For those of you that have been living under a rock, I just turned twenty one on the last day of September. Less than three months later, I had what people are referring to as my “coming out party” at the Bellagio’s Five Diamond (aka the Doyle Brunson North American Poker Classic).

I played eight tournaments there, and made an astonishing FOUR final tables:

12/06/06 – Event 5: $5000 Buyin
8th Place: $16,465

12/08/06 – Event 7: $2000 Buyin
4th Place: $42,565

12/11/06 – Event 10: $5000 Buyin
5th place: $53,635

12/19/06 – Main Event: $15,000 Buyin
7th place: $152,230

Total: $264,895

Going into this tournament, I don’t think many people were expecting much from me. I was just another barely 21 year old internet player, but I made my statement loud and clear: I am one of the best tournament players on the planet, and I am going to be making some noise.

The results speak for themselves. I played eight out of the twelve events, and I final tabled FOUR of them. Literally the toughest players in the world were playing all of these events, and only a few players were able to make two final tables. NO ONE made more than three final tables, except for me of course. There is no debate that I had the best performance at this tournament.

I am also happy to say that as I promised a few months ago, I will be giving 5% of my winnings to www.Sens.org. I said this would include the two 5k events and the 15k events, but it seems silly to include only 3 of my 4 final tables, so I will be giving them 5% from all of these events. This comes out to $13,250 which I hope can make a difference. Peter Theil pledged to match 50% of all donations towards SENS research, so this will actually be a $20,000 donation thanks to his help. To read more about SENS, please read my September 24th blog entitled: Aruba and the Methuselah Foundation.

The plan at this point is to play as many events as possible in 2007, and try to win Cardplayer’s Player of the Year. It will take a little bit of luck, but I like my chances a lot. Expect me to make AT LEAST top ten in 2007 for sure.

Be forewarned: Justin Bonomo is going to take the tournament circuit by storm in 2007.