Justin Bonomo won his second bracelet of the 2018 World Series of Poker, taking the crown in the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop. In defeating Fedor Holz heads-up, Bonomo won $10 million.
The Big One for One Drop capped what has been a fantasy year for Bonomo. Then again, the way things are going for him, maybe the capper is yet to come. He has won a grotesque $25 million in 2018; if you do some quick back of the envelope math, that means that even without the Big One, he has still won $15 million this year and we are only in July.
He has 16 cashes this calendar year for at least six-figures. Among the highlights are a second place in the PCA Super High Roller ($1,077,800), a win in the Super High Roller Bowl Macau ($4,823,077), and a win the Las Vegas Super High Roller Bowl ($5,000,000).
The kicker to all this outrageous success is that the Big One for One Drop has vaulted Justin Bonomo into the top spot on the all-time live tournament cash earnings list. With nearly $43 million in winnings, he is now more than $3 million ahead of Daniel Negreanu.
Here is what the top five currently looks like:
Justin Bonomo – $42,979,593
Daniel Negreanu – $39,656,197
Erik Seidel – $34,575,437
Fedor Holz – $32,550,886
Daniel Colman – $28,925,059
As you can see, by virtue of his second place finish and the $6 million prize that went along with it, Fedor Holz has also jumped into the top five all-time.
Negreanu addressed Bonomo’s impending achievement before the final day of the Big One, tweeting, “Probably the best thing for my quality of life is for Justin to pass me today. I’ve been in that spot for the majority of my poker career and it feels like time to stop hanging on to it. Good luck everyone!”
Part of me wants to roll my eyes at that for the not-so-subtle brag, but hey, it was a nice thing for Negreanu to say even before Bonomo won.
The point of the Big One for One Drop is not so much to be an ultra-high roller event, but to raise money for a good cause. The WSOP takes no rake from the event and this year, $80,000 of each buy-in went to the One Drop organization, a charity which aims to bring clean, drinkable water to impoverished areas of the world. With 27 entries, the tournament raised $2.16 million for One Drop.
Honestly, though, it was disappointing. The first Big One in 2012 drew 48 entries and the second drew 42. Even the Monte-Carlo One Drop Extravaganza in 2016, an invite-only tournament designed for non-pros, saw one more entry than did this year’s edition.
And in June, the WSOP announced that 30 players had already signed up. Just 24 actually entered on Day 1, while three more late registered on Day 2. The portion of the buy-in that went to charity also used to be $111,111. I’m guessing that the amount was lowered to encourage more participation and therefore more money for One Drop, but clearly that didn’t work.
