Former WSOP Main Event champ, Greg 'Fossilman' Raymer, took down a record-setting fifth Heartland Poker Tour title with a victory at Ameristar East Chicago. Fossilman faded a field of 520 runners in a $1,650 buy-in event to win $171,411 and his fifth HPT title.

Ship it to Fossilman. Greg 'Fossilman' Raymer is the king of the Heartland Poker Tour. He won his fifth HPT title, which is once again a new record for Fossilman, who crushes the regional tournament circuit. Fossilman cut his teeth at Foxwoods back at the turn of the century. He might have seemed like an unknown at the time when you saw him on ESPN for the first time at the 2004 WSOP, but he'd been holding his own at Foxwoods and well known at the popular poker geek gathering called BARGE.
Fossilman shipped another tournament and this one was hosted at Ameristar East Chicago for the 2020 Heatland Poker Tour Main Event. This one had a $1,650 price tag and attracted 520 runners. Only the top 54 places paid with most of the cashola set aside to the top two finishers.
The final table featured Greg Raymer along with Evan Bethyo, David Gutfreund, Marcus Yofon, Tim Barany, Bohdan Slyvinskyi, Matthew Schurter, Dale Hackney, and Benjamin Craig.
Brian Brunner bubbled the final table in tenth place.
Raymer picked off Evan Bethyo heads up for the crown, cash, and fifth HPT title.
Bethyo banked $104,789 for a runner-up share. Not too shabby, eh?
Raymer won $171K and saw his all-time earnings pass $8 million. He banked $5 million when he won the 2004 WSOP Main Event, which put Fossilman on the map. At the time, he won the largest Main Event outlasting 2,576 players and he shipped the first one after the Moneymaker Boom.
Raymer went super deep at the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event and advanced to the final three tables out of 5,619 runners, which was more than double the size of the field he beat the previous year. Alas, Raymer's magical run ended in 25th place and he missed a chance to defend his title and win back-to-back Main Events.
Fossilman made multiple final tables at the WSOP, and although he's come close in a donkament, Deuce to Seven, and Stud 8, he's yet to ship a second bracelet.
One of his top scores includes a victory at the 2012 Heartland Poker Tour St. Louis, which he took down for a $122K score.
Notables who cashed in the 2020 Heartland Poker Tour Chicago event included... Brad Jansen, Danny Marshall, Kevin Maahs, David Moses, Elwood Whitney, Bobby Lay, Ravi Raghavan, Jeff Orlowski, Steve Jugnman, Alex Ziskin, Joe Maxwell, Barry South, Nikola Budzakoski, John Pappas, and Bob Keeling.
By the way, Greg Raymer's new book recently came out titled Fossilman's Winning Tournament Strategies. Nothing sells books faster than winning a tournament.
2020 Heartland Poker Tour Ameristar East Chicago
Buy-in: $1,650
Entrants: 520
Payouts: 54
Final Table Results:
1. Greg Raymer $171,411
2. Evan Bethyo $104,789
3. David Gutfreund $69,462
4. Marcus Yofon $48,295
5. Tim Barany $36,147
6. Bohdan Slyvinskyi $27,949
7. Matthew Schurter $22,732
9. Dale Hackney $18,633
9. Benjamin Craig $14,906