12.11.2005
Justin Wins $137,000 in the Sunday PokerStars Tournament

10.22.2005
ZeeJustin Finishes 2nd in the Party $600+40 for $110,000

09.06.2005
ZeeJustin wins $33 Rebuy Tournament on Party

08.29.2005
ZeeJustin wins $19,000 in Stars $150+12 Tournament

07.22.2005
Justin Leaves For WPT Paris

07.12.2005
ZeeJustin Wins $37,000 in One Day!

07.11.2005
ZeeJustin Completes His 1,000 Sit'N'Go Challenge

06.27.2005
ZeeJustin Takes a Week Long Trip from Poker to Vacation in Mexico

06.13.2005
ZeeJustin Starts His Quest to Play 1,000 $200+15 Single Table Tournaments on Eurobet.

03.28.2005
Rakeback (a.k.a Free Money) Article Added

03.25.2005
ZeeJustin will be on Eurosport tonight (for his EPT final table). Make sure to watch if you get that channel.

03.24.2005
EPT Deauville Report Added

03.15.2005
Monte Carlo EPT update added.

03.12.2005
Vienna tournament report posted.

03.10.2005
Journal update from Vienna.

03.10.2005
Poker Tournament in Vienna begins.

03.09.2005
New website launched, but still under construction. Full site coming soon!

03.08.2005
Leave for Vienna.

EPT Deauville Report  [03.24.2005]
I'm mostly an internet player. In the past year, I�ve played approximately a million hands of poker (mostly thanks to some insane multitabling) online. Unfortunately, since I�m only 19 years old, and can�t legally play poker in the US, I have very little live experience. A few months ago, I decided that my bankroll was healthy, and I wanted to try to play as many live tournaments as possible. There were so few that I could enter, so I would really have to take advantage of every one.

That brings us to WPT Atlantis. I managed to win my seat on Stars for the main event. Despite my complete lack of live experience, I managed to adjust pretty well. By day 2, I was spotting some tells, and making some very good reads. One of the most important things I learned was how accurate stereotyping can be. It�s very easy to take one look at a player, and tell if they are analytical or instinctive, loose or tight, passive or aggressive, competent or clueless, etc. In the end, I finished 30th which paid $15,600, but more importantly, I learned a great deal about live tournaments.

I also had an amazing time at the event. The tournament site was wonderful, and the people there were all awesome. Take a look at the photo gallery for some pics of the people I met. I realized after this tournament that this is definitely what I want to be doing for the next few years. I had recently dropped out of school, and after Atlantis, I had no doubts of whether or not that was the right decision.

When I got back home, I decided to play as many online satellites as I could. The next thing I knew, I had a seat for EPT Copenhagen, as well as 2 seats for EPT Deauville. Since the events were less than a month apart from each other, I decided to turn my two trips into one month long trip across Europe.

My first stop was EPT Copenhagen. I got very cold cards during this event. I lost the only set I made, and lost both coin flips I was involved in, and even got sucked out on pretty badly in another big all-in. Despite that, I still came pretty close to making the money. Even though I was out of the tournament, I did manage to make some cash. I had split 5% of my winnings with Noah Boeken (Exclusive on Stars), and sure enough, he took the whole thing down. That was a wonderful payday for me considering that it didn�t require me winning a single hand of poker.

Noah, Marcel Luske, Devilfish, Warren Carp, a few guys from Amsterdam, and I went into Copenhagen to celebrate. We stumbled upon a nice bar/discotheque. I don�t remember everything that happened that night, but a few things stand out. There was some live music, and Devilfish kicked the musician off stage to give a performance of his own. He certainly has some musical talent. Marcel showed us some very nice moves on the dance floor as well. For me, the best part of the night was a very cute Danish girl named Tin�. Unfortunately, just as things were starting to get interesting between us, Noah told me that it was 4am and they had to get to the airport for their flight in 2-3 hours.

