The primary occasion for the World Collection of Poker has wrapped up, and most of us have given up our Balatro obsessions, at the very least for now. For Justin Bonomo, nonetheless, poker is nearly at all times entrance of thoughts. One of many winningest event gamers of all time with lifetime earnings exceeding $60 million, it is honest to say that Bonomo is among the finest within the enterprise. He may not have ever reached these heights with out an unlikely supply of assist, nonetheless: Bonomo’s first foray into poker was bankrolled by the sale of his EverQuest character.
At simply 14 years previous, Bonomo was racking up victories taking part in Magic: the Gathering, successful hundreds of {dollars} in school scholarships crushing the Junior Tremendous Collection and shifting on to the Professional Tour itself. It was via his pals taking part in Magic that he heard about EverQuest, and it hooked him instantly.
“I beloved the sport, undoubtedly acquired obsessive about it,” Bonomo informed me in a latest interview. “Performed as a lot as I may, however we had dial-up web so every time I performed that meant nobody else may use the cellphone. Due to that I used to be solely allowed to play two hours a day, however I completely regarded ahead to these two hours and wished I may play longer.”
For us previous EverQuest heads, this can be a acquainted story. You are using on the boat from Butcherblock to Freeport, someone picks up the cellphone, and out of the blue your corpse is on the backside of the ocean, an hour plus of restoration forward of you. EQ was a brand new expertise, and folks could not get sufficient. It was so standard that it overwhelmed the town of San Diego’s web capability, leading to a weeklong outage and the ISP having to actually run new cable to Los Angeles to handle the demand. Bonomo was simply as enchanted as everybody else.
“It was my first time ever taking part in such an immersive sport. You had been in this world, and you may discover it and achieve this many loopy issues. I keep in mind explaining to those that only one zone is the equal of miles throughout, and you may spend hours simply touring the world with out seeing the identical place twice. Again then, that was a really unusual factor.”
He spent as a lot time as he may in Norrath, and it wasn’t lengthy earlier than he determined he needed to be among the many better of the perfect (I am detecting a pattern right here). He acquired max degree, joined the highest raiding guild on his server, and had a blast destroying all the perfect raid targets the Shadows of Luclin enlargement needed to supply. Principally bullet sponges formed like snakes, if I am being trustworthy. However life occurs, and ultimately EverQuest began to take a again seat.
I do not even keep in mind how I met the man, however it was over AOL Immediate Messenger and he provided me $500 to promote my character.
Justin Bonomo
A number of months handed, and a few of Bonomo’s Magic pals had moved on to poker. It is a widespread pattern, with former Magic execs doing massive numbers on the largest tournaments within the sport. People like Brock Parker, Dave Williams, and Eric Froelich have all made the transition, taking the abilities they honed slinging spells and deploying them to rake in prizes at poker tournaments.
It was round this time that Justin determined to promote his EverQuest character.
“I do not even keep in mind how I met the man, however it was over AOL Immediate Messenger and he provided me $500 to promote my character,” he stated. “He paid me on Paypal and some months later I acquired into poker and deposited that cash onto paradisepoker.com and was grinding 50c/$1 restrict maintain ’em video games with it.”
MMO makers have executed what they’ll to crack down on account promoting since, however the idea of digital possession was newer then, and it was the wild west. Sure video games writers have even been identified to inform tales of promoting EverQuest plat on-line to pay for beer cash in school, not that I might know something about that. So Bonomo bought his druid, used the cash as his very first poker bankroll, and began grinding.
EverQuest will at all times have a particular place in my coronary heart.
Justin Bonomo
It did not take him lengthy to hit the bigs. After getting his sea legs taking part in on-line, Bonomo began taking part in in-person tournaments. He turned the youngest participant to be featured at a televised ultimate desk on the EPT French Open in 2005 at simply 19 years previous. On the strain of massive moments, he had this to say:
“Generally in poker individuals will ask me if I get nervous underneath strain and I inform them the primary time I ever performed a match for a thousand {dollars} heads up I used to be 13 or fourteen years previous in a match on the finish of a Magic event. I’ve simply been competing on the highest ranges my entire life, so I am tremendous skilled and cozy with it.”
With three WSoP bracelets to his title now, you may assume Bonomo would not have time for the traditional MMO that began his story, however you would be incorrect. He nonetheless performs EverQuest, and was even part of the notorious waking of the Sleeper on p99 Inexperienced. Like many people, he has robust emotions concerning the sport. “EverQuest will at all times have a particular place in my coronary heart. Anytime I give it some thought or swap tales with somebody I get flooded with nostalgia.”
EverQuest simply celebrated its twenty fifth anniversary, and with non-public servers flourishing and no indicators of official growth stopping anytime quickly, hopefully we’ll all have loads of alternatives to relive that nostalgia and create some new tales collectively in Norrath.
