonetheless, Raymer said that he had originally intended to write a poker book soon after winning the Main Event, but was just too “lazy” to bother.

His extreme tardiness is likely to cost him dearly, though, as a book released when he was at the top of his profession may have netted him a small fortune, but these days a lot fewer players are likely ever to have heard of him. Furthermore, poker enthusiasts now have a wider selection of mediums to get their information from, including live streaming and YouTube, not to mention other books released by more contemporary poker pros.

Putting a positive spin on things, however, Raymer said that he has become a much better player over the years, and that his teaching skills have improved significantly, especially after being a leading poker coach at the World Series of Poker Academy Poker Instructional Camps. Raymer has further promised that ‘Fossilman’s Winning Tournament Strategies’ will form part of a larger series of books which he intends to publish in quick succession.

Track Record

Raymer is evidently excited by the prospect of sharing his knowledge with poker enthusiasts, and in order to promote his project has even said that he has instructed his agent to try and get him onto a late-night talk show, saying that it “never hurts to try!” Nevertheless, many feel that the player may have left it all too late.

Aside from his 2004 Main Event victory, Raymer’s most notable accomplishment was recorded in 2009 after finishing a $40,000 buy-in 40th Anniversary WSOP Event in 3rd place out of 201 players for $775,000. Those two tournaments account for all but roughly $2 million of his career earnings, with his last six-figure score recorded in 2012 after winning the $1,500 Heartland Poker Tour Main Event for $106,030. Since then, Raymer has won just $350,524 playing tournaments, or around $58k per annum.

Grey Raymer was also a Team PokerStars Pro from 2004-2011, but after losing his sponsorship deal started to look for financial backing from the poker community to the tune of $100,000 per year in order to fund his tournament buy-ins and expenditure. Needless to say, any one investing in the pro would hardly have seen a return on their investment.

Outside of playing poker, however, Raymer has lobbied extensively to have poker regulated in the US, and has served on the board of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA). After being reinstated in 2015, Rich Muny, the former VP of Player Relations, acknowledged over a decade of lobbying efforts by Raymer, describing him as a “tremendous advocate for the game and for the right to play it in all its forms”.