I didn�t exactly do a great job planning my trip to Europe, so I decided to go to the airport with them, and see what flights were available. I wasn�t sure exactly what country I was going to be in the next day until I got to the ticket counter. I managed to find a cheap ticket to Amsterdam, so I went to Holland with Noah and company. I spent a week there, basking in the luxury the champ lives in, as well as seeing a little of the city. After that, I went to London and stayed with my friend Mark. Then it was off to Paris. I could tell you about the traveling I did, but to be honest, I don�t find that stuff to be very interesting, so let�s jump to the EPT.


Day one was all about adjusting. My first table was very loose, and fairly aggressive, so there wasn�t really an opportunity for me to get tricky. The players were occasionally getting all in with fairly bad hands, simply because they were bad at poker. When your table is like this, you really have to just play tight and wait for some big hands. Unfortunately, I didn�t really find any, so after a very boring couple of hours, I still had the same amount of chips as I did when the tournament started.

Eventually I got moved to the same table as my friend from Paris, Gab (aka Yellowhat). Brandon Schaefer was also at this table, and he introduced himself to me. I had talked with Gab during one of the breaks, and he was complaining about how his table was really weak tight, and hard to take advantage of. I told him that weak tight tables are awesome, and I got a chance to show him why. There were a couple of insanely tight players that didn�t even care about their blinds. They just waited for premium hands, and folded everything else. This is really easy to take advantage of. You target them, and steal when they�re in the blinds. You don�t need a hand at all. If they�re tight enough, this is a profitable play with 72o.

There was one specific hand I played at the table that I think is very interesting. The blinds were 150/300, and it folded to me in the small blind. I decided to just call the big blind with KQhh. The big blind checked and the flop came 532, with two hearts. I bet 300 on the flop, and the big blind raised to 1500. I had about 16,000 chips at the time, and the big blind was at about 10,000. I decided to go all-in, and he called with 54o. This is a classic post-flop coin-flip, and unfortunately I lost it. That brought me down to just over 6,000 chips.

I don�t remember the next 2 hands very well. I think I had AQ and QQ, and both times I raised before the flop, hit a favorable flop, and bet my hand out on the flop, and took it down with another bet on the turn. Neither hand was anything out of the ordinary, so the only piece of important information here is that I somehow had 12,000 chips 2 hands after losing a coin-flip for 10,000 of my chips.

The third table of the day is where the real magic happened. I knew what I was in for the second I got to the table and looked at the stack sizes. There were several players with more than 40,000 chips, and the other stacks weren�t exactly small. Players must have been busting left and right at this table. There were 3 players at this table all taking turns at playing �table captain�. They seemed to avoid each other pretty well. They were primarily taking stabs at the weaker, less experienced players at the table. My seat at this table was perfect. I had position on all of the aggressive players. I played tight for the first couple of orbits, and then started taking some big pots off the aggressive players when it felt like they had nothing. Of course, I also continued to steal the blinds of the weaker players like I did at my last table.

The biggest pot I played of the day was during 200/400 blinds + an ante. An internet player limped in early position, and I raised in late position to 1400 with AsQs. The flop came 997, with 2 hearts. The limper led out with a bet of around 2000. I decided to call it. The turn was a 6, and this made the board pretty dangerous. He checked, and I felt that I might have the best hand. My opponent had check raised a couple times at the table, and the last thing I wanted to do was get check raised by a draw and lose this pot. I decided to check again. The river was a 4. My opponent reached for about 5,000 chips and fired out a bet pretty quickly. I went into the tank for a few minutes, and replayed the hand in my head. His flop bet really seemed like he was just taking a stab at the pot. I think if he had a big hand, he would play it slower. I ruled out him having a nine, or a set. I also ruled out an over pair. On the turn, he checked. I think if he had a draw, he would probably check it, and he might check-raise it. If he had a decent but not great hand, he would probably fire another bet. I showed weakness on the turn, and he was a fairly aggressive player, so his river bet didn�t necessarily indicate much strength. I figured that the only hands I really had to worry about being behind against were 88, 66, 55, and maybe 44. I felt that it was much more likely that he had a missed draw, or a hand like KQs or AJo. I stared the player down, and noticed that he hadn�t moved the entire time I was in the tank. He held his hand over his mouth like a statue. After a while he started to shake, and after processing all of this information, I really felt like he was bluffing. After 2-3 minutes of thinking, I decided to call. He hesitantly flipped up KQ, and my hand was good.

