Justin Bonomo is gold

After winning both the Super High Roller Bowl in China and in Las Vegas, the high-roller regular took down the Big One for One Drop event for $10,000,000.

27 of the world's best poker minds entered the $1,000,000 Big One tournament, creating a prize pool of $24,840,000 with a cool $10,000,000 for the winner. Being a regular of the high-roller tournaments for many years, Justin accumulated $17 million up until 2018. But with this year's $25-million heater - with two WSOP bracelets also in the bag - he seems to have stepped to another level, and Bonomo himself is fairly confident:

"At the end of the day, I feel like for the past year I've played absolutely fantastic poker," he said. "I'm not going to say I'm the best player in the world but I'm very confident that I'm up there."

The bubble burst with billionaire hedge fund manager, David Einhorn busting in 6th place when he got it in with two overs against the top pair of Bonomo's. The two million pay jump is probably not a big deal for David, but considering he donates all of his winnings to charity, Justin felt a bit bad about it:

"To be totally honest, I almost feel guilty for knocking out David Einhorn," he said. "I will give a lot to charity but I'm not as well off as him to give it all to charity. It's an honor to be part of the money that's donated to One Drop."

Right after this hand another significant collision happened, when Byron Kaverman shoved for 8 million and Fedor Holz called. Rick Salomon then reshoved for 26.9 million - exposing an Ace - and Holz decided to make the call against Rick as well. He was in a good shape, holding pocket tens against the ♥A♥K and the A5 of Salomon's and Kaverman's but the flop looked pretty ugly for the German phenom. However, the turn and the river was 'Fedor-style' at its finest:


Source: instagram/papigto

With this miraculous ten on the river, Fedor knocked out two players. Byron received a paycheck of $2 million, while Rick earned $2.84 million for finishing 4th.

The three-handed play continued with three of the most feared high-roller sickos, but almost everyone wanted to see a duel between Fedor and Justin. Justin's current run is always compared with the $16-million hot streak of Fedor's from 2016 so it felt like them playing the heads-up would be "the trued heat test" - as Justin put it.

The crowd got what they wanted, as Dan Smith lost his last chips shoving with QdTd against the KsTh of Fedor's and wasn't able to beat the superior hand. With this 3rd place finish, Dan added $4 million to his total live earnings.

"Almost everyone out there respects the game of both myself and Fedor. I certainly respect his game a great deal. It definitely felt like a storybook ending playing against Fedor with him starting with the chip lead and having to grind my way back." said Justin. He started the heads-up with a stack of only 20 bigs but managed to double up by winning a flip. Shortly after, Fedor barrelled of with king high against Justin's two pairs, which catapulted the latter into the lead.

Holz was lucky enough to score two double ups from behind, but the third time his Ace-four couldn't suck out on the Ace-jack of Justin's. Justin scooped the tournament and the $10,000,000 coming with it and is now sitting on the top of the All-Time Money List, surpassing long-time first Daniel Negreanu ($39 million) and Erik Seidel ($34 million). Fedor's $6-million score puts him in 4th place with a total of $32 million in live cashes.

Unlike many others, Justin is not planning on stepping back from the grind: "I don't feel that I have anything left to prove to anyone," he after the victory. "I'm going to continue what I'm doing: playing tournaments to the best of my ability and studying and getting even better. I'll never be complacent with my poker game."

Final results:

Place Player Country Prize (USD)
1st Justin Bonomo United States $10,000,000
2nd Fedor Holz Germany $6,000,000
3rd Dan Smith United States $4,000,000
4th Rick Salomon United States $2,840,000
5th Byron Kaverman United States $2,000,000