It can be a fascinating exercise to take a casual perusal of the long list of champions who have emerged victorious at the final table of the World Series of Poker and try to determine a pattern among the most dominant players. Go ahead, don't tell me you've got better things to do. What could possibly be a more valuable expenditure of time for a poker fan than finding a link between a series of apparently unrelated champions?

A number of different criteria can be examined in this context, for example, what did a certain champion do for a living before winning fame and fortune at the WSOP? For a genuinely interesting example to plug into this formula, consider the case of Dewey Tomko. Hailing from the small town of Glassport, Pennsylvania, Dewey Tomko worked as a kindergarten teacher for years before entering the professional poker circuit. During that time, he would spend his days shaping young minds by introducing the alphabet and numerals, then would spend the evenings working on his poker game. At a certain point, it became abundantly clear to him that he could earn a much better living working with cards than working with kids. In that moment of crystalline realization, a new poker champion was born.

Dewey Tomko almost immediately went on a rampage across the professional poker circuit, which culminated with his earning a seat as a runner-up in 1982 World Series of Poker, a feat he later replicated in 2001! (He placed in the' 82 competition along with Jack "Treetop" Straus and in the '01 competition as a runner-up with Carlos Mortensen.)

But the successes of Dewey Tomko are by no means limited to his performances at the World Series of Poker. He has also proven himself to be a major force to contend with on the World Poker Tour, finishing at the final table on two occasions: runner-up in the 2003 Five Diamond World Poker Classic and fourth place in the Costa Rica Classic that same year.

Naturally, the average poker player can only wish he or she was fortunate enough to have a kindergarten teacher who would go on to become one of the greatest poker studs in a history of the game. It only seems logical that a certain amount of poker mastery would rub off in the classroom. Alas, few of us were treated to that luxurious advantage at such a young age, so we must content ourselves with basking in the glory of Dewey Tomko's illustrious career.