After this hand, the table was very afraid of me. Everyone seemed to be impressed with the call, and they were really avoiding me. I didn�t exactly run over the table, but I certainly took advantage of my image, and played a lot of pots, taking many of them down with well timed bets. You don�t always need the cards to win a pot. I was very happy to end the day with 50,000 chips.

My table at the start of day two looked pretty rough. Devilfish was at my table, and he had a decent stack. He was raising a ton of pots, and just taking them down. People were afraid to play against such an accomplished tournament veteran. I wasn�t. We squabbled back and forth a little bit, and I reraised him before the flop a couple times as well. I developed a really loose image as a result.

During 600/1200 blinds, it folded to me in late position, and I found AQo. I made my standard raise to 3600, and one of the blinds reraised me all-in for almost 30,000. I decided that it was very likely he was just making a stand against me because I was stealing so many pots. I had 60,000 chips at this point, so if I lost, I wouldn�t be in terrible shape. I called, and he flipped up 66. This was the only coin-flip of the tournament that I won, and it brought be to over 90,000 chips.

Over the next couple of hours, my cards were pretty cold, but I managed to use my stack to take down the blinds every now and then. I hardly played any pots, but built up to around 120,000 chips.

Later in the day, I started to get a very bad migraine. If you haven�t experienced one, I can tell you that there are few things more painful. Imagine the intense sharp pain of a brain freeze lasting for hours on end. Throw in some nausea, as well as sensitivity to bright lights and noises, and you start get the idea of what a migraine feels like. Needless to say, this is the last thing you want to get in a poker tournament. I asked a few dealers and the tournament director if they knew anyone that carried advil (or any other pain reliever) with them, but no one was of any help. I didn�t want the table to know I was sick, because I think they could have easily of taken advantage of knowing that I wasn�t on top of my game. Eventually I sucked it up, and asked Melanie Lofthouse to my left if she carried anything in her purse. She didn�t, but luckily Tony Kendall did. So far, all of the English players that I have met have been really nice people.

There was one interesting hand at this table. It folded to the button who was down to only 3 big blinds, and he moved all-in. The SB folded, and it was up to me. I found 72o in the big blind, and did the math. The antes made this a pretty tough decision, and I decided that the pot odds were just too good to turn down. I called, and the button flipped up 52o!! I was obviously shocked to find that I had the best hand. The board came with blanks, and my 72o held up. The table had a nice laugh at that one.

I wish I had a better day two story for everyone, but since I was feeling so awful, I really just tightened up and played some abc poker. Much to my dismay, it wasn�t until now that I started to get reraised. For some reason, this made me extremely angry. If I was playing loose like I was during day one, I would have accepted it, but why did people wait to start reraising me for when I was playing tight? I had a solid hand every time, but never one quite strong enough to stand up to a reraise with. For what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only 3-4 orbits, I got really cold cards, and couldn�t find a single playable hand. The next orbit I found 66 in late position, and made a standard preflop raise. It was folded around to a really unpleasant guy named Ivo in the big blind. He thought for a while, and got really flustered. Then he made some comment about how I always raised his blind (which was absolutely absurd considering I hadn�t been raising ANY pots). Eventually he raised all-in. I thought for a while, and really didn�t want to flip another coin with such a big stack. I decided to fold and he said something like, �You fold? I know you fold. You have nothing. You�re always stealing my blinds�. I honestly can�t recall the last time I was as angry as this comment made me. If I wasn�t feeling so sick, I probably would have been ok with Ivo�s stupidity, but it really just pushed me over the edge. I was extremely happy when Ivo busted later in the evening.

