WSOP Event #38 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball: Fossilman Makes The Final Table

by Wil Wheaton

Yesterday afternoon, my cell phone rang while I sat in the PokerStars suite and wondered just what the hell I was going to write about. I dug it out of my pocket and read Greg Raymer on the display.

"Hey, Greg," I said, "what's up?"

"Hi Wil," he said, "are you still in town?"

"Yeah, I'm in the suite right now," I said.

"Wait. You're in the PokerStars suite?"

"Yep."

"Turn around."

I did, and Greg poked his face out from behind a curtain along the wall.

"Hey!" I said, as I hung up my phone, "how are you?"

"I'm great," he said. "Do you want to grab some lunch?"

I had just gotten into work, and I had a private consultation set up with Barry Tanenbaum just over an hour later, but there was no way I'd turn down lunch with Greg.

"Sure," I said, "can I be back in an hour?"

"Yeah, we're just going around the corner," he said.

I picked up my stuff, and we walked out of the Rio together. Just like crossing the Amazon room, we were stopped every ten or twenty feet, until we got to the valet.

"You car is on the way, Mr. Raymer," the valet, a twenty-something kid with sandy blond hair and a huge smile said. He held a deck of cards in his hand.

"Hey, do you want to high card for a million?" He said.

"How about a hundred?" Greg said.

The valet looked at his tips, and laughed. "Sorry, man, I don't think the rest of the guys would be happy about that if I lost."

Greg smiled back at him, and shook his hand. "Maybe next time," he said.

We drove out to lunch, and on the way I asked him if he was off until the Main Event starts later this week.

"I'm going to get into the deuce to seven lowball at three," he said. "I'll just wait until we get back to buy-in, because I think the line at the cashier will be shorter then, if there's a line at all."

"Cool," I said. "I'll try and keep track of you on the blog."

We had lunch, where I unsuccessfully tried to convince him to try Geocaching (no dice; Greg was adamantly opposed to anything involving hiking) and to explain why people didn't like Wesley Crusher on Star Trek. (Greg said that it just didn't make sense. Clearly, Greg hasn't spent a lot of time around Trekkies.)

We didn't talk about poker at all, which I imagine was a relief for him, and I'd like to think played a part in his unstoppable rise to the top of the leaderboard in the event at the end of play yesterday. Shut up! I totally did.

Greg was second in chips to David Williams, after David busted Mike Matusow, and Greg lost a pot to Allen Cunningham, then Cunningham went on a rush and he took second.

At this moment, there are eight players left, and seven make the money. Players are redrawing for their seats at the final table, and I'll see if I can grab a moment with Greg on his next break.