Dear Ali Imsirovic, What Have You Done?

We are in September 2022, where Ali Imsirovic, a high-stakes regular, is being put on the spot for cheating in the poker scene. Originally being accused of Multi-Tabling and using RTA (Real Time Assistant), many more things came to light. All because another high-stakes regular in the name of Alex Foxen called him out on Twitter. Eventually, GGPoker played a big role in this by banning Ali Imsirovic, alongside 81 other accounts, for the abovementioned topics. We are now in June 2023, and Ali found it was time to finally come clean and share his story with the poker world. His confession video has reached 25.000 views in just 3 days. But what is the true story behind all this? And what does all this mean for the poker industry? And most importantly, what does this do to all poker fanatics around the globe? We from PokerListings dived into it head first.

Who Is Ali Imsirovic?

Almedin Imsirovic, nicknamed Ali, is a Bosnian-American professional high-stakes poker player who was born on January 29, 1995. At the age of 3, he escaped his country due to the Bosnian war and moved to America with his family. While studying Criminal Justice, he dropped out in the last semester to pursue a career in gambling, at the illegal age of 16. Two years later, he started playing live poker tournaments and not that much later he was already in the high-stakes action at the age of 23. Everything that happened after that, is known in the poker industry, resulting in roughly $19.000.000 in live tournament winnings. Online poker is one of his main incomes, and he is known with some of the following online aliases: “ali23imsirovic” on Americas Cardroom, “allinali23” on WSOP.com and under his full name “Ali Imsirovic” on Natural8-GGNetwork.

A State of Mind

Ali has originally been accused of Multi-Tabling in online poker tournaments, and using RTA (Real-Time-Assistant), by GGPoker. He was one of the 82 accounts instantly blocked from the site, and the remaining funds on these accounts were mostly confiscated/seized. On top of this, well-known high-stakes regular Alex Foxen, outed Ali on Twitter for other accusations as well. Saying he is known for ‘’chip dumping’’ to his horses, and for ghosting other players when they ran deep in tournaments. To top it all off, during one of Triton Poker’s events in Cyprus in 2022, he was accused of ‘’hole carding’’, meaning he potentially saw the cards of Asian businessman and fanatic poker player Paul Phau.

What Impact Does It Have on the Poker World?

Poker is a competitive skill game, which still is considered one of the most popular casino games all over the world, with some exceptions here and there. A game which has so many different kinds of players, from high-rollers to low-stakes grinders, from professionals to recreational players to full poker enthusiasts. The main thing in poker is, there is money involved, and where money, technology and skills are involved, there are possibilities of people trying to gain an advantage over others in quite unorthodox manners. Not only in live poker but most definitely in online poker.

Of course, all online operators and live tournament organisations are trying everything within their power to minimise the risks of such happenings or completely erase them. But we can see that a real collaboration between the big organisations is lacking sometimes. Same as in Ali Imsirovic his case. If it’s certain he ‘cheated’ by multi-accounting, how he can play on other sites? As he stated that after a while he continue multi-accounting again.

Ali Imsirovic Comes Clean

Quite some time has passed since Ali Imsirovic was banned from GGPoker, and from when other allegations came to light regarding live poker during the Triton Poker Series. Ali thought it was time to come clean, and that he was obliged to share it with the world of poker.

The reason why he was banned from GGPoker, namely Multi-Accounting and using Real-Time-Assistant, is partially true following Ali. He confesses being guilty of Multi-Accounting but explains to the world why using a Real-Time-Assistant is surreal to even make use of, and that that accusation was simply not true. Alongside getting banned, they seized his account alongside $320.000 in funds.

His first reaction to the ban was sending emails to GGPoker to try to do everything within his power to undo this decision. When he saw this was clueless, he kept his head low for about 4-5 months and accepted he was in the wrong. When the time of COVID-19 passed a bit, and live poker was available again, he instantly went on it again to play poker. An income needs to be generated of course. But all eyes were set on him.

By playing live poker, he was hoping people would forget about the whole GGPoker situation and that he would be judged again on his poker skills instead. During the Triton Poker Serie in Cyprus, he got another accusation thrown at his head, namely checking the hole cards of Asian businessman and poker fanatic Paul Phau. He has a great explanation for this, but does it make sense? We leave that up to you readers.

Now What Does All This Mean for the Poker World?

Let’s put one thing straight here; All bans, and allegations, are super -EV for poker. The poker industry keeps growing, but with such situations, the growth stagnates for sure. In the High-Roller scene, in the online poker world, and in the recreational part of the game.

People will think twice when entering a poker tournament when they know some players are being accused of cheating. You would imagine, but this is not always the case. And that’s what makes it shady at the same time as well, especially in the High-Roller scene. There are so many questions to be answered:

• Why do players continue to sign up for tournaments while they know for certain, that others are banned from poker sites due to cheating?

• We had more stories in the past about players in the high-roller scene who were accused of something, most recently the whole Martin Kabrhel. But all of them are still active in the live- and/or online poker circuit. Why is that?

• Players in the high-roller scene, the Grand Slam tournaments of Poker, have a certain ‘example function’, a role model image, for poker players all around the world. Will players over the world take over this behaviour? 

• Alleged cheaters such as Ali Imisirovic states that he is aware of multiple other players playing by their own book and are showing cheating behaviour as well. We sense that this is just the tip of the iceberg, but why there is just so little coming out of that?

• What does this mean for the poker world in general? Will there be additional changes implemented for the integrity of the game? Will ‘’potential cheaters’’ be banned from sites and venues?

Time will tell what will be the result of this kind of behaviour in the poker industry. Many of us poker players see poker as a sport, so why not get an organisation overlooking everything and who has the power in banning players from events online and live? Like FIFA for example in football.

All we know for now is that Ali Imsirovic is on the loose again and hitting it hard at the online- and live poker tables. Regardless of the outcome, he will always carry an extra weight on his shoulders.