I continued to play tight for the next hour until the dinner break. At the dinner buffet, I had a nice chat with John Gale whom I had played with some that day. Much like Devilfish, John was raising a ton of pots, and no one was playing back at him. In jest I asked him why the players at the table were reraising me instead of him, and John said that once I showed down my 72o, it was all over. I had a nice laugh at that. The ninety minute dinner break turned out to be exactly what the doctor ordered. I felt great after that, and was back into my regular game.

By this time, the blinds were getting really big, and we were getting very close to the money. We were down to 34 players, and I decided that I wasn�t going to tighten up at all. The money for 27th place was barely more than the buyin, and I could steal some blinds while other people were playing tight to make the money. I figured that people would tighten up enough that it would probably be over an hour until we were in the money. Well, 5 minutes later we were down to 28 players. About a minute later, there was a ton of commotion. It turns out two of the big stacks collided with aces and kings. I was almost disappointed to see the bigger stack win, as it meant I wouldn�t have time to take advantage of the bubble.

I got moved to another table, and Brandon Schaefer was clearly playing �table captain� at this table. Again, I was surprised to see how rarely people would enter a pot after him. Of course, I wasn�t afraid to play against him at all, and took a couple pots down with a well timed raise or reraise.

It wasn�t long until we were down to 18 players, and here�s how things looked going into day 3:
Table 1
1--Keith "The Camel" Hawkins-191,500
2--Carl Olson-87,500
3--Eric Vanderburg-133,000
4--Brandon Schaefer -205,000
5--Bob Coombes -345,000
6--Tony Kendall -55,500
7--Mike Lacey-246,000
8--Luca Pagano -138,000
9--Peter Eichhardt -249,000
Table 2
1--Peter Dalhuijsen -172,000
2--Justin Bonomo -105,000 (Me!)
3--Willie Tann-51,000
4--Mark Ristine -52,000
5--Jeremy Tuckman-60,000
6--Sami Torbey -91,000
7--Jerome Zerbib-99,000
8--Melanie Lofthouse -57,500
9--Sam Orams -134,500

One thing that should jump out at you is the disparity in stack sizes from table to table. All the big stacks were at the same table. This meant there would be a lot of action at my table, especially with blinds at 5,000/10,000. It was obvious to me that I couldn�t play tight, because I would be blinded away. Somehow, I managed to stay away from the all-in confrontations, and doubled up mostly through steals. I did knock out Sam Orams. He seemed to be the loosest at the table, and when I picked up a big ace behind his raise, I had an easy all-in to make. His queen high did not win. It seemed like only five minutes had passed when they announced that we were down to twelve players.

Mark Ristine was getting shortstacked, and he had a clear all-in when he found pocket tens. Jeremy Tuckman was next to act, and he smooth called. As it folded around to me, someone notified Warren Carp, the tournament director, that there was an all-in at the table. Warren had been announcing the hands for the spectators that couldn�t see. Jeremy apparently thought this to mean that the action was over for the hand, and he flipped up his pocket kings. I still had cards, however, and my fold with 98o became extremely obvious once I saw the kings face up on the table. Not only did Jeremy receive a ten minute pentalty for this, but he also lost the pot when Mark spiked a ten on him.

We were playing six handed at this point, and I was hoping I could take advantage of Jeremy�s dead big blind while we were still shorthanded. Unfortunately, it wasn�t long until someone busted, and we were combined to one table of ten. I had a healthy stack, and I was pretty confident of my chances of making the final eight: the coveted TV table.

With just 30 seconds left on his ten minute penalty, Jeremy was forced to post a dead big blind. The blinds were at 7,500/15,000 at this point, so this was no small penalty. Bob Coombes opened for 40,000 in early position. There was of course an enourmous chance that he was going after the easy big bind, so I decided to reraise him with QTo. I made it 100,000 to go, and that was enough to take down the pot.

