Friends go for gold and glory
It's tough enough to find a peer group when you're at the top of the world. It's tougher still when you reach those lofty heights in your early twenties. Some such relationships, though, are fated to happen.
Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo and Isaac "Ike" Haxton, two of poker's brightest young stars, will both be featured on Tuesday's first broadcast of the 2009 World Series of Poker. They'll both be amongst the final table competing for the $40,000 no-limit hold 'em bracelet and a first prize of almost $1.9 million. Although it may be the first $40,000 event in history, it's not the first time the two have shared a deep run in a major televised event.
"The first time I met Justin, there were 11 players left in the 2007 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure," said Haxton of the $7,800 buy-in event which attracted 937 players. "I was first in chips, he was second in chips and just as his mom was showing up to watch him win the tournament, I coolered him with pocket aces against pocket kings for a quarter of the chips in play."
Bonomo was out in eleventh. Haxton would go on to finish second to fellow whiz kid Ryan Daut.
It was an auspicious beginning to what would prove to be an incredibly valuable relationship for Haxton and Bonomo, two 23-year-olds with some startling similarities and who find immense value in their differences. "I've been fortunate to be friends with Ike," Bonomo said. "He's a great friend. On top of that, my game has improved so much from talking to him. He's a brilliant guy and approaches the game from an analytical vantage point where he's completely on top of the game. He's aware of what his opponents are doing at all times.
"One of my favorite things about Ike is that a lot of poker players don't enjoy the game," Bonomo added. "Not only does he love poker, but he can run terribly and still laugh it off. He understands that bad beats happen and enjoys life regardless."
The friendly remarks weren't hard to pry out of these two.
"Justin is nice, smart, loyal, fun to be around, a totally different personality from me," said Haxton, who may sell himself short in suggesting he's not as naturally sociable as Bonomo. "Justin's outgoing and gregarious. He knows a lot more people well than I do. Pokerwise, he's a very good foil to me; he's tournament specialist, I'm a cash game specialist. The cash games he plays are the ones I don't play that much. For two very good players of our generation, it's hard for our skill set to overlap less. We're both good at live no-limit tournaments, but that's it. We've learned a lot of from each other, for sure. There are a lot of people I know through poker and who I'm friends with, but there aren't many I'll take a hand I'm struggling with to. That's a really short list. He's towards the top of it."
It wasn't until almost a year after their first encounter that they struck this friendship. Bonomo was living at Panorama Towers, the high-rent, high-security, high-society, Las Vegas-living quarters of so many of today's top young live professionals. Haxton moved into the complex in the spring of 2008.
"We had a lot of mutual friends so the friendship was natural," Bonomo recalled. Included amongst those friends were David Williams, Scott Seiver, Jimmy Fricke, Alex Melnikow, Adam Levy, Aaron Been, Steve O'Dwyer and JC Alvarado. The group focused its energy on sometimes-nightly Magic sessions, plenty of fine dining and high-intensity poker and is amongst the most tight-knit collectives in the game today. That closeness came into play when Bonomo, Haxton and Williams all shared a TV final-table experience.
The final table in question was the $5,000 mixed limit/no-limit hold 'em event that was won by Erick Lindgren in 2008. The star-studded final table was televised on ESPN. Haxton was eliminated early on in ninth place, but Bonomo lasted to the end, finishing second to Lindgren. Despite his early exit, Haxton is quick to suggest these high-intensity situations have been a big part of this growing friendship. The one-versus-all mentality applies during a tournament, but afterward, they've become each other's biggest fans.
"Over the course of that tournament we got a lot closer," recalled Haxton. "We have been good friends ever since. That kind of shared experience has to bring you closer together as friends. There's so much stress, pressure and excitement the whole time you're playing under the lights. Experiencing that will definitely close the gap."
"It's surreal how often we've gone deep together," Bonomo said. "The $40,000 will be the third time we've had a deep televised run together. How can a friendship not be strengthened by that? Being exposed together to that kind of pressure is a shared experience most people never get. It's unique to the poker world because of the money, and even then not many players have shared that experience so often with one other guy."
Especially not when both players in question are still 23 years old.
As much pressure as the two friends have experienced in their past television encounters, that has to be moderate by comparison to what we'll be seeing Tuesday night. Neither player had ever taken home a seven-figure score heading into the $40,000 and with ESPN's TV schedule revised to show more hours of fewer events, this was a final table that every TV pro in the game wanted a piece of. In short, this is the biggest stage the two friends have ever played on and a good opportunity for either to take home their first WSOP bracelet.
Joining Bonomo and Haxton at the final table, amongst others, are fellow online standouts Alec Torelli and Dani Stern as well as live superstars Ted Forrest and Greg Raymer. The contrast led to a lot of excitement heading into the final day's play; despite that, the drama exceeded expectations. Be sure to tune in Tuesday night to see whether Bonomo finally got his revenge for PCA, whether either can get the gold and who winds up in the stands supporting who in the end.
Gary Wise is covering the WSOP for ESPN.com.
