Top 10 Stories of 2018, #1: Justin Bonomo's $25 Million Year

Paul Seaton

Jan 01, 2019 6 min read Last updated Apr 21, 2020

Top 10 Stories of 2018, #1: Justin Bonomo's $25 Million Year

This year's Top Stories are brought to you by Upswing Poker. If you want to improve your skills and confidence at the table, look no further than the free resources and premium training courses on upswingpoker.com.

Early 2018 Success

When 2018 is reviewed by Justin Bonomo, poker's record-breaking all-time money list leader might well struggle to believe it really all happened. But that Bonomo's phenomenally successful year of titles all happened within twelve months is nothing short of a miracle. Players work for decades to earn just a fraction of what Bonomo has won in 2018, and with each new success, each crowning glory gave him that much more impetus.

As the year closes, we look at Justin Bonomo not just as the most successful player this year, but as the most successful poker player in any year in poker history. The year 2018 was the Year of Bonomo.

Bonomo's year started with a runner-up finish to Cary Katz in the PCA $100,000 for $1,077,800. Not much later, he took home two titles; the $25,500 No Limit Hold'em High Roller event Lucky Hearts Poker Open ($556,873) and the U.S. Poker Open $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Event, which he won for $190,400. But it was only just beginning. Bonomo flew to Macau, and won the Super High Roller Bowl in China for $4.8 Million. At the time, that was Bonomo's biggest ever tournament result, but by the end of the year, it wouldn't be worth half his largest. Macau was the setting for his defeat of Patrik Antonius to take the title, and Bonomo had already won well over $5.5 million.

Justin Bonomo won the Super High Roller Bowl China for $4.8 million — Justin Bonomo won the Super High Roller Bowl China for $4.8 Million

Bonomo's Vegas Run

The World Series of Poker was now in his sights, and Bonomo went into the world's biggest poker festival in great form, heading to Vegas with six cashes in mainland Europe totalling $1.5m, including two more titles, this time on the riviera in Monte Carlo on the European Poker Tour.
To Vegas Bonomo went, not knowing that it would become a summer he would never forget.

With the World Series of Poker yet to start, Bonomo played the $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl. He won it, beating Daniel Negreanu heads-up, adding another $5 million with the entire WSOP schedule still to come.

Justin Bonomo won the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl ($5,000,000)

Heading into the World Series of Poker, Bonomo had already banked $13 million. But he was far from finished. Unsatisfied with demolishing large fields table by table, Bonomo took on the best of the best in the $10,000 Heads-Up Championship, winning that too. Having put over $14.5 million into the coffers in less than six months of poker, Bonomo was almost as stunned as us when he spoke to PokerNews and declared: "I think that this is not real life and I think that��s the secret."

Justin Bonomo won his second WSOP Bracelet in the $10K Heads-Up Championship for $185,965

Bonomo took time out from lifting trophies to cash four more times as a warm-up to another big one. Specifically, The Big One for One Drop. Going into the tournament as favourite, Bonomo lived with the pressure that put him under and came out on top again, this time defeating 2016 wunderkind Fedor Holz heads-up. The German banked $6 million, a fantastic result. But Bonomo walked away with his biggest prize to date, an astonishing $10 million. After an almost surreal streak, Bonomo was humbled by the magnitude of his achievement.

Justin Bonomo won the $1 Million Big One for One Drop ($10,000,000)

"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."

We are confident he's the best in the world right now, and so are most people in and around poker. While an amazing 24 players have enjoyed a year in which they won over $5 million, a staggering achievement for the popularity of poker itself, one man stood out as having achieved greatness. At the close of the year, Bonomo leads the All-Time Money List, ahead of Daniel Negreanu, the man he beat in the Super High Roller Bowl in May and who had topped the list since 2014. Negreanu's reign is over, and quite how long Bonomo will hold the lead is anyone's guess.

Justin Bonomo will be remembered as a phenomenally successful player whenever he retires from tournament poker, but 2018 will always be remembered as the Year of Bonomo. Quite simply, it was his from start to finish.

Justin Bonomo's Cashes in 2018

Here's a look at all of Justin Bonomo's 2018 cashes:

Month	Festival	Buy-in	Event	Entries	Position	Prize in $
January	PCA	$100,000	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Super High Roller	48	2nd	$1,077,800
January	PCA	$25,000	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller	144	4th	$310,150
January	WPT	$50,000	WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Super High Roller	25	3rd	$197,200
January	WPT	$3,500	WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Main Event	911	104th	$6,090
January	WPT	$25,500	WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open High Roller	75	1st	$556,873
February	USPO	$10,500	US Poker Open Event 1	68	1st	$190,400
March	SHRB China	HK$2,100,000	Super High Roller Bowl China	75	1st	$4,823,077
March	APPT	HK$100,000	APPT Macau High Roller	195	9th	$51,738
April	MILLIONS	� 25,500	partypoker MILLIONS Grand Final Barcelona High Roller	90	8th	$73,541
April	WPT	� 3,300	WPT Amsterdam Main Event	207	16th	$10,916
April	EPT	� 100,000	EPT Monte Carlo Super High Roller	46	5th	$488,953
April	EPT	� 50,000	EPT Monte Carlo 8-Handed High Roller	41	4th	$276,776
May	EPT	� 25,000	EPT Monte Carlo High Roller	50	1st	$457,356
May	EPT	� 25,000	EPT Monte Carlo Single Reentry High Roller	29	1st	$311,268
May	Aria	$25,000	High Roller	30	4th	$75,000
May	SHRB	$300,000	Super High Roller Bowl	48	1st	$5,000,000
May	Aria	$26,000	High Roller	35	1st	$350,000
June	Aria	$26,000	High Roller	27	1st	$310,500
June	WSOP	$10,000	WSOP Heads-Up Championship	114	1st	$185,965
June	WSOP	$5,000	WSOP No-Limit Hold'em	518	29th	$12,331
June	MSPT	$3,500	MSPT Big Blind Ante Event	1096	10th	$49,101
July	Aria	$10,500	No-Limit Hold'em	33	5th	$26,400
July	Aria	$26,000	High Roller	26	3rd	$104,000
July	WSOP	$1,000,000	The Big One for One Drop	27	1st	$10,000,000
September	Poker Masters	$52,000	High Roller	47	6th	$141,000
October	Aria	$26,000	High Roller	23	4th	$57,500
November	Aria	$52,000	High Roller	25	4th	$125,000
November	partypoker	$10,300	High Roller	196	4th	$160,000
						$25,428,935

^{* All data courtesy of TheHendonMob.com}

Upswing Poker gives you access to the tactics and strategies that world-class pros wish they could teach their younger selves. Check out the free resources and articles on upswingpoker.com to level-up your skills without spending a dime.