Becoming a great poker player is a long journey that starts years before the cards are ever dealt. For me, it started when I was four. There was nothing I loved more than playing video games. Even then, I didn't play video games just to kill time. I always played with the goal of beating the game. My favorite games were the Final Fantasy series, but I've played all of the classics.

From video games I progressed to Magic: the Gathering. I started playing when I was nine but didn't get serious about it until I was twelve. Magic is a collectible card game which requires a great deal of strategy to be successful. There were tournaments across the world, some of which involved $250,000 prize pools. To me, it was about much more than the money. Traveling around the world to all the big events was amazing. Through Magic I went to San Diego, Chicago, New Orleans, New York, Orlando, Boston, Philly, Nice (France), and even Venice (Italy). At all of these events, the best players in the World would compete against each other. Even though I was much younger than most of these guys, I was seen as an equal since I could compete on their level. That meant a lot to me.

When online poker first started up, a bunch of Magic players jumped in. Brock Parker, Nate Clarke, Chris Pikula and Mike Katz were among the first to win big. This was back around 1999 when Paradise and Planet Poker were the only sites around. I heard stories of these guys playing $20/$40 and making a ton of money. It seemed ridiculous to me that in the click of a button, these guys were dragging $1000 pots. Of course, $1000 was a godly sum of money to me when I was 13. The guys that I played Magic with in Maryland every week eventually decided to start up a weekly $.50/$1 game in early 2002. I did ok in this game, but it was where I started to learn to play tight. I went into this game thinking any face card was gold, and came out folding A7o under the gun. We played this game throughout 2002, and in November I decided to make my first online deposit. I only put in $100, and did well at $.50/$1, and even $1/$2, but I really didn't have a clue what I was doing. That became even clearer to me when I lost the entire buyin at $3/$6 heads up, a game I had no business playing. I lost a couple more small buyins with some equally stupid decisions. I managed to scrounge up $600 to play $5/$10 with, but when I saw how quickly I lost $350, I decided to stop playing online. I usually played the weekly $.50/$1 game, but that was as far as I went with poker.

In June 2003 I went to San Diego for a Magic tournament, and afterward I spent a couple weeks with a friend of the family in Los Angeles. I caught a glimpse of the World Poker Tour on TV. Inspired by that, I bought a couple of poker books, mostly just to kill time on the plane home. By the time I got back, I had three of them read. In one of those books, I found out about http://www.twoplustwo.com. That's when I realized that my approach to poker was all wrong. I had been just a casual player, and that was a surefire way to lose money. I decided that I wanted to start taking poker seriously, and really learn how to play the game. In mid July I decided to move the $250 I had sitting on Paradise over to Party Poker (which I didn't know existed until I found 2+2). With the aid of 2+2, and the knowledge I gained from the books I had read, I was ready to start winning. Around this time I realized that I needed to start thinking about poker the same way I thought about video games and Magic. Each decision is crucial. There is generally only one correct decision, and the more often you make that correct decision, the more often you win.

I found myself consistently winning at $.50/$1, but losing my profits in one table tournaments. I talked to my friend Eugene, and he told me to watch him play some short handed $10/$20. At one point, he referred to the table as a 10 BB/hour table. I asked if that meant he figured to make $200 an hour, and he answered in the affirmative. I lost $100 right of the bat at the $1/$2 6 max tables on Party (the lowest 6 max limit on the site) seeing 45% of the flops, and then a very simple concept hit me. When playing short handed, I should play just as I would in late position when everyone folds to me. I reread the section on playing in late position in Hold-em For Advanced Players, and all the sudden I was crushing the game. Suddenly my bankroll was at $500.

Before this short handed stint, I played in a freeroll NL tournament. It was my first multi-table tournament, and I finished 49th out of 538. I didn't win anything, but I really enjoyed playing it. I played in a few $20+2s and $30+3s, and on August 8th, I hit the mother load. It was a $20+2 NL tournament with 807 players. I finished second, and won just under $2000. I was on top of the world. I can't describe how good it felt to win that much money in only six hours.

