Justin Bonomo Wins 2018 Super High Roller Bowl For $5,000,000

For the fourth straight year the Aria Las Vegas played host to the Super High Roller Bowl just days before the kickoff of the World Series of Poker. The $300,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event featured a capped field of 48 entries, building a total prize pool of just under $14.5 million dollars.

In the end, it was Justin Bonomo that emerged victorious with the championship ring and the $5 million first-place prize. Incredibly, this win came roughly two months after Bonomo took down the Super High Roller Bowl China for another $4.8 million. The 32-year-old American poker pro won two more high roller events and his second World Series of Poker bracelet within nine days of winning this huge event. He now has 16 final table finishes so far in 2018. With nine titles and $14,681,541 in earnings so far, he is having one of the all-time greatest years on the live tournament circuit.

“It doesn’t feel like real life. It feels like I can’t lose… I almost said no matter what I do, but the truth is, I have really been trying my hardest and playing my A-game non-stop,” Bonomo told Card Player after the win. “The Super High Roller Bowl is definitely the most prestigious tournament of the year, so this has to be the biggest win of my career.”

As a result of this win, Bonomo has climbed into third place on the all-time money list, with career earnings of $32,588,130. Only Poker Hall of Fame members Daniel Negreanu ($38,377,607) and Erik Seidel ($34,567,415) have cashed for more on the live tournament circuit.

“The all-time money list is definitely not a clear ranking of the best player in the world right now, but it still means a lot,” said Bonomo. “Some guys say, ‘Oh, that’s just all about who plays the most high rollers.’ Well, I’m sorry to break it to you, Phil Hellmuth, but the people playing these high rollers are the best players in the world, and that’s why we are at the top of the list. Sure, somebody who plays more of these events will have an advantage [at accruing earnings], but it really does entail competing against the best players in the world nearly every single day, and I am proud of how I’ve done.”

Bonomo likely mentioned Hellmuth by name because the all-time WSOP bracelet leader made some comments regarding regulars of the high roller scene after being eliminated from the event on day 1, saying, “There is a ‘fraternity’ of players that travel around and play in all the high rollers. I respect them, but they think they are the best in the world, and I think there are 50 or 60 of 100 players that are better than they are that just don’t travel around the world playing.”

The 2018 Super High Roller Bowl ran from May 27-30. The prestigious event drew plenty of poker’s biggest stars including Phil Ivey, David Peters, Phil Hellmuth, Doug Polk, Fedor Holz, and Adrian Mateos. None of those players survived to the money, though. The top seven finishers cashed in this event, and eventual champion Justin Bonomo was very nearly not one of them.

With eight players remaining he moved all-in from the small blind for 895,000 over the top of a Mikita Badziakouski under-the-gun raise. Christoph Vogelsang moved all-in for approximately 1.6 million with pocket kings and Badziakouski mucked. Bonomo held the A 10 and was in need of help. The flop brought the 10 3 2 to give him a pair and some additional outs, but the 9 on the turn left him needing an ace or a ten on the river to survive. The A rolled off the deck, giving him the best hand and the double up to roughly 1.8 million. From there he continued to chip up.

Seth Davies was ultimately the last player eliminated without earning a profit in the event, hitting the rail in eighth place after running pocket tens into the pocket jacks of Jason Koon. Davies was awarded $90,000 from the forfeited deposits of players who signed up to play the event but ultimately could not. With Davies’ elimination the remaining players all locked up at least a $600,000 payday, doubling their buy-in.
Stephen Chidwick was the next player to hit the rail. This was his 15th final-table finish of the year, and the 150 POY points he earned helped him maintain his lead despite a number of other top contenders outlasting him in this event.

The final day began with Badziakouski as the chip leader, with Bonomo and Negreanu essentially tied for second place. Jason Koon scored the first knockout of the day when he picked up pocket queens against Nick Petrangelo’s pocket tens in the first hand dealt. The queens held up and Petrangelo was eliminated in sixth place, taking home $900,000. Vogelsang, the defending champion of this event, fell tantalizingly short of winning the event for the second straight time, finishing in fifth place for $1.2 million.

Badziakouski knocked Vogelsang out, but he ran a bluff against the turned straight of Daniel Negreanu to fall to the shortest stack during four-handed play. He then hit the rail in fourth place when his top pair ran into the top pair and higher kicker of Bonomo. The Belarusian earned $1.6 million for his impressive run.

Bonomo continued to add to his stack by winning a key pot against Koon, who had started the day in the middle of the pack but fought his way into the chip lead during four-handed play. Koon raised from the button to 135,000 with the K 9 and Bonomo three-bet to 500,000 with the K Q. The flop was a disaster for Koon, bringing the K Q 9 to give both players two pair. All of the chips ended up going in after a turn of 5 and Koon failed to hit one of the two remaining nines to come from behind. Bonomo soared into the chip lead, while Koon fell to the short stack.

Koon had won two high roller titles in the weeks leading up to this event, cashing for more than $4.6 million. He was ultimately eliminated in third place, adding another $2.1 million. He now has more than $19 million in career earnings. The 400 POY points he earned in this event were enough to see him climb into fifth place in the Player of the Year standings.

Bonomo took nearly a 4:1 chip lead into heads-up play against Negreanu. Poker’s all-time money leader did his best to fight back, but in the end he got all-in on a flop of 9 7 6 holding the 8 7, only to find that he had run into the 9 9 of Bonomo. The turn brought the K and the river the 6, giving Bonomo a full house to earn him the pot and the title. Negreanu took home $3 million as the runner-up, bringing his lifetime earnings to more than $38.3 million. This was the second-largest score of his career.

Bonomo earned 600 Player of the Year points for the win. He now sits in first place in the overall POY rankings, and has averaged three final table finishes and over a title per month so far this year, with average monthly earnings of roughly $2.9 million. It is now not out of the question that he breaks the record for tournament earnings in a single year, which is currently held by Daniel Colman, who cashed for $22.3 million in 2014. Over $15 million of that came when Colman won the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop, which is returning to the WSOP in Las Vegas for the first time since Colman won.

Bonomo is only 32 years old, but he has been competing at the highest levels of the game for over 13 years now, and he himself admits that it has been hard work to stay competitive with the world’s best players with the myriad ways the game has changed during his time as a professional.

“Probably the thing I am most proud of in my entire career is how I have been able to stay towards the top of the game and adjust despite the fact that poker is constantly changing,” said Bonomo. “I’ve played tournaments. I’ve played cash games. I’ve played mixed games. I played when books were the best way to learn, I played through the training video era. These days, things are completely different than they ever have been before. The top players are studying simulations nonstop and working incredibly hard. I’m just proud of myself for being able to remain near the top of the game throughout all of it.”

Here is a look at the final payouts in this event:
Place Player Winnings POY Points
1 Justin Bonomo $5,000,000 600
2 Daniel Negreanu $3,000,000 500
3 Jason Koon $2,100,000 400
4 Mikita Badziakouski $1,600,000 300
5 Christoph Vogelsang $1,200,000 250
6 Nick Petrangelo $900,000 200
7 Stephen Chidwick $600,000 150
8 Seth Davies $90,000 100