There weren�t many all-in confrontations as people were trying to make the final table. Brandon Schaefer was taking advantage of this by taking down pot after pot with a small raise before the flop. A couple times I could smell his raises before he made them, and it was just a matter of time before I fought back. With blinds at 7.5k and 15k and 1.5k antes, I noticed Brandon take a look at his chip stack before he looked at his cards. I felt sure he was going to raise this pot no matter what his cards were. Sure enough, he made it 40k in early position, and I decided that I was going to make a stand here no matter what my cards were. I looked down at 94s, and reraised to 100,000. I had a healthy stack of 300,000 chips, so even if I lose the 100,000 chips, I�m in great shape to make the TV table. Unfortunately for me, Luca Pagano reraised all-in for 191,000. Brandon quickly folded his hand, and it was up to me, so I started doing some math. There were 75,000 dead chips in the pot from blinds, antes and Brandon�s raise. I had 100,000 in the pot, and Luca had 191,000 in the pot. This added up to about 366,000 chips in the pot, and it was only 91,000 more to me to call. I was getting over 4-1 to call. I had to figure I was better than 4-1 to win the pot since Luca could easily have AK, a hand that I�m better than 2-1 against to win. I looked around the table, and decided that if I lose this hand, there are still two other small stacks, so my chances would still be good to make the final table. I decided to call, and Luca�s pocket queens demolished me. He rivered quads just to add insult to injury.

There were a few all-ins at the table, and I felt absolutely disgusted when one of the smaller stacks sucked out to stay alive. I was getting blinded away as I wasn�t picking up any hands, and I didn�t have enough chips to make any plays with.Eventually, I was down to just under 60,000 chips with the blinds at 10,000 and 20,000. It was my big blind, and I was in awful shape. I told the table, �Just so you guys know, I have to call here with any two, so feel free to fold.� I placed my chips on top of my cards before I looked at them, to show the table that I wasn�t joking. It folded around to Sami in the small blind, the only other desperate stack at the table. He moved all-in on me, and I looked down at my cards and found A8s smiling back at me. This was a monster hand to pick up in this spot, and I had an easy call. Sami flippedup Q5o, and for the first time in the tournament, I started to get extremely nervous. They counted the chips, and I only had 4,000 more chips than him. Basically, whoever lost this hand would be the only player to miss out on making the final table. I blasted some Better Than Ezra on my ipod to deal with the suspense. It seemed like it was a full 5 minutes before the dealer flipped over the river card, and my hand had held up.

It was still early in the day when the play finished. I had a chance to call my parents, and let them know how I was doing. They were both just as excited as I was. My dad had even forwarded the EPT blog link to just about everyone in my family. I was still the small stack, but I wasn�t too far behind. The blinds were reset to 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante, so I would have some room to work with.

I felt pumped the next morning. This had been my goal all along, to make the final table, and I was finally there. I took a cab over to the casino, and met up with Brandon Schaefer and Carl Olson. They both told me they felt nervous about being at the final table, and this made me feel a lot more comfortable. I really wasn�t nervous at all.

We did a couple of quick TV interviews before play began. The first thing they asked me to do was say name, age, where I live, and what I do for a living. It felt extremely good to say, �My name is Justin Bonomo, I�m 19 years old, and I�m a professional poker player from Washington DC.� Caroline (the EPT hostess) dropped her mouth wide open when I said that.

It wasn�t long before they put our microphones on, and play was ready to begin. Here is how things looked to start:

Seat 1-Mark Ristine -251,000
Seat 2-Peter Eichhardt - 202,000
Seat 3-Jeremy Tuckman - 372,000
Seat 4-Brandon Schaefer - 691,000
Seat 5-Bob Coombes - 163,000
Seat 6-Me -124,000
Seat 7-Carl Olson - 349,000
Seat 8-Luca Pagano - 316,000

I was in the Small blind for the first hand, and Mark raised to 30,000 in early position. It folded around to me, and I found pocket sixes. It was a close decision, but I decided to fold since it was the very first hand. The payout increases significantly every time someone is eliminated, so I decided to see what happens in the next few hands. In hindsight, I think this hand is very interesting. Mark was probably feeling the same way I was, and he probably would have folded most hands if I pushed all-in. However, Mark was a very tight player, so his early position raise meant a lot of strength. I really hope they show this on TV so I can find out what his cards actually were.

