High Roller: Ali Imsirovic Earns PokerGO Player of the Year Title; Tour Kicks Off New Season at Venetian
The PokerGO Tour (presented by Guaranteed Rate) recently wrapped up the 2021 season with Ali Imsirovic scoring the Player of the Year title. The high roller regular has been one of the most successful players in poker over the last few years.
“It still feels pretty surreal, to be honest,” Imsirovic said in a news release. “I never thought I would accomplish something of this magnitude in poker. Next, the goal is to just keep trying to get better and solidify and keep proving that I belong here.”
A dominating year
Over the last year, Imsirovic dominated at the poker tables. That record has included 14 victories, 34 cashes, and more than $6 million in live tournament winnings.
Imsirovic finished the year with 4,364 points, nearly 1,300 points ahead of the next closest competitor. His 2021 wins came on several big tournament stages including:
- Aria High Rollers
- Venetian High Roller
- US Poker Open
- PokerGO Cup
- Super High Roller Bowl Europe
- WPT Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open High Roller
The poker phenom is originally from Bosnia before his family moved to Vancouver, Washington. Taking the POY title brings an additional $200,000 in prize money for Imsirovic.
Big check vibes! Ali Imsirovic crowned Player of the Year of the inaugural season of the @PokerGO Tour presented by @GuaranteedRate. pic.twitter.com/JotuoIeI4j
— PokerGO News (@PokerGOnews) December 22, 2021
Australia’s Michael Addamo finished in second place and earned a $100,000 prize. A late surge during the World Series of Poker vaulted him into the runner-up position ahead of Sean Perry.
Perry had been Imsirovic’s closest competition for most of 2021 but ultimately finished third on for an extra $50,000.
This marked the first year of the PokerGO Tour. The season produced more than 17,600 entries across 143 tournaments. Buy-ins ranged from $10,000 up to $300,000 with more than $262 million in prize money awarded and 87 unique winners.
Rok Gostisa takes Tour Championship title
The PokerGO Tour closed out the season on Dec. 21 in Las Vegas with Slovenia’s Rok Gostisa winning the $50,000 PokerGO Tour Championship. The tournament was the final event of the inaugural season.
Gostisa topped a field of 46 entries to win $689,100. Michael Gathy finished runner-up for $598,900. When the final table began, Gostisa needed to rally from the short stack.
“I didn’t expect to win because I came in seven out of seven, so it feels amazing,” Gostisa said.
The victory became the largest of Gostisa’s live poker career, capping a breakout year. Prior to 2021, he didn’t have a year with more than $74,000 in live tournament winnings. The PokerGO win helped him reach $1.6 million in live winnings for the year.
“I was basically just playing online and because of COVID I didn’t travel,” Gostisa said. “This year has been going well, so I’m really happy about how it turned out.”
2021 PokerGO Tour Championship results
- Rok Gostisa – $689,100
- Michael Gathy – $598,900
- Sergi Reixach – $345,000
- Jake Schindler – $253,000
- Jacob Ferro – $184,000
- Ren Lin – $138,000
- Dominik Nitsche – $92,000
Second season gets underway with addition
With one season now in the books, year two of the PokerGO Tour kicks off Jan. 5 at the Venetian in Las Vegas. The property hosts several events in the first season and is running four high roller tournaments from Jan. 5-8.
Along with the events at the Venetian, the first half of the season includes the new Stairway To Millions, PokerGO Cup, PokerGO Heads-Up Championship, Aria High Rollers, Super High Roller Bowl Russia (presented by Luxon Pay), US Poker Open, and the Super High Roller Bowl VII.
“The inaugural season of the PokerGO Tour awarded more than a quarter of a billion dollars in prize money and surpassed all expectations,” PokerGO President Mori Eskandani said.
“The sport of poker demands that we celebrate those that perform at the pinnacle of competition. In the PokerGO Tour’s second season, we are ready to raise the bar and continue to showcase poker’s elite at the game’s highest stakes.”
The tour features only tournaments with buy-ins of $10,000 or greater and ranks the game’s elite players. In 2022, players at the top of the leaderboard will find something new.
The top six point earners will face off in a special end-of-season tournament. Starting chip stacks are determined by the number of points earned throughout the season.
Many 2022 events will be streamed live on the PokerGO platform, available on mobile devices, web browsers, and smart TVs.