Episode #153: Justin Bonomo

JustinBonomo.com

MAIN TOPIC
Pro Justin Bonomo, aka "ZeeJustin," gives us a ring to talk about his meteoric rise in the poker world, his string of recent final tables, his new affiliation with Team Bodog and, yes, his past and how he's dealing with it. Click here to listen to the show.

OTHER TOPICS

Race for the Hundy: Chris is still out of breath from his prop bet win against Fasso. If you missed it, check out the story and video.

AIPS: Event #5 (NL hold'em rebuy) is just a week away. Click here for all the details.

MySpace poker: That's right - this hideously hard site to read has started a poker room. You can even order virtual beers. (Well, not Chris. He's doesn't even drink virtual booze).

Trump does it again: This time, The Donald will install 12 electronic poker tables in the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City by June. Booooooo!

Get your stock on: CNBC has launched a stock-picking contest. One of the prizes? A seat in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event.

More on the WSOP delay: Scott is hung up on just how success or failure will be determined in the World Series' biggest gimmick of the year. Give it up. (Or, keep the debate alive).

Hotline: A caller lets us know of a soccer player named Ante Razov. Close, but no banana ...  and Roger calls in to let us know we can catch NBC's National Heads-Up Poker Championship on the Internet.

Tampa Bay Poker Replay: Help out a good cause and get a legitimate reason to say "boobs" by participating in the Bikers4Boobs & Walkers4Boobs Poker Run and 5K Walk on June 8. Click here for the details.

One Minute Mystery: Columbo is on vacation, no doubt solving a crime. He'll be back soon.

HAND OF THE WEEK
Alright, we took a chance (you know what that means). It was our first single-draw no-limit 2-7 lowball HOTW. Neither Chris nor I nor Justin, who stuck around to help us out, have played this version of lowball.

Jan, an Ante Upper playing in a loose 5-person dealer's choice low-limit home game, is in the big blind with 2-3-4 and two paint cards. Everyone limps, and Jan checks. The small blind draws three, Jan two and the rest of players: two, two, three.

Jan improves to 8-7-4-3-2, and after the small blind checks, he bets 6 units into a 5-unit pot. He gets one caller, and then the small blind check-raises to 20 units.

The bet smelled fishy to us, and Jan called, just as we would have. Good move. His 8-7 beat his opponent's rougher 8-7.

NEXT WEEK'S SHOW
TBA, but in two weeks, St. Pete Times' rockin' music critic Sean Daly joins us to talk about music and poker.

- SCOTT

Comments

I can't believe you mentioned this place on the podcast. I saw it for the first time last week and had to do a double-take on the name. For grins I snapped this picture yesterday as I was passing by. I decided not to post it but then when I heard you today figured it was too much of a coincidence not to.

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/2435/imag0002xh1.jpg

^ Gambit

[Erwin Blonk]

I think quite a few people will rebuy more than they would normally because:
- it is relatively cheap
- it is an AIPS event and there will be rebuys just to be able to hang around a bit longer, the AIPS fun factor, so to speak.

[Jan]

Sorry for the HOTW, chaps, but I had hoped my reasoning behind it would be included as well. Especially since it was way off and, as such, that hand could prove to be a valuable lesson learnt inexpensively.

Off we go...
A couple of sessions before this hand occured, the check-raiser, who is - as mentioned - a fairly good player (we all suck, but some do more than others, in a Orwellian fashion), he overbet the pot from early position during a NLHE hand. I responded by making a rather large raise and everyone, including this player, folded immediately. We're friends and since we're both learning the game, I later told him that was on a complete bluff; a line I had never tried before (making a bluff-raise).

My chief reason for sending this hand in was to figure out whether it would make sense to take that Hold'Em hand into account during a game, which - however boring it may seem - relies nearly exclusively on hand reading and betting patterns. More specifically: would it be possible that this player was turning the tables on me? Note that I, too, overbet the pot from early position.

