Why the poker world should officially pardon of Justin Bonomo

Over the years I’ve come down very hard on people caught cheating, scamming, or breaking poker rules (going so far as to write blog posts on some of the more notorious instances) but I’ll also admit that quite a few of these players I’ve been overly critical of have turned the proverbial corner, and I think it’s time that at least one of these players, Justin Bonomo, gets the full pardon from me, and hopefully from anyone else still grinding an axe from his actions –For the back-story you can read this column I wrote in May of 2012, where I was already starting to move into the pro-Bonomo camp. So now I’m ready to seal his juvenile record so to speak, and leave that one red mark off of his permanent record.

It’s a little strange to write this article as I realize that Justin Bonomo wouldn’t or shouldn’t care what I think about him (I have no delusions of grandeur that Justin or any other poker player wakes up wondering what I have written about them), but I think it’s also important that he, and other players in the same situation, know that his efforts at rehabilitating his reputation aren’t going unnoticed, and are having an effect. It should serve as the model for how to conduct oneself for any player now or in the future who finds themselves having committed a transgression against the poker world.

So why am I ready to go the extra step, and basically never mention Bonomo’s past unless it’s pertinent to the conversation? Simply put, he deserves it. Years of keeping his nose clean has changed my opinion on Justin, and the fact that he is now a well-respected player on the live tournament scene shows that most of the poker community trust him implicitly.

Basically, I have evolved my position on Justin Bonomo over the past few years, and I suggest that anyone who is still harboring ill-will towards him reexamine his track record since his multi-accounting admissions back in 2007 when he was a 19 year-old. As they say, the proof is in the putting, and if you’re not ready to redeem Justin at this point than what will it take?

One of the most important factors in my evolution was the fact that there was no PR campaign undertaken and there wasn’t a rush to social media by his supporters; plain and simple Justin let his crimes against the poker community run their course and served his sentence and parole period quietly and without incident.

Compare Justin’s case to another infamous multi-accounter from the same time period, Josh “JJProdigy” Field. Not only is Field a repeat offender, but he’s an unrepentant repeat offender, even as he has grown and –one would think– matured over the past six or seven years.

Another player who is taking a page out of Bonomo’s playbook is Sorel Mizzi. Mizzi has been accused of numerous transgressions from account-buying to bottom-dealing, and after some initially flippant responses on 2+2 he has seemingly decided to take the high road, and just let his past issues run their course while he keeps his nose clean now and in the future. Hopefully in the future I can write a similar article about Sorel.