I used that money to play $5/$10 6 max, and I just couldn't lose. By the end of the year, I had moved up to $10/$20, and my bankroll was over $10,000. At some point in 2004, I started playing No Limit. Eventually I became known on 2+2 as the kid that played 10 tables at a time. Throughout 2004 I played mostly $200 sit'n'gos, and all of the big multi table tournaments. I did very well playing 8 or more tables of the $200 sit'n'gos on Partypoker. Also, I had a 4th and 5th place finish in the big $200+15 specials on Party that netted me $18,000 and $12,000 respectively. The first place prize in both of those was over $70,000, so even though both paydays were great, being eliminated from those tournaments left me lusting for something bigger.

In September 2004, I played in WPT Aruba, my first big live tournament. I didn't even make day two. In January 2005 I played in WPT Atlantis, and everything seemed to fall into place. I had the chip lead for half of day two, and ended up finishing in 30th place which paid $15,600. It was a challenge finding events that I could play in since I was under 21, but I found the European Poker Tour. On February 19, 2005, I became the youngest player ever to make a TV final table at the EPT French Open.

In the foreseeable future, I plan to keep on doing what I'm doing now. I recently moved to LA, so I'm much closer to the poker scene. Expect big things from me, specifically final tables when I turn 21. I will not disappoint.
-Justin Bonomo