Also note that a player behind me just called (which defines his hand as being able to beat a pair of fours, basically) and it's unlikely that this player would call a large raise, as he would've raised himself if he could stand another raise.

In my mind, two possibilities remained: he's turning the tables on me (bluffing) or he's made a better hand and knows that I would have a hard time believing that.

Alas, I was guilty of pigeon-holing: he wasn't bluffing and neither did he make a better hand. He was value-betting a worse hand, and though I won that hand, I wasn't too proud about it. Lesson learnt.

So, would you take into account that NLHE hand, or was I just too eager to do so? Again, I wouldn't do it against any other player at that table.

[Rant2112]

I heard Chris calling me out on the show this morning - still waiting for his cut from the Hundy. I responded on the forum

http://www.cardclubs.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=28637#28637

[Gary]

had a good laugh when Justin was making comments of un-ethical practices of other players.

like an alcoholic talking about how another person drinks too much.

[ReedMoney]

Top 10 in rebuys for me probably. I love rebuys...very profitable!!!

[mike]

I do have to say for the first time i am really disappointed in you guys. I mean for one Chris questioned if it was ethical or not for Paul Wasicka to have 2 people playing a single hand.
Then you have the guy who has been banned for life from online poker for multi accounting and you don't even ask him about it! Not even a if you could do it all over again would you?

[Chris Cosenza]

Sorry Mike. Obviously he regrets it, and Scott asked how he was getting past it because everyone listening to our show knows what he did. Seemed superfluous to rehash it. Here's how it would have gone: Me: Justin, do you regret multi-accounting and the ensuing remarks you made on your blog? JB: Yeah, you know I was young and it's in the past. I just want to move on. ME: If you had to do it all over again would you do it the same way? JB: Uh, are you an idiot? Would I have $100K taken from my account and banned from Internet poker again? Of course not. I made a mistake and it's over with. Would I want to do it again? Are you an idiot? What kind of question is that?! ME: Uh, okay, sorry. Um, what have you been doing to clean up your image from that horrendous mistake? JB: CLICK!

You can tell he wants to get over this and move on. We gave him the chance to talk about his future and where he stands now. When Wasicka was on we brought him on specifically for THAT reason, to talk about his controversial article he had JUST written and was getting guff from. His handler chimed in and asked if Paul could come on the show to defend himself.

Justin's indiscretion happened YEARS ago and we didn't feel the need to harp on that very subject. It was mentioned, he said what he's doing to move on, end of story.

We chose to talk to Justin Bonomo the man, not ZeeJustin the multi-accounting kid from PartyPoker.

[Erwin Blonk]

Chris, Scott, you did a great interview. Instead of what would be, as we say over here, taking old cows out of the ditch, you asked all that was to ask about it. Between trying to grill him over cold coals and ignoring the issue all together, there is the right time for the right question.
If I was still being kicked for every mistake I ever made, I could do nothing.

[Mike]

Hey Chris. Maybe i don't follow him that closely but last i heard he didn't regret it. I believe it was just before the Party Poker event in the Caribbean when he put out a blog post saying he didn't regret what he did and admitted that he had continued to do after he was banned.

[Chris Cosenza]

If he didn't regret it then he wouldn't admit to trying to improve his image, etc. If you are innocent there's nothing to restore, hence he feels he did something wrong and is trying to improve his standing.

[Gambit]

Mike, sounds like you are talking about JJProdigy (Josh Field).

[Rant2112]

Justin Bonomo definitely does regret it.

I thought it was a great show.

[Pakashkan]

I really enjoyed the interview and was glad not to rehear the same old questions again. He's very well spoken and was a good guest to listen to.

My son's name is Andy - is that close enough to Ante? He's older than the podcast as well, so I'm not liking my chances at getting a banana this way.

[PointLedge]

Thanks for asking how many tournaments at the WSOP Justin would be playing. He just might be the lead horse in my stable for the Ante Up/Card Clubs fantasy league.