On Saturday, the USA-facing online poker room Bodog officially parted ways with sponsored pro Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo by removing him from its website. Now, the poker community, Bonomo’s agent, and Bodog have had a chance to react.
Bonomo’s agent, Matt Palmer, President and CEO of 11Management, told Poker News Daily, “It is true that Justin and Bodog have parted ways. While Justin will miss playing alongside his fellow Bodog teammates and good friends Evelyn Ng and David Williams, he’s ready to move on to bigger and better opportunities. We’ve begun conversations regarding new sponsorship opportunities and we’re excited to work with a poker brand that is better able to leverage Justin’s poker success and personality.” Palmer is also the agent for Joe Sebok, who recently signed on to be a member of Team UB.com.
Palmer gave us his take on Bonomo’s 2009 calendar year at the felts: ‘Justin’s coming off another excellent year at the tables, including a final table appearance at the World Series of Poker’s (WSOP) $40,000 buy-in 40th Anniversary event and a win at the WSOP Circuit event at Caesars. I fully expect Justin to continue his winning ways in 2010.” Bonomo’s fifth place finish in the $40,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event commemorating the Series’ 40th running was worth $413,000. In April, he won the Caesars Palace WSOP Circuit Championship, a $5,150 buy-in contest, for $227,000.
Ed Pownall, Global Public Relations Director for BodogBrand.com, explained why the online poker room parted ways with one of its three remaining sponsored pros: “Bodog and Justin Bonomo have agreed that, with the transition of the Bodog-branded poker rooms to the Bodog Network in 2010, now was a natural time to re-evaluate the relationship and have agreed to part ways.” Jean-Robert Bellande, of “Survivor: China” fame, also left Bodog in recent months after his sponsorship agreement was not renewed at the end of October.
Posters on the popular poker forum TwoPlusTwo.com gave their take on what room might be a good fit for Bonomo. TwoPlusTwo member “molinn9” weighed in, “Time for him to move on to pokerstars. would be good pro for them.” Bonomo was traveling to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas at the time of writing and was unavailable for comment. The $10,300 buy-in Main Event kicks off on Tuesday from the Atlantis Resort and Casino on Paradise Island with the first of two starting days. The tournament will crown a champion on January 11th.
In the meantime, Bodog will center its efforts on growing the newly forged Bodog Network, which has taken a unique approach to rakeback. Pownall discussed the methodology: “The new offering has already caused much debate with its re-working of the rakeback issue and will reward operators bringing depositing players to the table rather than the traditional method of rewarding the winning players. The system unveiled at the EiG in Budapest in September has already seen other networks, including Microgaming and iPoker, publicly follow in a similar vein.” The idea, in turn, is to reward winning players indirectly by feeding them net depositing opponents.
Yesterday, the weekly Bodog $100,000 Guaranteed played out. The site’s hallmark event, which comes with a $162 price tag, drew 509 players, meaning that Bodog kicked in $23,000 after the tournament fell short of its prize pool. In the end, reigning UB.com Aruba Poker Classic Main Event winner Brandon “AreTheseUtz” Hall took down the top prize of $25,000 after defeating Brian “AKbigfish” James heads-up. James pocketed a $15,000 consolation prize and “paulyman” took third for $9,500. The top 63 players finished in the money and the top five earned more than $5,000.
The Bodog Network is expected to take on non-Bodog sites this year.
Ed Pownall = epic name