The final event of the 2018 World Series of Poker ended on Tuesday in Las Vegas. Justin Bonomo, one popular name in the world of poker from Las Vegas itself, won the last event of the series – $1 million buy-in no-limit hold’em “Big One for One Drop” for a whopping $10 million prize money.
The German star Fedor Holz ended up finishing second in this event for a hefty $6 million.
With this win, Bonomo’s all-time poker earnings have now jumped up to a massive $43 million. He is now placed even above the Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu for the all-time lead. On the other hand, Holz has touched the $33 million in his lifetime poker earnings after his runner-up finish in this event.
This win was Bonomo’s third career bracelet and second this year as he recently won the $10,000 heads-up no-limit hold’em championship. The win has put Bonomo in a race surpassing a heater, which Holz started in late 2015 and continued it through 2016. In 2018 so far, Bonomo has earned nearly $25 million poker cash, which is a record in the history of live tournaments.
Speaking after his historic win, Bonomo said, “This year has been absolutely incredible. It’s more money than I’ve ever played for in my life. I buckled down during all my breaks. I studied. Took the day off the day before and studied all day. I took this as seriously as I possibly could and tried to stay as focused as possible. It paid off.”
Bonomo had become the short stack with three left. Holz, initially, had a commanding lead, but Bonomo gradually battled back and eliminated Dan Smith in the third place to bounce back into the game.
It took almost 150 hands in heads-up between Holz and Bonomo. The dual finally ended with Bonomo taking it down from Holz. On the last hand, Bonomo limped from the button, while Holz moved all in for his short stack, precisely 23.6 million. Bonomo called with As-Jd against Holz’s Ac-4s. The board ran out Kd–8s–3s-2c-Qd giving Bonomo the pot and the coveted title.
This event drew a total of 27 players, generating a prize pool of $24,840,000. Top 5 players were paid out with a min-cash of $2,000,000 going to the 5th place finisher Byron Kaverman.
Final Table Payouts:
| Place | Player | Payout |
| 1 | Justin Bonomo | $10,000,000 |
| 2 | Fedor Holz | $6,000,000 |
| 3 | Dan Smith | $4,000,000 |
| 4 | Rick Salomon | $2,840,000 |
| 5 | Byron Kaverman | $2,000,000 |