In a bit of shocker it seems that PokerStars and longtime sponsored pro Greg “Fossilman” Raymer have decided to part ways. The news is being reported by the 2+2 poker forum after a number of people noticed Raymer no longer appeared on the Team PokerStars page, and an alleged chat between Raymer and Pat Pezzin was posted by 2+2 member GreenEyes017:

Pat Pezzin: yo greg
FossilMan: hi pat
Pat Pezzin: why don’t you have red star by your name?
Fossilman: long story, call me if you’d like

What makes the move so surprising is that Raymer is one of the most recognizable players in poker; his results may not be stellar, but Raymer is a charismatic and imposing figure in public, and easily recognizable–don’t believe me? He was the only player my wife picked out of the crowd when I was reporting at the NAPT Mohegan Sun tournament, she even knew his nickname!

Apparently Raymer was offered a new contract, but it apparently had a pay-cut built in, and Raymer decided to just move on; this according to poker pro Kathy Leibert’s Twitter account: “I heard that Pokerstars was cutting many of their team pros compensation. Take it or leave it. Raymer left it,”

Raymer is a big part of the Poker Players Alliance, and has been an integral voice in the lobbying efforts of the grassroots organization’s push to legalize online poker. Thus far there has been no official response from wither Raymer or PokerStars.

Tags: Fossilman, Greg Raymer, Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, PokerStars

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 1st, 2011 at 1:47 pm and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.