Ali Imsirovic has been recruiting poker players to coach, raising concerns in the poker community about his alleged cheating. [Image: PokerGO.com]
Ali Imsirovic offers coaching
Poker pro Ali Imsirovic’s Instagram bio is a single line reading: “Contact Alicoachingbookings@gmail.com for poker coaching!”
This surprising turn of events was brought to the poker world’s attention by Barry Carter, who posted a screengrab of Imsirovic’s Instagram story. In the screengrab, Imsirovic says he’s “been coaching a few guys” and is looking to “add” a few more.
Imsirovic has been very quiet since he was accused of cheating by Alex Foxen in April 2022. Foxen described watching Imsirovic “quite visibly look down at Paul Phua’s hole cards” during a Super High Roller Bowl stream.
Foxen also said that Imsirovic was “banned from GG for Multi-accounting and RTA,” as well as being “known as a cheater to almost all in the high roller community.”
subsequently banned from events on the PokerGO tour
Imsirovic was subsequently banned from events on the PokerGO tour and therefore from a significant portion of $10,000+ live tourneys in the US. Foxen also claimed to have witnessed chip dumping and suspicious play from Imsirovic and his dodgy cronies.
Now the poker community worries that he’s recruiting a whole new generation of younger, dodgier cronies.
Nagy offers a bounty
Phil Galfond responded by expressing his wish that “someone will infiltrate & expose [Imsirovic’s] current cheating methods (and not turn evil).”
Winning Poker Network CEO Phil Nagy then gave that wish some tangible hope by putting up a $100,000 wanted poster for anyone who could provide evidence of Imsirovic’s cheating methods.
Nagy may not have ensured that Imsirovic is brought to justice, but he has probably made Imsirovic’s coaching inbox utterly unusable. Not all heroes wear capes, but this one does, and it is America’s Cardroom-branded.
Poker world does not offer redemption
A couple of years ago, Imsirovic was one of the poker world’s golden boys. He won PokerGO’s Player of the Year in 2021, had WSOPC rings on two of his fingers, and $18.7m in live tournament cashes.
His online poker bans were often overlooked as red flags because they were old. There are plenty of non-sinister reasons to be banned from an online poker site.
gave those red flags a fresh dye and a new urgency
Foxen breaking the ring of silence among the high stakes players who actually competed with Imsirovic gave those red flags a fresh dye and a new urgency.
Imsirovic’s silence allowed him to avoid a Streisand effect, but, Phils Galfond and Nagy are still sending the message, “Don’t Lie to Me.”