Atlanta’s own Josh Arieh is out at Bodog, and Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo is in as a sponsored player at Bodog (read this interview with Bonomo, I assume by Haley). Of course, Bodog hasn’t gotten around to erasing Arieh’s image throughout their website. I’ve tried to interview Arieh several times, as I’ve been especially interested in his decision to remain in Atlanta rather than uprooting his wife and three daughters. Bonomo should have been snapped by a site a long time ago as he’s a threat in any tourney he enters.
The dismissal of Arieh two months after adding Jean-Robert Bellande is a bit more curious to me. Bellande has little tournament success to show for his last thirty months. Here is a nice comparison of Arieh vs Bellande vs Bonomo over the last few years (08/07/06):
- Bellande ($9.4k, $44.7k, $105.1k)
- Arieh ($71.7k, $193.1k, $561.1k)
- Bonomo ($229k, $574.8k, $275.4k)
I’m sure the folks at Wicked Chops could chime in on the matter as they’ve always been close to Bodog Poker. Arieh’s website is no longer there; I haven’t checked it in quite awhile. I’ll try to track him down through contacts to get his thoughts. Again, I’d say picking up Bonomo is a no-brainer for anyone. His previous transgressions may have kept him from being signed up by PokerStars or FullTilt, but that would only be a wild guess of mine.