The very next hand was a beauty. Bob raised to 30,000 in early position. Carl reraised to 100,000 in the small blind. Luca found pocket Queens in the big blind, and pushed all-in. Bob folded, but Carl called with AKs. Carl hit his king on the turn, and Luca was gone in eighth. This also gave Carl a huge stack.

Hand three featured Brandon opening with a raise to 30,000. Brandon played his big stack very fast and loose, so I had an easy decision to move all-in when I found pocket nines. He asked for a chip count, and then decided on a fold.

In hand 11, it was folded to me in the cutoff, and I stole the blinds with QJo. The very next hand, it was folded to me again, and I found pocket jacks. I raised to 30,000, and only Jeremy called in the big blind. The flop came 984 rainbow. He checked to me, I bet 45,000 and took down the pot. On the next hand, I found pocket aces, and you know what they say, �third times the charm�. It was folded to me, and I made a standard raise with my aces. Peter moved all-in with a pair of queens on the button, and I called. He had me covered by 1,000 chips, and was barely alive after my aces held up.

Peter was forced all-in from the antes the very next hand, and Carl finished him off. At this point, I was feeling great. I had a fine stack of over 400,000 chips, and the money guaranteed for 6th place wasn�t too shabby either.

A few hands later, Jeremy flopped trips and gave a freecard to a flush draw. The draw got there on the turn, and sure enough, all the money went in. Jeremy received no help on the river, and he was crippled.

In hand 19, I found QJo, and opened for a raise of 30,000. Jeremy decided to push all-in in the small blind for 85,000, and I was committed to call. Jeremy flipped up T9s, and I was shocked to say the least. I think this play was awful on his part, as there�s no chance I�m folding to such a small all-in with so many chips already in the pot. There�s also virtually no chance that his T9s is ahead of my hand. Sure enough, Jeremy spiked a ten on the turn, and doubled up through me.

A couple hands later, it folded to Brandon on the button. He opened for a raise of 30,000, and I called in the big blind with KQo. Brandon had been raising a ton of pots, so again, I didn�t need much of a hand to make a stand. The flop came ace high, and I fired a bet of 50,000 to let him know that I wasn�t afraid to play a big pot. Unfortunately, he did raise, and I was forced to fold my hand.

The next hand, Brandon raised to 30,000 again (in the cutoff this time), and I found a pair of Kings in the small blind, and made it 80,000 to go. He called. The flop came A92. My first decision was to check or to bet. If I bet there, he probably folds any hand that doesn�t have me beat, and there�s virtually no chance of him folding an ace, so I decided to check. He bet 100,000 chips right away. This was a very odd bet, as I only had 158,000 chips behind. I went into the tank, trying to figure out what Brandon had. I really didn�t think he would ever make this bet with an ace. Prying for more info, I said to Brandon, �My instinct tells me to push, but I can�t pull the trigger.� I�m still baffled by his response. He said something to the effect of, �well, that would leave me with a really tough decision.� If I pushed all-in, he was committed to call with any reasonable hand, so if he wasn�t trying to trick me, that meant he had absolute trash. I decided that he was being honest, and I pushed in for my last 158,000 chips. There were well over 400,000 chips in the pot at this point, and it was only 58,000 more to Brandon to call. He shook his head in disgust, and threw his hand away.

The blinds were raised to 8,000 / 16,000 with a 2,000 ante. Bob had been playing really tight up to this point, and his stack was really starting to dwindle. When Mark raised his blind, Bob really had no choice but to move all-in with AQ. Unfortunately for him, Mark had AK, and knocked Bob out in 6th place.

