Ali Imsirovic has won the seventh event of the 2022 PokerGo Cup. A $25,000 no-limit Hold’Em for $365,500, it represents his 16th high roller title in the past 365 days.
A highly respected poker player, Ismirovic took home three prizes at the 2021 GPI awards: the GPI Poker Player of the Year, PokerGo Tour Player of the Year and Players Choice for Toughest Opponent.
This latest victory means that Imsirovic has now earned over $16 million from his overall tournament winnings.
Ali Imsirovic’s poker career
Imsirovic’s career began when his father gave him $60 to fix his guitar. Inspired by watching the 2010 World Series of Poker final, he used the money to play a $60 buy-in tournament instead. Then an 18 year old, Imsirovic ended up taking $1500 from the game. He put $100 online and spent the next two years playing low-stakes games and honing his craft.
2017 saw Imsirovic cash in his first World Series of Poker event. The next year he won two events at the Poker Masters and earned the Purple Jacket as series champion. At just 23 years old, playing against the world’s best players, the tournament solidified Imsirovic as a high roller.
“It felt like a milestone for me, just a really big achievement, to the point were I just broke down in tears for a little bit,” he says.
In 2019, Imsirovic won his largest live tournament amount of cash. He took home an eye-watering $1.1 million from the Super High Roller Ball in London. Imsirovic carried on this winning streak into 2020. He also broke the record for the largest no-limit hold’em cash game pot in online poker history. The winning hand: $974,631.
Ali Imsirovic travels from Bosnia to Washington
Born in Bosnia, Imsirovic’s family fled the Bosnian War to the US when he was just three years old. His father had to give up a successful business in their homeland to find safety and start again. In Washington where they settled, Imsirovic recalls his father working three jobs. “It was inspiring to see how hard he worked for his family,” he says.
Imsirovic had dreams of being a basketball player growing up. He played obsessively with his friends and in the 8th grade began talking to agencies about getting scouted for college. But an ongoing ankle injury killed his dreams. His interest in poker piqued once he realized that a career in basketball no longer seemed in reach.
Observing his father playing low-stakes games with friends, Imsirovic asked to join. However, his father steadfastly refused. “[My father] was very opposed to me doing anything gambling related,” he says. A gifted student, Imsirovic graduated from high school at sixteen and enrolled in Washington State University. Cruising through his course with his intelligence, he focused most of his energies on studying poker. Imsirovic later dropped out of Washington State just one semester before graduating in order to pursue poker full-time.
Ali Imsirovic wins 2022 PokerGo cup
His 16th high roller title in the last 365 days, Imsirovic has now won the 2022 PokerGo cup. Imsirovic took home $365,500 at the seventh event of the series, which had a $25,000 buy-in. He beat Sam Soverel, one of the top high-stakes pros in the world, who won $236,500.
The event takes place inside the PokerGo studio at Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Sean Perry won the Main Event and Jeremy Ausmus won the PokerGo cup for most overall points in the series.
Imsirovic’s win has propelled him to new heights, now boasting over $16 million in overall tournament winnings.
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