Tom Parsons

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 Once. I couldn’t wait for our members to see who we were bringing them to make videos. As we were planning this relaunch of our Elite program, war broke out in the Middle East, and one of our biggest new signings became extremely unpopular in the poker community as a result of his views on the conflict. We had more internal discussions on Justin than I care to admit. It became a big part of our meetings on the relaunch. We knew that some would react poorly to us signing him, and that some might even boycott our business. We knew it would distract from the otherwise very exciting news. In the end, we agreed on a few things: We are a poker training company. It’s not our job, nor are we qualified, to decide whose political views are right. It IS our job to hire the best poker players in the world to teach our members. We don’t want to terminate people’s contracts over political beliefs. I’ll say exactly one thing about Justin’s views: I firmly believe that he does not hate, or advocate hate towards, any race or religion, and that this should be obvious to anyone who’s followed him. Beyond that, I’m not planning to comment on Justin’s views. They aren’t my own - they’re his. We employ over 60 pros. I don’t endorse all of their opinions. What I do endorse, however, is that they’re excellent at teaching our members how to win at the poker tables. If you dislike one of those pros enough to take your business elsewhere, I respect that. I wholeheartedly support your right to vote with your wallet. I also support your right to voice your disapproval. I just want to clarify that I’m not ignoring your individual comments — this is my answer. I’m extremely proud of my team’s efforts to give our members the access to the brightest minds in the game. We’ve just brought on three of the top five players on poker’s All-Time Money List. (4/5 if you count old videos) Nobody else has *one* in the top ten. There’s a reason for that. It’s not easy! If you know me at all, you know that I don’t want my decisions to upset anyone. I’m sad that this one has. And our decision to keep Justin on in the face of the poker community turning against him may (or may not) hurt our business. But, I believe our members want us to give them the best product we possibly can, and I believe our staff and coaches deserve to not be censored or fired for their political views. At the end of the day, my responsibilities as a business owner are to them, and I believe we did what’s right.