Greg Raymer sat behind his lizard-eye shades and beneath a hat more suited for the Caribbean than Monte Carlo Bay. His face was as still as the trademark fossil in front of him. He'd come in for a raise from late position, but now was facing a re-raise from the small blind. Nothing at the table moved, save the lady in the one-seat. An ever-so-slight shift in her seat forced one red 500 chip to fall off the top of her stack.

"Bad luck for me," Raymer said, sliding his cards into the muck. "You knocked that chip over."

The lady began to apologize before realizing Raymer's joke. Anyone who knows FossilMan knows that his decisions are never based on superstition. A mirror could break on Friday the 13th while a black cat walks under a ladder and over Raymer's hole cards. If he was going to call before, he was going to call after. Raymer confirmed it when he looked over at the small blind and said, "If you had aces, you should've pushed in. Then, I could've called." In short, it's poker, not luck.

Raymer is having a good day here at the PokerStars EPT Grand Final. Early in the day, he managed to send an opponent to the rail after cracking aces with 36 on a x6767 board. His opponent couldn't find a fold on the river and Raymer's stack towered over his fossil.

The fossil, though...that was a curious thing. Longtime Raymer fans know the fossil that sits on front of the FossilMan while he plays. It's black, oblong, and shiny. It's a constant companion to a man who doesn't base his game on supersition. That's what made it so odd. Today, Raymer plays without that trademark card capper. Something else, more round than oblong, and more sand-colored than black sits on top of Raymer's holdings.

When asked about it, Raymer shrugs it off. He's just come from a Rock and Mineral show and picked up a new fossil. This one?

"A 180 million year-old clam," Raymer says with evident pride.

It's more evidence Raymer doesn't need a good luck charm. He could have a monkey sitting on his cards and play them the same way. That's why his stack is rising as fast as the steam off his opponent's heads. As for the clam, Raymer says, "You're going to have to steam it a while to get it to open up."

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The party before the poker
The Hunt for the Title Begins
Titans clash
Never too soon for some
Profile: Andre Akkari