I recently had the pleasure of interviewing a great young professional poker player, Justin Bonomo. So without further ado, here it is:
RockStar Holdem: Many online players aspire to move to the live tournament arena. In 2004 you made the move yourself, playing in a WPT event in Aruba. What made you decide that you were ready to make the jump to live events?
Justin Bonomo: I had played a tiny bit of live poker before my first WPT in Aruba. I even won my 2nd ever live tournament which was a $30 rebuy tournament at Turning Stone in upstate New York. For the most part, I viewed major live tournaments as the next competitive step to becoming a great player, and with very profitable online satellites, there was no way I could say no. I had so much success early on, winning my 2nd live tournament, cashing in my 2nd WPT, final tabling my second EPT, that I basically caught the fever. After all by age 19, how could I say no to live tournaments? In that sense, it just kind of happened.
RH: You have said that you credit a lot of your knowledge to studying poker literature. What book(s) would you suggest to a young player that have really helped you?
JB: Theory of Poker and Holdem For Advanced Player (note this book is about limit, not no limit) really helped me out a lot early on.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many great books about no limit out, but I think Harrington’s books are great for teaching beginning players how to analyze certain concepts, although I must admit the advanced strategy in that series lacks a bit. For the most part, I really recommend books by the two plus two publishing company. These days, online training sites are superior to books for players once they get beyond the beginning stages of learning the fundamentals.
RH: If you could put together the final table of your dreams, who are some of the players that would be sitting around you?
JB: The final table of my dreams would have nothing but loose passive fish at it. Sure, I enjoy being competitive and playing against the best players in the world, but when there’s millions of dollars on the line, I want it to come as easily as possible. Prestige and fame is nice and all, but winning is more fun than losing to even the best players in the world.
RH: What player are you most proud of knocking out of a tournament?
JB: I started off as full ring limit player. In a 9 handed game, the best
player in the world will have a slight edge over a random veteran, but even that edge is going to be slight. Eventually, I became good enough at sit’n'gos, that even the best player in the world would barely show a profit over me. And eventually I became good enough at MTT’s that the same thing was true. If you have two cards like anyone else, and play a baseline strategy of tight, solid, and straightforward, you’ll always have a fighting chance against even the best players in the world. Because of this, I’ve never been afraid of playing against anyone, and I’ve never been proud to knock anyone out. I’ve probably gotten lucky in the vast majority of times I knocked out one of the best players in the world. I don’t necessarily mean a huge suckout, but if you get kings against Daniel Negreanu’s queens to bust him, there’s not really much reason for you to feel proud about it. I’ve played with the best in the world. They’ve beaten me. I’ve beaten them. Getting prideful over one single hand is a bit silly.
RH: What is your favorite aspect of living the life of a professional poker player?
JB: From 6th grade on, I knew that the 9-5 lifestyle wasn’t for me. I
know this is kind of elitist and arrogant to say, but I hated the fact that my teachers that weren’t smarter than me had so much power over me. There was no way I could continue that my whole life, answering to some random boss that I just might end up having no respect for. I wanted to be in control of my life. Now that I am, I love it so much. I do what I want, when I want. If I make a mistake, I pay for it. If I work really hard, it shows in my work. Every decision I make affects my life directly, and outside factors like a stupid boss not knowing what he’s
doing don’t matter.
RH: If you weren’t a poker player, what would you be doing with your life these days?
JB: I’m not sure what I would be doing if I wasn’t a poker player. I’m
only 23 so I might still be in school. All I know is, I probably
wouldn’t have a typical job. I’ve always wanted to be self-employed in some way shape or form. Whether or not that means being an entrepreneur or owning my own business, I never knew.
RH: Besides playing poker, what else do you have going on in your life right now? Any big projects in the works?
JB: In terms of career, it’s pretty much all poker and representing
Bodog. I have a couple of small projects with Bodog and such, but nothing major like a training site or anything. Outside of poker, I live at Panorama Towers, which is like the poker mecha of the world. There are about 80 poker players that live in these condos. So all my best
friends are poker players which means we never have to work when we don’t want. We go out a lot in Vegas to all the nicest restaurants. We watch a lot of movies, and play random non-poker games. I’m also very passionate about music, and love going to concerts.
RH: Who are some good bands that we would find on your iPod playlist?
JB: Too many to name! Here are a few: Brand New, Manchester Orchestra, Black Lab, Radiohead, Our Lady Peace, Muse, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Counting Crows, Postal Service, Sparta, Glen Hansard…..
RH: Anything you would like to say to all of your fans and supporters?
JB: Ummm…. think outside the box? I guess I’d have to attribute most the success in my life (even non-poker success) from straying from the standard path. Think for yourself, and look for unique solutions to any of life’s problems.
Be sure to check out Justin’s radio show “All Strategy” found on PokerRoad.com, where he co-hosts alongside Daniel Negreanu and Scott Huff.
I would sincerely like to thank Justin for taking the time to do this interview. We wish him the best of luck and we know there are more great things to come from him.
