Daniel Negreanu still the best poker player of all time after losing heads up to Justin Bonomo.
This week, a very prestigious crowd of 48 elite poker players gathered at the PokerGO studio within Aria Las Vegas. Each paid $300,000—an amount most of us would cringe at—to participate in the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl. One Wednesday, the field was down to three, including one man who felt the golden touch of Lady Luck upon his should just hours before.
Justin Bonomo—a 13-year American poker pro with more 6- and 7-figure cashes than birthday candles—was a card away from losing his stack on Tuesday. On the verge of bubbling, he pushed everything all in against SHRB defending champ Christoph Vogelsang. His prayers were answered when the one card that would save him fell, sending Bonomo into final, Day 4 action.
2018 Super High Roller Bowl Final Three
The eliminations came quickly enough; Seth Davies (8th, $90,000), Stephen Chidwick (7th, $600,000), Nick Petrangelo (6th, $900,000), Christoph Vogelsang (5th, $1,200,000), and Nikita Bodyakovskiy (4th, $1,600,000). That left Bonomo facing off with fellow American, Jason Koon, and the live poker all-time money leader, Daniel Negreanu.
Bonomo was on the short end at that point, with Koon challenging the cool Canadian for the chip lead. On a monumental hand that saw Bonomo and Koon each flopping pairs, the tides swiftly turned.
Bonomo held K–Q, Koon K–9, when the flop brought K–Q–9. Justin would claim 80% of Koon’s chips on that hand, giving him the lead as the other American soon drifted to the rails.
Fending Off the Best Poker Player of All Time
Heads up between Bonomo and Negreanu didn’t last too long—about an hour—before the final hand played out. Justin, up 14.4mm to Negreanu’s 4.985mm, looked down out 9?9?, raising 200k on the button. Daniel, holding 8?7?, made the call. Then the flop: 9?6?7?.
Daniel checked, and Bonomo bet 160k, drawing a 500k raise from the Canadian, who was surely looking to scare the American away from the pot. But with top set, that wasn’t going to happen. Bonomo launched 1.25mm, and Negreanu got all his chips in, earning the snap-call.
The board rolled out K?6?, and it was all over. Missing the straight, Daniel Negreanu collected the runner-up prize of $3,000,000, while Justin Bonomo cashed in for a cool $5,000,000; the largest single-event cash of his long and lucrative career.
That win brought the American poker pro’s lifetime live tournament earnings to $31,941,297, enough to shoot him passed Daniel Coleman to steal the 3rd place spot on the Poker All Time Money List. His name now appears just below tournament phenom Erik Seidel ($43,507,095), and none other than his week-long nemesis, Mr. Daniel Negreanu ($39,546,095), who continues to build upon his 1st place lead.
Following the event, Justin told reporters with PokerGo that he feels like he’s not only “at the top” of his game, but the top of the live Texas Hold’em ranking. It’s hard to argue with that after this week’s phenomenal performance. But in most books—with 6 WSOP bracelets, 2 WTP titles, 41 1st-place finishes, another 49 2nd- and 3rd-place finishes, and more live tournament earnings than anyone else in the world—Daniel Negreanu still holds the title of best poker player of all time.
