Why the Online Poker Community won't root for Justin Bonomo at the 2008 World Series of Poker

Wait, who the hell is this guy anyway?

For all ya'll who have absolutely no idea who Justin Bonomo is, Justin ''ZeeJustin'' Bonomo is a guy who got introduced to cards with the role playing card game ''Magic: The Gathering.'' We'll get into why the online poker community won't be rooting for him at the 2008 World Series of Poker later.

Yes, you read it, he began with that, playing at an early age of 12 and winning in major ''Magic: The Gathering'' tournaments all over the world. Oh yeah, he sure won a lot of cash at that age too, winning tournaments that has prize pools reaching up to $250,000.

Justin Bonomo started playing poker at the age of 16 after noticing that some ''Magic: The Gathering'' players started taking up the game. He started playing online at Party Poker and soon found himself with $10,000 after an initial deposit of $200. He continued to build his bankroll by joining $200 tournaments.

That's when his problem with the online poker community started.

After building a fierce reputation as an online poker player, winning hundreds and thousands of dollars, he found himself caught and publicly humiliated for ''cheating'' by using multiple accounts in major online tournaments.

Around $100,000 were confiscated from his account and he was banned from playing on two of the largest poker sites on the Internet, Party Poker (where it all began...) and Poker Stars. Bonomo made several attempts for a public apology but was shunned by several stalwarts of the online poker community.

A few years later, Bonomo has not only rebounded but has flourished after having made a successful transition from online poker to live tournament play. At the age of 19, Bonomo became the youngest player EVER to make a European televised poker table in 2005.

Today, at the age of 22, Bonomo has made over a million dollars in live tournaments. He cashed three times at the WSOP and almost won in the WSOP Circuit Caesars Las Vegas Main Event.

He also final-tabled four of eight tournaments at the 2006 WPT Five Diamonds WPT Classic and bubbled out of the televised final table in the main event making over $260,000.

Which of these poker bloggers will win the most money at the 2008 World Series of Poker?

Justin Bonomo 4.00

Daniel Negreanu 3.50

Brian Townsend 5.50

Thomas Fuller 11.00

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2008 World Series of Poker Justin Bonomo