Justin Bonomo blew up on social media as his WSOP opponent Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen didn’t inform him that he was positive for COVID-19.
The all-time great was playing in the $50,000 NL Super High Roller but didn’t specify which player he was referring to, although later the individual owned up publicly.
Just found out today, that 17 days ago, I played poker next to someone who had Covid with symptoms at the time
This person tested positive for covid immediately after the tournament, played with me 2 days in a row, has my contact info, and still made no attempt to let me know
— Bonologic (@JustinBonomo) November 6, 2021
It’s clear from the tone of the tweets how upset over the matter Justin Bonomo is.
“This is grossly negligent. Wsop is a prime candidate for being a super-spreader event. Hell, I went to EDC that weekend not knowing I should have gotten tested One simple message could have potentially saved many lives,”
Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen Owns Up
Only a few hours later, fellow high-stakes reg Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen tweeted a confession that the player in question was him.
Justin is talking about me here! First, this is very dramatic and overblown. I didn’t know I had Covid until after the 50k. After playing, I hung out with 7-8 of my best friends as well as my wife and cousin. I smoked hookah, blunts, joints etc with everyone. Also was in much https://t.co/WRzcwJV87R
— Chris Hunichen – OTCtrade.com (@BigHuni) November 7, 2021
It turns out that Hunichen did, in fact, do all that he thought responsible following his diagnosis.
After what sounds like a major night out after his fifth place finish and a $266,031 cash, Hunichen went out and collected 40 rapid antigen test kits and delivered them to everyone he had been in close contact with.
Without exception, everyone tested negative.
It was because of this that Chris Hunichen didn’t see the urgency to contact people who played in the WSOP $50,000 Super High Roller. Although he did concede that looking back it would have been best.
In mitigation, Hunichen explained that he was in bad shape and more concerned with staying out of intensive care, which is more than fair enough.
“…there is no way anybody from the 50k was infected by me. I also was very fucked up from covid and was focused on staying alive and out of the hospital. In hindsight, I probably should’ve said.“
Is Justin Bonomo Hypocritical?
Just to show how easy it is to forget what has become standard Covid-19 practice, Justin Bonomo admitted that he recently visited the Electric Daisy Carnival—an electronic dance music festival—and didn’t even bother getting tested afterwards.
This fact wasn’t lost on Chris Hunichen who fired back an accusation of hypocrisy.
“Claiming you were worried about WSOP being a superspreader but then going to EDC is also a bit ironic in itself. If you want to DM me like you did, then immediately blast me on Twitter at least ask more questions to get all the facts because this is just nonsense!”
We suspect that there may be more stories like this as the WSOP Main Event gets into full swing.
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