Dewey's All In strategy

[rbenuck4]

OK, just finished watching the WPT Bellagio, and when it got down to two people (Paul Phillips and Dewey Tomko), Paul had a huge chip lead. He had somewhere around 5 million and dewey had under a million. At this point, Dewey employed a strategy where every hand he went all in on. No matter what two cards he got dealt, and no matter what Paul did prior to his action, Dewey just pushed his chips in. My questions are as follows.

First of all, was he really going all in every hand, or was it that the Travel Channel happened to show only the hands that he went in with?

Second, do you think this was a good strategy?

Things to consider. Paul was extremely aggressive and loose throughout the final table, whereas Dewey was much tighter and picked his spots. Therefore, Paul would've probably put a lot of pressure on him if Dewey tried to see flops cheaply. Second, was Dewey was so short on chips that he couldn't make a legitamite raise unless it was for all his chips? Finally, I've been told that when you think you are the weaker player, you should be willing to shove your chips in and let lady luck carry everything else out, cause you won't outplay the better player after the flop. Do you think that Dewey considered himself a weaker player (I don't think Dewey was the weaker player)?

[Nottom]

The question I have is whether Dewey would have continued his strategy had he won the K8 vs 77 hand.

[flopdanutz]

From what I saw on TV it seemed like PP is able to fold a decent hand heads up if the other player pushes in. In the hand where PP raised preflop (with J8), thinking about folding the hand to an allin (by Dewey with 99) shows weakness. Dewey must have been upset that PP did not call and must have asked himself, "If he is unable to fold the hand he just had with a large pot then what is he confident playing?" Probably only pocket pairs and Ace cards. With PP playing so few hands all he has to do is push him around and wait for the right time to switch gears to avoid traps or to trap PP.

IMHO Dewey knew PP did not want to double him up and took advantage of it. Also IMHO it is hard to outplay a decent player who has a huge chip lead and is patient.

[Rushmore]

When you've got Dewey Tomko outchipped 5-1, and he plays back at you when you're holding J8, I think a solid player folds. I think maintaining a 5-1 chip position is much more important than the 100K you just put in.

Pot odds might state differently, but I think solid tournament strategy likes this fold.

[Rushmore]

I'm quite confident he would NOT have. I'm pretty sure his thinking was that it was OK to jeopardize his tournament with raggedy hands in the interest of doubling up, and that he could then outplay his opponent.

But Phillips was playing well. I don't know that Tomko's superiority is exactly a given.

[LargeCents]

I think the final heads-up showdown was played perfectly by both players. None of these hands were hard decisions. The main issue at stake was the stack sizes. The only way Dewey could dig himself out of the 5-1 hole was to double-up. The only good way to double-up was to go all-in preflop. All of Dewey's hands were good enough to try this tactic. From Philips' perspective, he wants to avoid allowing Dewey to double-up at all costs. The Q, 10 suited was an excellent fold, only because allowing Dewey to double-up would have been such a disaster. In fact, the last hand could have went either way. I'd have liked to see Dewey double up on that one, and then we'd have an interesting situation. The strategies would change completely being down only 2-1. I guarantee Dewey wouldn't be quite as reckless with his chips. But, being down 5-1, heads-up, against any professional has got to be near impossible odds.

[Sarge85]

Curious - and I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet.

Hoyt used the exact same "any two will do" all-in strategy last week to put preasure on the short stack.

What's the difference? How can you do the same thing with such different relative chip positions?

Much more playin the man than playin the cards i suppose.

Sarge [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

[CrisBrown]

Hi Sarge,

I think Paul Phillips had great respect for Dewey Tomko's ability, and didn't want to risk doubling him up. Yes, he might have picked up a big pot here and there by pushing in -- and if you watched the stack sizes, apparently he did, because Dewey hovered around 1.2M for several hands -- but in the end, he knew that sooner or later he'd have to have a hand when Dewey moved in, and when that happened, he would end it.

Cris

[rtucker5]

I believe Dewey was pushing all in so much to try and double up. My feeling was that if he doubled up once he would have enough chips to play with Paul. Without doubling up, he was too shortstacked to doing anything.

[TimTimSalabim]

It was a great strategy, in that situation. They said the blinds and antes added up to 170k, so Dewey was significantly increasing his stack each time, and at the same time, giving himself a chance to double up if called. Even the K8 v 77 gave him an almost even money chance to double up, which I think at that point would have brought him close to even with the other guy, and at that point I'm sure he would have shifted to a more conservative strategy. Dewey's a smart guy.