Former high-stakes pro and admitted cheater Ali Imsirovic registered for the first day of action in the $1,500 Champions Club Winter Poker Open main event over the weekend, but was later removed from the tournament and banned from the poker room.
Champions Club is located in Houston, Texas, and was founded in 2020 by Poker Hall of Famers Doyle Brunson, Dewey Tomko, and Phil Hellmuth alongside Roy Choi and Jieho Lee. Club management said the move was meant to protect the game.
“Champions is committed, first and foremost, to the protection of our members,” club President Isaac Trumbo told PokerNews. “If poker is going to continue to thrive, the community must be able to trust operators to prioritize game integrity above all else, including our bottom line.”
The club refunded Imsirovic’s $1,500 buy-in and he reportedly left the property without incident.
Imsirovic Admits To Multi-Accounting
The disqualification is a harsh reminder of just how far Imsirovic has fallen, having climbed to the top of the high roller poker world just a few years ago. The Bosnian-American racked up $21 million in earnings in just over five years on the circuit, and was named Player of the Year in 2021.
Even during the pandemic when live poker was completely shut down, it seemed like Imsirovic could do no wrong, playing online poker for huge stakes and winning a then-record pot of nearly $1 million.
But in 2022, fellow high-stakes standout Alex Foxen outed Imsirovic as a cheater, alleging that he had been banned from an online poker site for multi-accounting multiple times and for the use of real-time assistance (RTA) software, which is prohibited from most sites.
Imsirovic waited one year before releasing a video responding to the allegations, denying accusations of cheating at a live tournament, but also admitting to multi-accounting.
“While I’m here letting you guys know what claims are complete bullshit, I’m also here to admit to what I’ve done,” he said in the video. “I have multi-accounted a bunch, so I have no interest in denying that. It happened. I regret it, but it happened.”
“I still love poker, and I still want to play some,” he added. “Hopefully this can be the start of moving on past this.”
Not so fast.
As seen in Houston, that hasn’t been easy. Imsirovic was banned from PokerGO and European Poker Tour events in 2022, along with pro Jake Schindler, who also faced cheating allegations.
“The PokerGO Tour is committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity,” the PGT noted in a statement, “and emphasizes proper conduct to ensure the safety and security of its players and events.”
Imsirovic has played a few tournaments since then, mostly at the World Series of Poker while enduring the cold shoulder treatment from his former colleagues, but he has only nine tournament cashes over the last two and a half years.
Could Imsirovic ever make a real comeback in the high-stakes tournament world? Perhaps, but it would take a lot more sincere apologizing, and a lot more time.
The blueprint is there, however. Justin Bonomo shook off his own multi-accounting scandal back in 2006 and became not only the second biggest winner in live tournament history, but also an outspoken voice in the poker community.
Ultimately, forgiveness may not be in the cards for Imsirovic, as seems to be the case with Mike Postle. Although he was cleared by a judge of the charges, the court of public opinion remains decidedly against the man accused of cheating a livestreamed cash game back in 2019. In fact, when Postle did return to the tables in 2023, his opponents even took the time to slow roll him.