Phil Galfond has responded to a barrage of abuse for signing up Justin Bonomo to his Run It Once poker coaching platform. Bonomo has upset a lot of people this year with his political statements and many feel he does not deserve such a placement.
It seems that people are demanding an explanation of why @RunItOnce’s big recent pro signing announcement includes Justin Bonomo.
A few months ago, after a lot of planning and hard work, we were celebrating the most exciting series of coach signings in the history of Run It…
— Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) December 23, 2023
Justin Bonomo is second on the all-time winner’s list, and without any personal history would be the perfect coach for a training site. But he just can’t stop pissing people off.
His attack on Daniel Negreanu at the 2023 WSOP was viewed by most as nasty and uncalled for.
The Canadian had busted from a $250k Super High Roller to a runner-runner and smashed his camera on the way out.
Bonomo fired shots on social media calling it “pathetic and unacceptable”, adding that it was a violent act that would make people feel unsafe and uncomfortable. Talk about a massive over-reaction.
Negreanu said in a vlog:
“I’ve spent most of my life promoting the game of poker to bring in thousands of people so that this f*****g weasel can sit on his couch and make a living.”
Justin Bonomo’s controversial tweets
Justin Bonomo’s tweets related to the ongoing violence in Israel and Gaza have been the final straw for many in the poker community.
Even Shaun Deeb, who rallies against cancel culture, accused Phil Galfond of dropping the ball.
For first time in a while @PhilGalfond dropped the ball there’s a diff line between morality clause firing and political beliefs one I don’t care how good justin is at poker he’s much better than me at nlh but he shouldn’t be given a platform of any company let alone a publicly…
— shaun deeb (@shaundeeb) December 24, 2023
Of course, there was more criticism about Run It Once hirings of the past. Brian Hastings and Dan “Jungleman” Cates are both guilty of some form of cheating.
Not to mention Justin Bonomo’s spate of multi-accounting back in the day.
As it is, many support Phil Galfond to ignore political statements no matter how he feels about Bonomo’s angle.
But Doug Polk had to get involved, didn’t he.
Stop Bullying Justin pic.twitter.com/5hjLjkNlZ7
— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) December 24, 2023
Phil Galfond was far from impressed at the fellow training site owner and couldn’t resist an out of character dig back.
“Such BS to leave out context, Doug: My post ALSO says that @RunItOnce has 4 of the top 5 players on Poker’s All Time Money List while Upswing has 0 in the top 10.“
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