Justin Bonomo surprised everyone by winning the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl $300,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em, just two months after he conquered the Super High Roller Bowl China for $4.8 million. Bonomo beat a strong field of 48 entries to earn the championship ring and the $5,000,000 first-place prize defeating the world’s most popular player Daniel Negreanu in heads-up play.
Bonomo said, “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.”
“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,” he added.
Out of the 13 final tables in 2018, Bonomo has won six big titles, adding more than $13.8 million to his total live poker cash. The American poker pro playing for over 10 years now also holds a WSOP gold bracelet, in addition to various grand super high roller victories.
With this massive win, Bonomo’s total career live tournament earnings now reach to $31,927,630, placing him in third place in the all-time money list. Daniel Negreanu with $38,377,607 and Erik Seidel with $34,567,415 are enjoying the first and second positions respectively in the list.
Final Table Story
The final day was quite eventful. Mikita Badziakouski started the final table as the chip leader, while Bonomo and Negreanu were fighting for the second place in chips. In the very first hand, Jason Koon picked up pocket queens against Nick Petrangelo’s pocket tens to score the first knockout of the day. Petrangelo was eliminated in sixth place. Defending champion Christoph Vogelsang drastically fell short and eventually finished in fifth place for $1,200,000.
Later, Mikita Badziakouski went out in fourth place. He lost to the champion Bonomo, who held the higher kicker. Bonomo then won a key pot again and eliminated Jason Koon in third place.
In the heads-up play, Bonomo had a 4-to-1 chip lead against Poker’s all-time money leader Daniel Negreanu. Negreanu played well and gave a tough fight but lost it to Bonomo’s 9s9d in the end. Bonomo emerged the champion of the event. Negreanu took home $3 million for his runner-up finish, bringing his lifetime earnings to over $38.3. This was the second-largest score of his career.
Final Table Payouts (USD)
- Justin Bonomo – $5,000,000
- Daniel Negreanu – $3,000,000
- Jason Koon – $2,100,000
- Mikita Badziakouski – $1,600,000
- Christoph Vogelsang – $1,200,000
- Nick Petrangelo – $900,000