About Justin Bonomo

Name	Justin Bonomo
Current Residence	Sherman Oaks Calif.
Birth Place	, US

You could say that Justin Bonomo's entry into poker had "magical" beginnings. During his teen years Bonomo was into playing Magic: The Gathering, and during a trip to San Diego for a tournament he happened to catch a World Poker Tour event on TV.

Inspired, Bonomo picked up some poker books for the flight home. In one he found an online poker forum and from there he was set on the path to playing poker.

Though he was still a teenager at the time, Bonomo signed up at some online poker sites and began playing. He used his critical approach to Magic as a guide for his poker play as well, and with the help of tutoring and poker studying sessions, Bonomo graduated to higher and higher stakes online and his reputation as ZeeJustin grew.

He translated that online success into budding live poker success as well. In January 2005, Bonomo cashed in 30th place at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, and then a month later he made his first televised final table in the European Poker Tour French Open.

At 19 years, 5 months, and 20 days old, Bonomo became the youngest player to make an EPT final table at the time.

That shining star gained a little tarnish just a year later. It turns out ZeeJustin was using a little more than skill for his early online poker success. In early 2006, news broke that Bonomo was caught using multiple accounts on sites like PartyPoker and PokerStars.

ZeeJustin's reputation went from good to bad in an instant and he only made it worse running his mouth in the forums trying to justify his actions.

Chalk it up to inexperience and immaturity though for the then 21-year-old. Bonomo eventually put his head down to grind away at online poker and play in tournaments without drawing more attention to himself.

In late 2006, Bonomo bubbled the televised final table of the World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson North American Poker Classic coming in seventh place. A month later he landed in 11th place at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure as well.

As he continued to prove himself at the live tournaments again and again with cashes in the World Series of Poker, the WPT and the PCA, Bonomo regained respect from the poker community.

His success also earned him a sponsorship deal. In May 2008, Bodog Poker announced they had picked ZeeJustin for their team of pros.

In January 2009, Bonomo continued his rise up the poker ranks with another cash in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure; this time in eighth place. In April 2009 he finally picked up his first major win.

Bonomo had made the final table of a WSOP Circuit event at Caesars Palace three years in a row, and in 2009 he conquered the $5,000 main event to finally take one down.

Look for ZeeJustin to be on the prowl to continue for other wins as this young pro looks forward to a bright career.

Trivia

• Made hundreds of thousands of dollars on PartyPoker and PokerStars.com as an underage player before being caught multi-accounting tournaments and being banned from both sites
• Final-tabled four of eight tournaments at the 2006 WPT Five Diamonds World Poker Classic at Bellagio and bubbled-out of the TV final table in the main event for a total haul of over $260,000.
• Avid Magic: The Gathering player