The Reinstatement of Justin Bonomo
Written by RogerCP | Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
PokerStars has reinstated the account of Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo so that he can participate in their Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP). Bonomo was banned in early 2006 for multi accounting. Bonomo was first caught using multiple accounts at PartyPoker and later at Poker Stars. Lee Jones the then Poker Room Manager confirmed the ban and even said that funds from Bonomo’s account were used to compensate the victims of his multi accounting.
Multi accounting is a serious offense in the online poker sites industry. All reputed poker rooms warn players in their written terms and conditions that use of multiple accounts will be seriously dealt with. Therefore the reinstatement of Bonomo has understandably been received with sharp criticism. What is surprising is that there are a fair number of fans and pros who support the reinstatement.
Two Plus Two is where most of the discussion is taking place. In fact there has been a poll put up at that site. At the time of writing about 56% of the 672 voters felt that his reinstatement was justified. As more and more people are casting their vote the percentage of Bonomo supporters is decreasing.
The arguments that Bonomo supporters have put forward are that the suspension has gone on for long enough, that he has expressed remorse and has become an advocate of ethics in poker, that he has kept a low profile and exhibited good conduct during the suspension period and that he is too good a player to be kept out.
The opponents of the Justin Bonomo reinstatement are more expressive if not more numerous. One pointed out that Josh “JJProdigy” Field had been banned at the same time as Bonomo for the same offence. Last month the Cake Poker Network did not allow Field to participate in the Bluff Online Poker Challenge. Now PokerStars allowing Bonomo to participate in SCOOP is grossly unfair to Field and others like him.
A poster at PocketFives hit the nail on the head when he expounded the possible reason for PokerStars reinstating Bonomo. He wrote, “Just because ZeeJustin is friends with KidPoker and had some decent results it doesn’t take away from what he did. Stars definitely dropped the ball here.” The bit about KidPoker, as Daniel Negreanu is known, is important. Negreanu is on Team PokerStars Pro and is a very influential person at PokerStars. Negreanu is also closely associated with Bonomo. Both have worked together at Pokerroad.com. Both have also worked together on “All Strategy”, which is a downloadable podcast devoted to tournament play. It is more than obvious that Negreanu has pulled strings at PokerStars.
One peeved poker player demanded an explanation from PokerStars for their action. PokerStars gave the earlier mentioned arguments in Bonomo’s defense and then added, “Though some in the poker world will never forgive him for what he did, many already have. While we do not condone his actions in the past, we do accept they are now in the past, so ‘ZeeJustin’ is now welcome to play on PokerStars again. PokerStars enforces its game security rules firmly, but fairly. We consider every case on its merits, and we believe that the continued suspension of ‘ZeeJustin’ is no longer appropriate.”
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· Written by RogerCP · Filed Under Poker Gossip · Comments Off