WSOP Wrapup and Bellagio Cup start
July 11th, 2007

WSOP #8 - 1k Rebuy and Ante Up for Africa
July 5th, 2007

WSOP #7 - Nobody Calls Earl a Chicken
July 2nd, 2007

WSOP #6 - 1.5k NL and the Robert Williamson Angle Shot
June 30th, 2007

WSOP #5 - 50k HORSE, and LOL Hellmuthaments #2
June 29th, 2007

WSOP #4 - Day 3 of the 50k Horse!
June 25th, 2007

WSOP #3 - Minor Cold Streak, 1.5k NL Commentary and 50k Horse
June 22nd, 2007

WSOP Update #2 - 2k NL Final Table
June 13th, 2007

WSOP Update #1 - Smokey Wins!
June 12th, 2007

It Has Begun!
May 31st, 2007

Once
May 26th, 2007

HORSE!
April 30th, 2007

Bellagio 25k Main Event
April 29th, 2007

Bellagio Update
April 11th, 2007

Brand New x3
April 4th, 2007

PoY, Reality TV Show, and Jennifer Tilly
March 30th, 2007

San Jose and some Interesting Hands
March 11th, 2007

Wynn 10k
March 8th, 2007

Alan Sass wins a tourney, and the cover of Bluff Magazine!
March 4th, 2007

Overdue Update
February 23rd, 2007

Two more huge finishes (Including a win finally)!!!
January 11th, 2007

I Am Justin Bonomo. Hear Me Roar!
December 22nd, 2006

The Dreaded TV Bubble
December 21st, 2006

Such Zees
December 17th, 2006

8th in Chips After Day 1a in the Main Event
December 15th, 2006

Doing Well Again!
December 10th, 2006

Back to Back Final Tables!
December 8th, 2006

Day 2!
December 6th, 2006

lol.
December 2nd, 2006

Slackage, SENS, and Elections
November 11th, 2006

Festa Al Lago at the Bellagio
October 12th, 2006

Aruba: non-poker stuff
October 11th, 2006

Aruba Tournament Report
October 10th, 2006

Summary of the Legislation against Unlawful Internet Gambling
October 4th, 2006

Aruba and the Methuselah Foundation
September 24th, 2006

Poker, Ebooks, and Obadiahs
September 15th, 2006

My Weekend
September 10th, 2006

My Favorite 2+2 Post of All Time
September 4th, 2006

Look! It's a blog!!!!!!!!!11!!1!1!!one!!1!
September 3rd, 2006

Overdue Update
July 13th, 2006

Random Public Service Announcement
June 16th, 2006

Brutal Downswing, Beautiful Recovery
February 23rd, 2006

The Quest Begins
February 20th, 2006

Day 1 Complete
February 20th, 2006

New Article
February 19th, 2006

Another Quick Update
February 16th, 2006

Stuff
February 7th, 2006

Random Update
January 27th, 2006

Exposing the Scammer and a Rant About Emails
January 18th, 2006

Dissecting a Hand #1
January 17th, 2006

WPT Update #2
January 12th, 2006

WPT Update #1
January 6th, 2006

Holiday Stuff
December 29th, 2005

The TLB Record and a Million Dollar Beating
December 22nd, 2005

N82 Guest Writes a Blog
December 19th, 2005

Vegas Baby!
December 15th, 2005

The Race is On!
December 14th, 2005

$137,000 and Rakeback Info!
December 11th, 2005

MySpace!
December 9th, 2005

October + November Results
December 5th, 2005

Live Long Enough to Live Forever
November 30th, 2005

Thanksgiving
November 23rd, 2005

Back to the Old Routine
November 15th, 2005

An Update! (Finally)
November 5th, 2005

The Boys Are Back in Town
October 27th, 2005

A HUGE Score!
October 22nd, 2005

Sundays...
October 16th, 2005

Another Tournament Win
October 10th, 2005

The Day the World Ended
October 8th, 2005

Aruba Trip Report
October 7th, 2005

Ding! (from Aruba)
September 26th, 2005

A Quick $20k!
September 21st, 2005

WCOOP Main Event - Jordan Berkowitz Wins
September 18th, 2005

Photo Gallery Update and 5k SNG Stats
September 15th, 2005

WCOOP, Bellagio, UB, and Some Screen Names
September 11th, 2005

WCOOP Update
September 9th, 2005

A MEGA Update
September 7th, 2005

Vegas Baby!
September 6th, 2005

Back to Work
September 4th, 2005

Victory!
August 29th, 2005

Paaaaiiiiiinn
August 26th, 2005

Veronica O, The Aristocrats, and Ian
August 25th, 2005

The Grind
August 23rd, 2005

A Terrible Day
August 19th, 2005

I'm Home
August 11th, 2005

Update from Amsterdam
July 30th, 2005

Quick Update
July 17th, 2005

An Absolutely Amazing Day
July 12th, 2005

The Quest is Complete!
July 11th, 2005

Back from Mexico
July 6th, 2005

Going to Mexico
June 27th, 2005

Quest Results After the Halfway Mark
June 26th, 2005

Party Poker Million Dollar Guarenteed
June 25th, 2005

Back from Vegas
June 23rd, 2005

Las Vegas
June 21st, 2005

I Bought a Car
June 18th, 2005

A Quest Update
June 15th, 2005

A New Quest
June 13th, 2005

Magic Players Are Taking the Poker World by Storm
June 10th, 2005

10/20 NL and SNGs
June 6th, 2005

Sneak Peak
June 2nd, 2005

Life in LA
May 31st, 2005

Stuff
May 19th, 2005

Another Final Table Report
May 16th, 2005

LA
May 15th, 2005

30 hours til LA
May 8th, 2005

Super Tuesday Tournament Report
May 4th, 2005

Taking it to the Next Level
May 2nd, 2005

A Not So Super Monday
April 26th, 2005

LA here I come!
April 26th, 2005

Turning Stone Conclusion
April 25th, 2005

Turning Stone Update 2
April 22nd, 2005

Turning Stone Update 1
April 21st, 2005

EPT Deauville on TV
April 19th, 2005

Drunken Home Game
April 16th, 2005

Catching Up
April 15th, 2005

Monte Carlo EPT Part I.
March 15th, 2005

WOW - Vienna Tournament Recap
March 11th, 2005

Sleepless in Vienna
March 10th, 2005

Going to Vienna
March 9th, 2005