A New Era of WSOP Champions
By
Mike Randall

     Friday, October 29^th was turning out to be a bad day for me.  I had missed the 11:00 A.M. media session at Cadillac Jack�s Gaming Resort with Greg Raymer and at 4:00 P.M. it was beginning to snow quit heavily.  We got a foot of snow in Deadwood by morning, which is an early but not uncommon occurrence in the higher elevations of the Black Hills of South Dakota.  When I got to the poker room at Cadillac Jack�s they told me Greg had left for a drive through the Black Hills to Mount Rushmore.  Greg told me later that he enjoyed his trip to Deadwood and the surrounding area more than any other trip since he had won the WSOP last spring.  He said the scenery was beautiful and the people were very nice and welcomed him with genuine western hospitality.  He even rated it over his trip to Dublin, Ireland and Paris, France.  It appeared to me that Greg didn�t flaunt his new found wealth although he admitted to buying his wife a new BMW, nice touch Greg! 

     That evening Greg joined us in the card room and played live poker at each of the four tables.  Greg signed autographs and answered poker questions all the time we played.  Thanks Greg we really enjoyed playing and talking poker with you. When Greg wasn�t playing poker he sat at a booth on the main casino floor and autographed free pictures and answered questions for all that stopped by.  

    On Saturday Greg played in the Best of the Best no limit hold�em tournament.  This was the final table of two stages of 20 satellite tables played this fall at Cadillac Jack�s.  All participants at the final table were in the money, ranging from $700 for 10^th to $4200 for 1^st, with a $2000 bounty on Greg.  Greg was taken out in 8^th place and donated his winnings to a favorite charity.  Tom Flecher from Alliance, Nebraska won first and also received the bounty for taking Greg out of the tournament. Ben Otto of Deadwood place

2ed and Greg Dotson of Gillette, Wyoming took 3ed.  It was a great idea for Cadillac Jack�s owner Paul Bradsky to invite his old law school classmate and friend to Deadwood for this special tournament event.

     After back to back winning of the WSOP championship by on line qualifiers many people are saying that a fluke entry off the internet will be the norm for winning the big one and not an established pro.  I believe, after interviewing Greg, that this is not the case with him, but rather that a well-rounded semi pro used every avenue available to enter the �big one�.

     Greg began playing poker in collage playing the usual wild games and he admits, was not very good at it.  In 1992 after law school Greg worked in Chicago and would go to some of the charity casino events in the area.  One night discouraged by black jack he decided to try a hold�em tournament and was hooked.  Realizing that he wasn�t winning consistently he decided he had better buy some poker books and improve his game.  He has been a winning player every year after that.  Greg has been playing serious poker the past ten years and has filed taxes as a part time pro since 1999.  Today Greg plays full time stating that his first profession of patent attorney is just not very interesting work.  However he does believe that the analytical thinking that is required in his work has helped him to analyze hand and betting patterns.  He believes that a litigating lawyer would have even better natural skills for poker because they have to get a read on people as to weather they are bluffing about there position.

    In the WSOP final event Greg�s game seemed to have been on the verge of perfection.  He felt confident throughout the tournament that the possibility of winning was there as he continued to build chips without taking any crippling bad beats.  He won a high percentage of coin tosses and hands where he was a favorite.  This is a must to beat a large field of players such as this.  Another positive aspect of this tournament was the fact he was all in only three times, twice as a huge favorite and once when the worst that could happen was a tie.  Even though the television cameras show him excited after a big play he was quickly in control of his emotions, which helped him to continue to make solid discussions unaffected by emotional ups and downs, staying in control of his game.  Greg said that this control of and focus on his game contributed to his playing the best tournament of his life.

    2004 was not Greg�s first taste of World Series action.  In 2002 he paid his own $10,000 entry fee. The fallowing year he won his entry via a super satellite event at Mohegan Sun Casino near his home in Connecticut.  In 2004 he qualified for a seat in the �big one� online in a super satellite at Poker Stars.  I believe that this proves a great player on the verge of becoming a full time pro won the 2004 WSOP and not an amateur who got lucky online.  Greg has shown us that in this new age of poker that to succeed to his or her full potential the serious poker player must be able to use every means available to obtain his goal.

     When not on the road playing tournaments Greg can found playing at Foxwoods near his home in Connecticut or playing online at Poker Stars.  Greg also is working on a web site, Fossilman Poker and plans to write a tournament poker book based on thousands of threads posted on twoplustwo.com poker forum.  Good luck Greg in your future endeavors.