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Raymer - His Life After Winning the World Series of Poker

Gregory Raymer was a native of Minot, North Dakota. He was born on June 25, 1964. He gained popularity since winning the main in event of the World Series of Poker in 2004.

During Raymer's early days his family has moved from one place to another, from his hometown of Minot, to far Clearwater, Florida and finally settling in St. Louis, Missouri. After he finished his secondary education at Parkway High School in St. Louis, Gregory took up chemistry at University of Missouri-Rolla.

Raymer's family moved numerous times during his early days, from his hometown of Minot to Clearwater, Florida and ultimately to St. Louis, Missouri. After Raymer graduated from Parkway High School in St. Louis, he enrolled at the University of Missouri-Rolla, where he majored in chemistry and became a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.

In 1992, he got his bachelor's degree at University of Minnesota Law School and since then became a practicing patent lawyer for more than 10 years. But, unfortunately, he has to give up his job in favor of being a full-time poker player.

In 1992, Raymer finally settle in Stonington, Cannecticut and started playing poker while he was the patent attorney of Pfizer. He was a regular fixture at Foxwoods Resort Casino.

In 2004, Raymer beats David Williams to take home the $5,000,000 top prize in the $10,000 Texas holdem no limit main event of The World Series of Poker. (In the last hand, his 8♠ 8♦ beats Williams' A♥ 4♠.) Raymer got the entrance fee to the event by clinching PokerStars $160 satellite tournament. Chris Moneymaker is the other player who accomplished the feat in 2003.

The following year, being the defending champ, Raymer finished the tournament in a disappointing 25th place thus going home with a $304,680 pay check. On the penultimate round Raymer was holding K♦ K♥ when he ensnared Aaron Kanter into making a call for an "all-in bet" with only a Q♥ J♥. Even if Raymer holds a 4.5:1 win ratio prior to the flop, Kanter makes a big comeback by getting running hearts to build a flush and got away with the win, thus eliminating Raymer from the tournament.

In 2005, he was invited to the first British Poker Open in London.Raymer earned around 20,000pounds in placing third.

He participated in Poker Superstars III but unfortunately loses in the elimination round.

In March of 2006, he finished at 2nd place in the inaugural PokerStars quarterly $1,000,000 poker tournament, getting over $180,000 attended by more than 1,500 poker players. As of 2007, his current overall live competition prize money as of 2007 goes beyond $5,850,000.