The small-field high roller crusher is at it again. Tuesday was a record-setting day for Justin Bonomo, who not only won the $1 million buy-in WSOP Big One for One Drop for $10 million, but also became poker’s all-time winningest tournament player.
Predictable Outcome
Unsurprisingly, he ended up heads-up for the bracelet against Fedor Holz, whose $16 million run in 2016, previously a single-year record that has now been shattered by the almost $25 million won by Bonomo this year, and it’s only July.
Holz made it to heads-up play thanks to a sick river card that knocked out Bryon Kaverman and Rick Salomon, he of Paris Hilton sex video fame, in one hand (more on this below but not the sex video part).
Once the heads-up match began, Holz had an opportunity to finish Bonomo off early on in a race situation but lost the hand.
“They’re about even in chips now,” ESPN commentator Phil Hellmuth inaccurately stated after the hand.
Hellmuth’s math was just a bit off. And by “a bit,” we mean by a lot. Holz was still a big chip leader with 81 million chips against Bonomo’s 54 million. In the Poker Brat’s defense, “a bit” is a relative term, or something like that.
Big One for One Drop Final Table Results
Justin Bonomo (USA) $10 million
Fedor Holz (USA) $6 million
Dan Smith (USA) $4 million
Rick Salomon (USA) $2.84 million
Byron Kaverman (USA) $2 million)
David Einhorn (USA) $0*
*Einhorn was the official bubble.
There were 27 total entries.
Hand of the Day
A bit of controversy struck when the former Mr. Pamela Anderson, Rick Salomon, exposed a card after going all-in while Holz pondered his move.
Hands
Fedor Holz 10♠10♣
Rick Salomon A♥K♥
Byron Kaverman A♣5♣
Kaverman open shoved all-in from under the gun for 8,025,000 and got called by Holz, who was seated directly to his left. Salomon then jammed for 26.9 million, leaving Fedor with a tough decision.
While Holz, who would have been left with crumbs if he called and lost the hand to Salomon, contemplated his move, Salomon either accidentally or intentionally exposed his Ace. It’s unclear if he did it on purpose or not.
Tournament Director Jack Effel ruled that Salomon must leave his card face-up even though it wasn’t clear if Holz had seen the card, a decision some on social media criticized.
After getting free information about the strength of Salomon’s hand, Holz knew he was only beat if his opponent had another Ace in the hole so he made the call.
The board ran out A♦K♠2♣Q♣ and just as a giddy Salomon relaxed in his seat, the 10♦ binked on the river to send him to the rail along with Kaverman.
Surpassing Kid Poker
With the $10 million he won in the One Drop, Bonomo is now the all-time winningest live tournament player with $42,979,593 in earnings, surpassing Daniel Negreanu ($39,656,197). Holz moves into 4th place at $32,550,886, also behind Erik Seidel ($34,575,437).
Negreanu was rooting for Bonomo to win.
“I’ve been in that spot for the majority of my poker career and it feels like time to stop hanging on to it,” Kid Poker wrote on Twitter before the final session of the One Drop began.
“ZeeJustin” set another record on Tuesday. The $24.9 million he’s won so far in 2018 is a single-year record, surpassing the $16 million won by Holz in 2016.
Bonomo also won his second bracelet of the summer – the first for $185,965 in the $10,000 Heads-Up Championship event – to go along with the $5 million he won prior to the start of the WSOP for scooping the Super High Roller Bowl.
After Bonomo finished off Holz, it brought an end to the 2018 World Series of Poker.