A few hands later on Mark�s big blind, Jeremy opened for a raise to 40,000 before the flop. Mark called. The flop came 942, and Mark checked. Jeremy overbet the pot for an all-in of 287,000, and Mark went into the tank. It was blatantly obvious that Jeremy was making this move with two overcards. If he had hit the flop, he would have tried to get more action out of his hand. After a few minutes, Mark made what I think is a very easy call with 66. Jeremy flipped up ATo, and Mark�s hand held up. Jeremy was out in 5th.

At this point, only the four Americans remained, and here�s what the stacks looked like:
Me - 384,000
Brandon - 539,000
Mark - 735,000
Carl - 810,000

I stole the blinds on the hand after that, and I was in the big blind on the next hand. It folded around to Brandon in the small blind, and he called the big blind. I had Q2o and checked. The flop came T62 with two clubs, and Brandon fired out a bet of 50,000. I called immediately. The turn was a red 9, and Brandon checked. I bet 80,000, and Brandon called after a few seconds. The river was a blank, and we both checked. Brandon had A8 of clubs, and my hand was good.

A couple hands later, Brandon opened for 45,000. I had 55 and called on the button. Carl was in the small blind, and he reraised to 200,000. Brandon pushed all-in, and I had an easy fold. Carl had KK, so he called. Brandon had AQs, and got very lucky to double up through Carl. This gave him a very big stack.

I found KQs on the next hand, and opened for 48,000. Carl called on the button, and the blinds folded. The flop came A96, and I decided to bet 75,000. Carl basically has to fold any hand without an ace, and if I check, I can never really figure out where I am. Carl raised all-in, and I had to fold. He later said that he had ATo on this hand.

For the next few orbits, I found no playable cards. I did try to steal the blinds once, but had to fold when Brandon moved all-in on me. I was blinded down to 167,000 chips when the blinds went up to 10,000 and 20,000 with a 3,000 ante.

I was the button on the first hand with these blinds. Brandon opened for 45,000 under the gun. I looked down at my cards and found AQs. I made the obvious play which was to push all-in. Unfortunately, Carl called in the small blind, and Brandon called the reraise as well. The board came down 962, turn 6, river king as they checked the hand down. Carl had AQ sucking up my outs, and Brandon showed TT for the win. I finished in 4th place for 31,500 euros.

Overall, I was very happy with this finish. My goal was to make the final 8 (the tv final table), and I finished 4th. I went to talk to the beautiful Caroline for my �bust-out interview�. One thing she said to me was that the two or three players knocked out before me all predicted I would win the tournament. It felt good to hear this. I had very little live tournament experience at the time, but the other players were impressed with my play.

Mark was knocked out in 3rd shortly after me. Brandon and Carl, the two friends from Seattle got to play heads up for the title. They played for a couple of hours before Brandon could pull out the win. Those two guys were definitely the talk of the tournament, and for good reason. They definitely deserve some props for overcoming the away-team disadvantage, and taking first and second. I got a chance to these guys some more, and they�re both nice, intelligent guys with an unusually realistic attitude towards poker compared to the other young players out there.

I plan to play as many tournaments as I can in the upcoming months, and I really hope my good luck can continue. I do think I played very well this tournament, but it always takes luck in poker. To say the least, I am very happy that I was able to make a final table this early in my career, and if possible, I�ll try to make many more in the future. The cash from this finish gave me a nice budget to start with.

Next up is EPT Vienna, and then Monte Carlo. Check back for reports and journal updates on my website. Thanks for reading my report. I hope you enjoyed it.
-Justin Bonomo


My Summary of the Legislation of 9/30 and Related Events
October 4th, 2006

Dissecting a Hand #2
February 19th, 2006

Dissecting a Hand #1
January 17th, 2006

Common Beginner Mistakes
November 5th, 2005

Inside My Tournament Game
July 20th, 2005

Rakeback (a.k.a. Free Money)
March 28th, 2005

EPT Deauville Report
March 24th, 2005