ShareImage courtesy of PokerGO.com
Ali Imsirovic has finally addressed the claims of cheating that have dogged him since early 2022, releasing a 28-minute video confessing to online multi-accounting but refuting allegations of live cheating and ghosting.
The Background
The 28-year-old Bosnian-American highstakes pro has been persona non grata in the poker community since Alex Foxen outed him as a cheat in April of last year. However, until yesterdayâs video, Imsirovic had not publicly commented on any of the allegations made against him.Alex Foxenâs public denouncement of Imsirovic, closely followed by Justin Bonomoâs calling out of Imsirovicâs best friend, Jake Schindler, led to serious repercussions for both men.
Although they were still able to play the WSOP, the online ban from GGPoker was followed by a live arena â86â by the likes of the PokerGO Tour.
Neither Imsirovic nor Schindler were seen at other highroller series, such as the prestigious and lucrative Triton Poker Super High Roller Series.
The Confession
In a completely unexpected move, Imsirovic has now spoken out at length about the online multi-accounting, ghosting, live cheating and RTA-use allegations that have plagues him for more than a year.Insane action, multi-accounting and âshady shitâ
Imsirovic starts his confessional by explaining that when the Covid pandemic hit in early 2020 âthere was insane highstakes action online.âHe then revealed: âWe were all playing a ridiculous amount of buy-ins every day and I ended up making a mistake, a really bad mistake, and began multi-accounting MTTs...â
âI did this for about 4 or 5 months,â says Imsirovic, claiming he started multi-accounting because he believed there was âa lot of shady shit happening in those games.â
He claims that other players were âcard-sharing, multi-ing and working as teams,â later calling out several of his accusers for the same or worse behaviour than that which he himself stands accused.
However, he admits that âit doesnât excuse what I did."
âThere were plenty of guys in those pools that were playing good honest poker,â naming David Peters, Ike Haxton, and Nick Petrangelo. âThey didnât deserve it, they didnât deserve me multi-accounting.â
The $320,000 GGPoker Ban
Imsirovic says he multi-accounted for 4 or 5 months, then stopped, claiming he played fairly for the next two months. However, in August 2020, GGPoker when they banned him and 81 other accounts for, according to Ali himself, using RTA.The Real-Time Assistance bans, according to Imsirovic, were mainly for using âMonker pre-flop charts open while they were playing.â This, he says, was a common occurrence, with âmultiple well-respected highstakes playersâ apparently telling him they also used Monker charts, but on another computer, therefore untraceable.
The ban led to Imsirovic having the $320,000 in his GGPoker account confiscated, which he wrote off completely when multi-accounting was added to his list of wrongdoing.
Rubbernecking or live reading?
Worse was to follow when Foxen outed him on Twitter claiming egregious live poker behaviour as well...The claims that he rubber-necked Paul Phua were described by Imsirovic yesterday as âa Twitter temper tantrumâ, going on to explain this was only his live tell reading in action.
Ghosting and RTA?
More recent accusations of ghosting his horses and using RTA online are discussed at length in the video, the former described as âcompletely fucking ridiculous.âImsirovic claims that he has recently disbanded his stable, and himself only plays some âapp games and some live cash gamesâ, with poker coaching taking up much of his time.
âI donât play on ACR, I donât play online MTTs at all,â he stated, answering recent allegations about cheating on the US-facing site, accusations which led ACR boss Phil Nagy to put a $100,000 bounty on his head if proof were shown.
RTA in MTTs Unworkable
Imsirovic goes into some detail as to why RTA isnât a likely cheating method.âI donât think people really understand what RTA really means, and how hard it is to RTA in MTTS,â he says, explaining that the ever-escalating levels make the amount of sims required almost unimaginable.
âOnce the MTT reaches level 6 or 7, these sims are already kind of useless,â he says, explaining further that this occurs again and again as the tournament goes deeper.
âItâs literally impossible for me to build an RTA where I just have all these post-flop spots ran, or the hundreds of thousands of unique situations that could come up.â
Why the long silence?
âAt first I felt like I deserved all the hate,â admits Imsirovic, adding: âWhile Iâm here to let you know what claims are bullshit, Iâm also here to admit to what Iâve done.âClaiming he was âso angry and so frustratedâ at the situation he had put himself in, he âhatedâ poker and himself for a long time.
More Multi-accounting
Imsirovic then admits in the video to multi-accounting even after the ban, claiming he was so annoyed by all the public shaming that he decided he might as well live up to his bad boy name.He revealed: âI played roughly six Sundays where I did multi to give myself a revenue stream in poker again...I knew it was a mistake, I donât have any excuses for it, Iâm not proud of it...â
However, he also claims that he stopped again after a good friend urged him not to become the thing people were accusing him of being.
Not the only one guilty of cheating
Although he doesnât name names, claiming he isnât trying to âthrow anyone under a busâ, Imsirovic does point the finger at several of his accusers.âOne of the main accusers has had a âchip EV RTAâ since 2018 or 2019 and plays the highest stakes ... one of them is banned from multiple sites for multi-ing ... one of them multi-ed âStars for years ... one of them was multi-ing $5k SNGs for a while back in the day and is somehow now thought of as a respected figure in poker.â
Who is who in this list we will leave to you, the reader, to work out but rest assured that this story has only just hit the streets and has a long way still to run.
