The “High Roller reg” from the United States won recently the Super High Roller Bowl for $5,000,000 and became third on the All Time Money list. Not everything was going that excellent during his entire diverse career, though.
Cheater
Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo was banned on PartyPoker in 2006 after he won a tournament (with 6-digit score) entering it using six accounts at the same time. The winnings were, obviously, confiscated and it wasn’t the last time Bonomo get caught cheating. In the same year, PokerStars Manager announced on TwoPlusTwo that Justin was multi-accounting on their site as well.
His story became one of the most talked-about and heated dialogues to have ever taken place in the online poker community. There was a gigantic discussion on forum involving thousands of posts.
It didn’t stop him on a path to success. After few months break, he returned to the game, just after he turned 21. He was playing exclusively live slowly adding to his reputation of being a solid tournament player. In December, ZeeJustin qualified to four final tables on Five Diamond Poker Classic festival and he finished on “TV-bubble” (7th) in WPT tournament.
Justin Bonomo (born September 30, 1985) (known online as ZeeJustin) is an American high-stakes professional poker player, and a former Magic the Gathering competitor. Justin Bonomo has won 3 bracelets and 1 rings for total earnings of $14,489,406. See all events where they placed in-the-money. Justin Bonomo estimated Net Worth, Biography, Age, Height, Dating, Relationship Records, Salary, Income, Cars, Lifestyles & many more details have been updated below. Let's check, How Rich is Justin Bonomo in 2020-2021? Scroll below and check more details information about Current Net worth as well as Monthly/Year Salary, Expense, Income Reports!
Justin Bonomo Cheat
Soon, he became a player of Team Bodog. After his reputation started to grow, PokerStars decided to unban him in April 2009. His story became a hot topic on forums again, but the owners of major world’s poker room didn’t decide to change their decision.
High stakes adventure
ZeeJustin returned to playing on PokerStars. He was not only the tournament player, but high stakes cash games regular on Stars and FTP as well. He was playing at the highest stakes against the biggest stars such as Isildur1 or jungleman12.
One of his best friends is Isaac Haxton, who helped him hugely to improve his game and compete with the best in the world. In 2012 Justin said in the interview for HighStakesDB that Isaac was the toughest opponent he has ever faced, but he added that he was not objective in his opinion because Isaac is his friend. “Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky is the number two”, he said.
Moving outside of US
Haxton is the player with whom Bonomo moved to Malta after Black Friday. Justin had a lot of money frozen in FTP’s account. “If FTP repays, my net worth instantly doubles, so yes, I have quite a bit on there.” – he said.
Success in tournaments
At that time, he had a lot of cashes in WSOP, but he still had to wait for his first bracelet. In 2014, he topped a field of 1,587 in the $1,500 6-max NLHE event, earning his coveted piece of jewelry along with the $449,980 first-place prize.
His tournament career started a lot earlier though. In January 2005 he cashed PCA Main Event on 30th place. Month later he became the youngest player in the history that was featured on the TV table (being only 19) – he was 4th in the €2,000 EPT tournament in Deauville. One of the turning points in his poker adventure was winning €100,000 Super High Roller 8-Max on EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo in 2012 for $2,165,217. Besides this score and winning two editions of Super High Roller Bowl in 2018, he had two scores over $1 million: second place in $5,300 NLHE Championship Event during Hard Rock Poker Open Hollywood for $1,163,500 and recently second place in $100,000 Super High Roller at PCA 2018 for $1,077,800.
The beginnings
How it all started? Bonomo was highly ranked Magic the Gathering player and when he discovered poker, he was still underaged.
I started playing $0.50/$1 limit hold’em on Paradise Poker just like everyone else that played back in 2002. My first deposit was thanks to my EverQuest character that I sold via PayPal for $500.
He had tough moments in his career as almost every poker player.
I had a very big downswing in late 2009. My confidence was at a high after rising through the HUNL stakes super quickly. I was playing the best players in the world and ran over a million below all-in EV. It was humbling going from $10/$20 to $200/$400, and then at $50/$100 losing to some of the very same players that I had recently built my bankroll off of. I had become complacent with my game while theirs’ were evolving to beat mine. That was a huge mistake on my part compounded by the run bad.
