Justin Bonomo (ZeeJustin)

Justin Bonomo has always loved cards. Before he started playing poker for a living, he used to compete in Magic the Gathering, a card-based strategy game that was very popular in the 90s. The game was known simply as "Magic". Justin has been on the poker scene since he was 19 (born in 1985). To date, he has accumulated over $61 million in tournament winnings. His most notable performance came in 2018, when he finished 1st in a $1 million buy-in tournament. For his first-place finish, Justin was presented with a massive check for $10 million. He is credited with 3 WSOP bracelets as well as 55 paid places.

His online career

In 2006, Bonomo learned the hard way that it's illegal to have more than one account in your name when playing online poker. In particular, he was banned from PartyPoker for participating in online tournaments with his multiple accounts. In banning his accounts, PartyPoker also confiscated several tens of thousands of dollars.

A regular at High Rollers tournaments

Justin is one of an elite group of players who regularly play in what are known as "High Rollers" tournaments. There is no precise definition of the term "High Rollers", but to summarize, when the term is used, it refers to players who participate in tournaments that have buy-ins of $10,000 and more or who play cash games where the blinds are $25/$50 and more. Entry prizes for tournaments can even be as high as a million dollars, as was the case for The Big One for One Drop, a tournament in aid of the One Drop association founded by Guy Laliberté (who also founded Cirque du Soleil). For a number of years, Bonomo lived in the Panorama Towers in Las Vegas, where many poker players live in luxury condominiums. According to the most recent reports, he has moved to Vancouver, Canada, probably to play online poker legally.