Poker Masters Champ Ali Imsirovic Wins US Poker Open Event #5: $25,000 NLH ($442,500)
Last September, 24-year-old Ali Imsirovic won back-to-back events at the 2018 Poker Masters on his way to capturing the overall series championship and prestigious purple jacket. After taking the past couple months off from the game, he returned to the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas and claimed another title.
This time he beat a 59-entry field to win the 2019 US Poker Open Event #5: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em for $442,500, the fourth-largest score of his burgeoning career.
"I'm much less risk-averse than other players and I'm more aggressive, so I might make fewer final tables but when I do I usually have a lot of chips and perhaps a little better chance of getting the win," Imsirovic said after the win. "Today just went so fast. As first the two short stacks doubled up but then I had back-to-back bust outs against Nick Petrangelo and Dan Shak, and the heads up with Cary didn't last too long either. If he had doubled up, however, we might've been here a while longer."
Event #5: $25,000 NLH Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ali Imsirovic | United States | $442,500 |
| 2 | Cary Katz | United States | $295,000 |
| 3 | Dan Shak | United States | $206,500 |
| 4 | Nick Petrangelo | United States | $147,500 |
| 5 | Kristen Bicknell | Canada | $118,000 |
| 6 | Joseph Cappello | United States | $88,500 |
Final Table Action
Imsirovic began the final table as chip leader and it took him approximately two hours to close things out. First, Nick Petrangelo got things started by eliminating the short-stacked Joe Cappello, who saw his Big Slick straightened out by king-jack all in preflop.
Dan Shak then won a race with pocket nines against queen-jack to dispatch Kristen Bicknell in fifth place, and a short time later Petrangelo ran pocket jacks smack dab into Imsirovic’s two black aces. The rockets held and Imsirovic pulled out to a massive lead.
When Shak jammed two pair with an inferior flush draw into Imsirovic, who had trips with a better flush draw, it set up a heads-up match with the latter holding a 10:1 lead over Cary Katz.
In the final hand of the tournament, Katz check-raised all in after flopping a flush drawn and Imsirovic called with middle pair. Katz turned more outs by turning a small pair, but he missed when an offsuit eight bricked the river.
Katz, who earlier in the series finished fifth in Event #2: $10K PLO for $51,200, had to settle for second place and $295,000 in prize money.
PokerNews coverage of the 2019 USPO continues now with live updates from Event #6: $25,000 PLO, which you can follow here.
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on the button and Cary Katz defended holding the 
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flop and Imsirovic bet 140,000. Katz check-raised all in for 1.07 million and Imsirovic pondered for a bit before making the call.
turn gave Katz a couple more outs, but Imsirovic was confident it was "too many outs." Indeed it was as the 
bricked the river to send Katz out the door in second place.
, Shak checked and Imsirovic bet 75,000.
turn. Imsirovic raised to 550,000 and then snap-called when Shak three-bet all in for 1.92 million.
river was no help to Shak and just like that he was sent to the rail in third place.
gave both players a set, while the 
.
