Biography of Dewey Tomko

Dewey Tomko was born in Glassport, Pennsylvania in 1946 and now resides in Winterhaven, Florida where he is married with three children. Tomko was already making money with poker at age 16 in some Pittsburgh pool halls and was able to finance four years of schooling at Salem College. Tomko then went on to work as a kindergarten teacher where he continued to play poker every night and go right to the school in the morning with out sleep. The kids all survived and Dewey’s game continued to make money – earning him more in one night then he’d make in a year of teaching. Dewey parlayed his winnings into some business investments while continuing to play in tournaments throughout the 70’s and 80’s.

Dewey Tomko is an accomplished tournament player with 3 WSOP bracelets and career winnings surpassing $2.7 million. Tomko’s WSOP bracelets came in the events of No Limit Hold ‘em (1979), Omaha Pot Limit (1984), and Deuce to Seven Draw (1984). Tomko took 2nd in the WSOP Main Event in 2001 collecting $1,098,925 and 2nd in the 2003 WPT Five-Diamond World Poker Classic taking home $552,853. Recently, Tomko took 3rd place in the 2005 WSOP Deuce to Seven Draw Lowball event worth $138,160. Dewey’s son, Derek, encouraged him to get back into the tournament poker scene a few years ago and Dewey claims his son is a better player then Dewey was at his age – Dewey’s newest goal with poker is to go heads up with his son at a final table.