It’s been an amazing year for Justin Bonomo so far, having already cashed three million-dollar wins. His most recent win was this week when he won the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl and took home a massive prize of $5 million, which is his biggest cashout till date.
Super High Roller Bowl
The Super High Roller Bowl is one of the most hottest and star-studded events in the 2018 poker calendar bringing together 48 of the very best poker professionals to compete for one of the biggest buy-in events in the poker world.
The drama over who will get to play in the coveted spots started in March, where 61 pros expressed their desire to enter the tournament. With only 48 seats open, the ARIA held a lottery that streamed on PokerGO to decide the first 30 players who would get a guaranteed seat to the event and Justin Bonomo was shortlisted on the very first draw.
A few more weeks after the first draw, more VIP names were shortlisted by the Aria to join the tournament. Poker superstars Fedor Holz, Antonio Esfandiari, Doug Polk, Jason Koon were some of the players thrown in to the mix, which made the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl an extremely challenging event. Just a few days before the tournament started, legendary poker pros Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, and Phil Ivey were confirmed for the tournament. Many expected one of these VIP players to win the tournament and emerge on top.
The four-day tournament started at the Aria on May 27, where players were randomly assigned to six-seater tables via a table draw. Immediately, the spotlight shone bright on Table 8 where Negreanu was seated with Polk, egging on the tension that already existed between the two players.
The action was tense throughout the tournament as player after player was slowly eliminated. Daniel Negreanu stole most of the spotlight and in the end, the final two players left at the table were Negreanu and Bonomo. Bonomo stayed calm and relied on his strategy which helped him take out Negreanu in the end and win a whopping $5 million. Negreanu walked away with $3 million for his efforts.
Career Defining Moment for Bonomo
According to Bonomo, getting into the final table and winning the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl felt like the highlight of his poker career.
In a statement, Bonomo said, “During my 17 years in poker, I’ve had nothing even close to this. I’ve never felt as though, if I retired from the game, that I could be really proud of what I’ve accomplished to the point where I’ve gotten everything I deserved. If for some reason I had to retire tomorrow, I’d have nothing but pride, and there would be nothing left to be written in that story.”
Bonomo said the win was more special because his mom was able to fly to Las Vegas to watch him dominate the final table. Bonomo reveals that his mom has been very supportive of his career ever since he started out and always follows his wins online and on the felt.
Seven Month Winning Streak
The $5 million win for Bonomo comes right after an unbelievable seven-month streak, where he was able to win and cash a total of $11.6 million in just 116 days. When many poker players would have to grind for years just to get to $1 million in live earnings, Bonomo cruised his way to the top with just a handful of first-placers.
Bonomo’s seven-month streak started with a first place win at the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Bellagio High Roller event where he won $310,500. Shortly after, he would go on to cash at the final table of 23 more events, including second place finishes at the Aria Super High Roller for $639,000, Aria Super High Roller 15 for $420,000, Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown High Roller for $556,800, and at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Super High Roller for a phenomenal $1,077,800.
He also managed to register an outstanding total of eight first place finishes from the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Bellagio High Roller on December 1 to the 2018 Super High Roller. One of the biggest of these cashes, and his second million-dollar take-home is at the Super High Roller Bowl China, where he took home HK$37,830,000 which is around $4.82 million.
All that action in the last seven months has propelled him into third place on the all-time money list with $31,941,295 in total live earnings.