Poker fans all know that Cary Katz owns PokerGO, but there’s mounting evidence that Ali Imisirovic owns the PokerGO Studio at the Aria Hotel & Casino. On Thursday night, Imsirovic dominated the final table of Event #2 ($10,000 NLHE) of the 2021 PokerGO Cup Event to claim a $183,000 payday and the lead in the PokerGO Leaderboard.
Imsirovic started the final table with the chip lead and eliminated four of the final five players on his way to the title. Things went quite differently for Matas Cimbolas however. After coming into the final table with the second-biggest chip stack, Cimbolas failed to generate any momentum and then ran into a battle of the blinds with Imsirovic that couldn’t have gone any worse.
Action folded to Cimbolas in the small blind and he moved all in for 1,140,000 with 
. Imsirovic peaked at his cards and called with 
. The 
gave Cimbolas bottom pair and as the 
hit the turn, Imsirovic ask Cimbolas how much he was going to have to pay him. That’s when the 
hit the river to send Cimbolas out in sixth for $36,600.
Just six minutes passed before Imsirovic ended another player’s run. Action folded to Imsirovic on the button and he jammed with 
. Frank Funaro, the #1-ranked American online poker player, called all in for 780,000 with 
from the small blind. After the 
flop, Imsirovic cut out enough chips to pay off Funaro. He immediately pulled them back when the 
hit the turn. The river changed nothing and Imsirovic eliminated Funaro in fifth place for $48,800.
Down to just 50,000, Mo Rahim was all in before Dylan Linde moved all in from the small blind, forcing Imsirovic to sit this one out. Rahim showed 
which put him behind the 
of Linde. There was nothing to save Rahim on the 
runout and he was done in fourth for a $61,000 score.
It took just 45 minutes to send the first three players packing, but it took more than two hours to go from three-handed to heads-up and it took a cooler to make it happen. Linde opened with a min-raise to 200,000 holding 
and Imsirovic looked down at in the small blind. He made it 600,000 and Koon folded. Linde moved all in for 2,650,000 and Imsirovic called. Linde watched as the 
board cemented his third place finish.
With Imsirovic holding a 3-1 chip lead over Koon, it took just a single hand of heads up play to end the tournament. Koon, who began the final table as the shortest stack with just three big blinds, called with . Imsirovic responded by moving all in with 
and Koon called. The 
flop gave Imisrovic bottom pair and as the 
turn and river completed the board, Koon was out in second place for $122,000 while Imsirovic took the title, $183,000 and the overall lead on the PokerGO Cup leaderboard.
This PokerGO Cup event had 61 entries to build a $610,000 prize pool. Imsirovic now has 183 leaderboard points and leads Event #1 winner Alex Foxen by just five points.
The final table of Event #3 includes chip leader Sam Soverel, Steve Zolotow, and Sergi Reixach. The stream on PokerGO begins at 1 PM PT.
Event #2 Payouts
- Ali Imsirovic – $183,000
- Jason Koon – $122,000
- Dylan Linde – $85,400
- Mo Rahim – $61,000
- Frank Funaro – $48,800
- Matas Cimbolas – $36,600
- Sam Soverel – $30,500
- Daniel Weinand – $24,400
- Marius Gierse – $18,300
