Seat 9: Justin Bonomo (595,000 in chips)
At just 33 years old, it’s fair to wonder what more Justin Bonomo could possibly accomplish at the poker table.
In 2018, Bonomo notched five seven-digit tournament cashes during a streak unlike anything seen in poker history. (Actually, he had four seven-digit cashes and one eight-digit cash.)
He kicked off the year with a 2nd place finish in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Super High Roller for a $1,077,800 cash. Before January was over, Bonomo would notch two more top five finishes and a first place finish, totaling over $1 million. Bonomo’s year was so good that by the end, his January was just a footnote.
In February, he won the inaugural tournament of the U.S. Poker Open. The next month he won the Super High Roller Bowl in Macau – a $4.8 million score. But all those wins and all that cash still didn’t tell the story.
Starting in May, Bonomo began a run that is unprecedented in poker history. He won a $25,000 European Poker Tour (EPT) No-Limit Hold’em tournament for $457,356. Two days later he won another $25,000 EPT buy-in for $311,268. Three weeks after that he won the Super High Roller Bowl in Las Vegas – a $300,000 buy-in that came with a $5,000,000 payday. Four days later that he won another $25,000 buy-in, then three days after that he won another $25,000 buy-in. Three days after that he won a bracelet at the World Series of Poker in the Heads Up Championship. Then in July, Bonomo’s biggest score came in The Big One For One Drop. He beat Fedor Holz heads up to win $10,000,000
In total, Bonomo won enough money in one year alone to be 11th on the all-time money list. The gap between him and Erik Seidel (who is 3rd on the all-time money list) couldn’t even be bridged if Seidel won last year’s Main Event.
But Justin Bonomo goes deeper than the materiality of quick scores and deep runs. A quick scroll of his Twitter account and you’ll find his thoughts on government, animal rights, and polyamory. He has won more money playing poker than any other human being ever has, but at the table, earphones in place, he’d be able to blend in at any $1/$2 cash game.
U.S. Poker Open Championship Update: Justin Bonomo cannot win the U.S. Poker Open Championship.
