
Show Notes
Ali Imsirovic is just 26 years old, but has already established himself as a dominant force on the high roller circuit. The Bosnia-born, Washington-raised poker pro broke out in 2018 when he captured the purple jacket at the Poker Masters, and in the time since has gone on to rack up numerous final tables and wins totaling almost $11 million in cashes.
Last August, Imsirovic broke the record for the largest no-limit hold'em cash game pot in online poker history, winning a hand against Tan Xuan worth $974,631. He has also been one of the more active players since live tournaments resumed, cashing in eight of the 14 high rollers held at Aria so far in 2021, and winning four. As a result, he is now one of the front-runners for the Card Player Player of the Year title.
Highlights from this interview include fleeing the war in Bosnia, how a basketball injury led to poker, skipping grades and going to college at 16, using his guitar money for a tournament buy-in, trading in a date for a win at the casino, getting robbed, ice cream inspiration from Bryn Kenney, getting humbled in his first round of high rollers, winning the purple jacket at the Poker Masters, six-figure bubbles, being able to pull the trigger, bad beat for the bracelet, winning a million dollar pot, never having a job, and Eminem's Stan.
More from Poker Stories
Dylan Weisman spent the pandemic "in the lab," pouring over numbers that few had ever bothered to look at before when it came to the game of PLO. While solvers had been in use for years by high-stakes pros for no-limit hold'em, pot-limit Omaha had been largely ignored, and Weisman saw an opportunity.
Scott Seiver called his shot in 2024, making it known that he intended to win World Series of Poker Player of the Year honors. After 17 cashes, nearly $1.5 million in earnings, and three bracelets, he accomplished his goal and will have a banner hanging at the Horseshoe/Paris for future generations of poker players to see.
Matt Savage was Tournament Director for the World Series of Poker during the poker boom, and has since spent more than a decade as the Executive Tour Director for the World Poker Tour. But the perennial Poker Hall of Fame nominee is also a co-founder of the Tournament Director's Association, which helped to standardize poker tournament rules.
Victoria Livschitz jumped head first into the shark-infested waters of the high roller scene in late 2021, having spent her pandemic lockdown studying all she could about the game. While others may have been intimidated by the talent at the very top of the pyramid, in an environment with very few women, Livschitz had already seen it all before, having found success with a number of different business ventures in male-dominated industries.
Barny Boatman spent much of his youth traveling the world, living in numerous countries and working a variety of jobs that included factory worker, bartender, journalist, English teacher, computer programmer, board game inventer, and even movie reviewer. But it was in the poker world that he found his true calling.