Simply not regarded as just an up-and-coming young player but rather a flourishing, dangerous seasoned veteran, Justin Bonomo made one of the very first successful transitions from online poker to live tournament play.

Born on September 30, 1985 and growing up in Virginia, Bonomo’s progression to an elite professional poker player started at an early age, long before the cards were ever dealt. At the age of 9 years old, Bonomo found Magic: The Gathering, a collectible card game which requires a great deal of strategy to be successful. As his competitive nature began to set in, Bonomo began to become a serious Magic player at age 12, and found himself touring and participating in the top Magic
tournaments around the world. Through stops in Chicago, New Orleans, New York, France and Italy, among other worldwide stops, Bonomo was competing against the top professionals in the world for prize pools ranging up to $250,000.00. What made touring special for Bonomo, was that despite being considerably younger than other participants, he was seen as an equal and able to compete at the highest level.

Magic provided the natural progression towards the online gaming world. Upon seeing the success of fellow Magic players transitioning over to poker and through his desire for continued competition, Bonomo started playing a weekly $.50/$1 game in early 2002 with some of his fellow Magic players. Eventually, the players in the group started playing online, including Justin. At first, he only played occassionally and for the most part, broke even. He was still far more dedicated to Magic.

While participating in a Magic Tournament in San Diego, CA, Bonomo decided to spend some extra time with family and friends in Los Angeles, CA. While visiting, he caught a glimpse of the World Poker Tour on television. Inspired by the experience, Bonomo purchased a few books on poker, mostly just to kill time on the flight home. By the time he arrived back home, he had read all three books and ahd discovered the online poker forums at twoplustwo.com in one of them. With school out for the summer, and no major Magic tournaments coming up for a few months, Bonomo found the time to dedicate to poker that he had previously spent fine-tuning his Magic game. He approached the game with a critical mindset, that every decision is crucial. Through watching close friends and intense poker studying sessions, Bonomo was quickly graduating to higher and higher stakes online, on his way towards notorious results.

He had started with just a few hundred dollars online playing $.50/$1 limt holdem. Eventually, he moved up to $1/$2, $5/10 and $10/$20. As the months passed, poker became a bigger and bigger priority for Justin. The next thing he knew, it was all he cared about, and his bankroll never stopped growing.

Justin made his first attempt at live poker at the Turning Stone Casino in upstate new york which allowed 18 year olds thanks to being on Native American grounds. Although he did not fare well in the $500 tournament he drove up for, he won the $30 rebuy tournament just a few days later – the second live tournament he ever played in.

In September of 2004 and after building a successful online playing portfolio, Bonomo headed to Aruba to participate in the World Poker Tour (WPT) event, as his first major Live Tournament. Despite not making it to Day 2, his overall experience would prove to be beneficial in his young career.

In January of 2005, Bonomo again stretched his playing abilities by traveling overseas to compete in the 2006 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure at The Atlantis in The Bahamas. For Bonomo, everything seemed to fall into place. For half of Day 2, Bonomo resided as the tournament’s chip leader and was growing confidence. Bonomo wound up finishing in 30th Place for $15,600.00 in total prize money.

Moving forward, it remained a challenge to find live events to play in, since Bonomo was under the age of 21. However, he was able to discover the European Poker Tour (EPT). On February 19, 2005, Bonomo exploded onto the live tournament poker scene by becoming the youngest player to ever make a televised final table at 19 years, 5 months, and 20 days at the French Open in Deavuille, France, where he finished 4th. As the first teenager ever to make a televised table, he would serve as a pioneer to the upcoming generation of young poker prodigies.

When Justin turned 21, he exploded on the World Poker Tour. He final tabled four events, including a 7th place in the WPT main event at the Bellagio Five Diamond in December of 2006. Following that, he finished 11th at the Pacific Caribbean Adventure WPT in the Bahamas, and won another $2500 tournament there the very next day. All told he had a stretch of seven tournaments where he made the final eleven in six of them, and that included two World Poker Tour main events. He followed that up with a win in Spring 2007 with a win in the Caesar’s Place $3,000 buyin H.O.R.S.E tournament, a 4th place finish in his first week of WSOP play in the $2,000 buyin No-Limit Hold’em event, and another final table in the 2007 Caesars Palace Classic Main Event in October.

2008 and 2009 brought about even more success and international television coverage. At the 2008 39^th Annual World Series of Poker, Bonomo finished a strong 2^nd place in the Event 4 – Mixed Hold’em event. Captured on ESPN, Bonomo competed heads up with poker great Erick Lindgren who went on to win his first WSOP bracelet. Continuing strong play in April of 2009, Bonomo found himself at yet another final table, this time at a World Series of Poker Circuit Event – Caesars Place Las Vegas. He went on to capture the 1^st place finish, winning over $220,000.00. Consistent successful play continued at the 2009 40^th Annual World Series of Poker with yet another major televised final table on ESPN, featuring Bonomo in the Event 2 – $40,000 buyin No-Limit Hold’em event. His 5^th place finish earning him over $400,000.00 led to substantial television coverage around the world. Solidifying himself among the elite players worldwide, Bonomo has been ranked in the top 50 in Player of Year standings in both 2008 and 2009.

Bonomo is known for his concentrated, analytical approach to the game. His aggressive style, ability to quickly read opponents, passion for continued studying of hand histories and opponent playing styles are what proved to bring success. Thanks to his online background, Bonomo has over 3 million hands under his belt. According to Bluff Magazine he has “come to intuitively understand the math and most situations he will encounter”.

Bonomo credits his learning curve to intense studying of the game through dozens of poker literature and a network of advanced poker players. Due to his proven success, Justin Bonomo is now regarded as one of the top poker players worldwide by the media and as well as his peers.

Career Stats