A Brief Introduction to Dewey Tomko Bob Pajich

There’s no plaque on Monongahela Avenue declaring Glassport to proudly be the home of Dewey Tomko, and maybe there shouldn’t be. Not so sure how the Glassport Chamber of Commerce, if there’s even such a thing, or the leading members of the Lutheran congregation, would feel about honoring a world class poker player and golf hustler. But why not? Glassport has a long twisted history of hustlers and action junkies, guys named Bananas playing five-card stud for years before Tomko was born in 1946. Glassport was stuffed with pool halls, bars, and hardware stores where even the junior high kids gambled for beers. By the time he was 16, Dewey held his own against the adults until he left Glassport pretty much for good around 1964, the year he graduated from Glassport High.

The short telling of it goes like this: he headed to West Virginia to learn how to become a kindergarten teacher. I’ve played poker with West Virginia college kids and I can just imagine what a life he must’ve had, busting those hillbillies in two, being as good as he is. His wicked crew cut would’ve fit right in. I hope he wore short sleeve shirts and kept a pack of Camels in his front pocket. After graduating, he visited a few frat brothers living in Florida, and that’s where he ended up, teaching kindergarten during the day, playing poker, usually all night, even on school nights.

His job paid $6,000 a year in the late 1960s. He was playing for and scooping pots of $1,000 and more. He probably would’ve been a great teacher. He is as cool and calm as they come. As they say, his veins are filled with ice.

Tomko started playing in the World Series of Poker in 1974 and has cashed 42 times, winning $2.6 million. He hasn’t missed a Main Event since then, which is the longest active streak. He owns three WSOP bracelets by winning the events outright and finished second in the 2001 Main Event, where he endured a suck-out so severe it made him stop playing tourneys for a few years so, as he put it, he could feel like a winner again. All the pain and glory of that beat can be found on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqFzncsIvUQ).

 

 

He also was the runner-up in the Main Event to his friend Jack “Treetop” Strauss in 1982. He’s won $2.3 more million in other poker tournaments and who knows how many millions playing cash games.

Tomko is good friends with all the old-time guys, particularly Doyle Brunson--with whom he’s shared many hotel rooms, failed business investments, and golf bets. Now he owns the Horseshoe Casino in Costa Rica while still living in Florida with his wife of many years. He has three boys and is known for being the most easy-going, even-keeled guy around--modest, a tinge gullible and apt to believe anything. And completely unflappable.

Tomko and Brunson spent many, many days on golf courses throughout America, often putting for thousands of dollars. It’s been a huge part of his career, one that he thrives at because he knows how to analyze his opponent and knows how many strokes he needs to give in order to make the bet work. Then he goes out and logs the necessary score. That’s how hustlers work. Plus, he is supposed to be the world’s best putter, so good that Rick Reilly spent a day with him for his book Who’s Your Caddy.

Both Doyle and PGA Pro Rocco Mediate said if they had to choose someone to sink a putt with their life on the line, it would be Dewey Tomko. I read that as: I would love to tell you just how much money I’ve lost to this guy, but I can’t--my wife would kill me.

Tomko says he loves Pittsburgh, occasionally visits, and his Poker Hall of Fame induction ceremony even had a few guys in the audience he first played with as he was trying to letter on Glassport High’s football team. That’s when they knew him as Duane.

 
 
Bob Pajich is former editor and writer of Card Player Magazine and is currently working haphazardly on his own poker news site, Yinzerpoker.com. His chapbook of poems Everyone, Exquisite was published by Liquid Paper Press.