In the beginning he was playing Limit Hold’em, online tournaments and SNGs, but soon he discovered that NLHE is his favourite variant of poker. He was trying other formats as well, for example $50k H.O.R.S.E events at the WSOP and 2-7 Triple Draw event where he was close to winning a bracelet, however his biggest scores come from NLHE games.
Unbelievable run
Recently, after taking down Super High Roller Bowl he won two other High Rollers (both with $25k buy-in) in Aria casino! He informed poker community about it on Twitter.
Ok so you might not believe this, but I just won the Aria $25k high roller again. I don’t know what’s happening anymore.
— Justin Bonomo (@JustinBonomo) June 4, 2018Here is the list of his High Roller biggest scores this year:
The future
32-year-old Justin Bonomo has been known in the poker community for many years. After his 17-year adventure with poker, he starts finally to become a super-star. He said nothing changed drastically in his game recently; he just started to win all-ins he couldn’t win before. Besides this, after cheating scandal, he started showing his lighter sides, being active in donating to charities. We are very curious how his future is going to look like and how much strength he is going to show in 2018 and especially in World Series of Poker. Will he capture his second bracelet?
Justin Bonomo is somewhat of a controversial figure in the poker world. Back in the good old Party Poker days a decade or so ago. Bonomo was caught influencing his luck beyond the legally acceptable measures.
Justin played multi entry tournaments way before it was cool - or acceptable - by registering to major tournaments using a few different accounts. However, unlike many other players who have fallen out of poker world's grace for one reason or another, Bonomo apologized and made an effort to atone for his transgressions by donating some portion of his tournament winnings to charity.
Taking a Page out of Ike Haxton Book
Justin Bonomo (@justinbonomo) • Twitter
Justin Bonomo and Isaac Haxton share many similarities. They are both highly accomplished players in the tournament and the cash game poker formats, they are the same age, they both have a history of playing a collectible card game called Magic: the Gathering before they retired the cards with elves and dragons and swapped them for queens and aces. They are also fans of highly underused and extremely devastating cbet/3bet line.
In this particular hand, Bonomo opened his button with 86o and got called by Tobias Reinkemeier in the big blind. Reinkemeier is an extremely tough player, a real tournament veteran, which makes a play Bonomo made against him all the more impressive. The flop offered many different draw and combo draw possibilities, fortunately for Bonomo, he was holding one of those hands and he was heavily blocking many of the other ones, not to mention the fact that between his middle pair, a gutshot draw and backdoor he had plenty of equity.
Additionally, Reinkemeier range was somewhat capped by the fact that he declined to 3bet preflop. Because of how well Justin's hand wrapped around the board texture, he had no issue recognizing the fact that Tobias was unbalanced towards bluffs and he punished that with a flop 3bet.
Justin Bonomo Poker Player
Everything by the Book
Sometimes all you need to do is to flop a flush and keep betting. This little hand from PokerStars Big Game serves as a great reminder that long and successful poker careers are built on solid betting lines.
Flopping a flush is, of course, a matter of short term luck but having enough discipline to avoid the fancy play syndrome and follow through with a disciplined triple barrel for value, is something that surprisingly large percentage of players have trouble with. This is especially true for beginners who find the solid lines too 'basic' or 'boring'.
Redemption Story
Turns out that being good at flopping flushed could prove to be a great recipe for a long successful poker career! That being said the last hand from the WSOP 2014 Event #11, isn't exciting due to the board texture.
It's an important milestone in Bonomo's career because it bookends his redemption story. While some poker fans are still unhappy with Justin's multi-accounting scandal, he approached the issue in a mature way, he apologized, made amends and that allowed him to stay in the poker world for long enough to eventually win a WSOP bracelet and secure his place in the annals of poker history.
Sometimes the most important skill a poker player can have is not the ability to crush souls at a table with fancy betting lines. It's the willingness right the wrongs, keep his head down, stay consistent and persistent.
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