Daniel Negreanu Calls For Ban of Ali Imsirovic
One of the biggest scandals in the poker world in 2022 was the allegations that high stakes crusher Ali Imsirovic was cheating at online poker and colluding in live poker events. These allegations were backed up by a ban on the popular poker site GGPoker and a ban by the PokerGo Tour.
Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu is now calling for a complete ban of Imsirovic by all live and online poker rooms. He believes Imsirovic is still cheating at online poker and is “likely irredeemable at this point.”
Daniel Negreanu Calls On Indefinite Ban on Imsirovic
On Wednesday, Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu posted on Twitter about disgraced poker high-roller Ali Imsirovic. Here’s a copy of the tweet:
Negreanu spoke about Imsirovic, stating he thought the young crusher would be a fixture on the live tournament scene for a long time. However, his opinion has quickly shifted. He now believes that Imsirovic is “irredeemable at this point.” He says that Imsirovic is boasting about his antics and stealing from his former friends.
PokerNews posted on the Negreanu post and said that according to their sources, Imsirovic is now playing on unregulated online poker sites. Imsirovic has been playing on sites like GGPoker, but GGPoker subsequently banned him for using Real Times Assistance (RTA) while playing on the website.
How Did Imsirovic Cheat at Poker?
For those that don’t closely follow the live poker world, Ali Imsirovic was one of the top high-stakes poker players in the world before 2022. He amassed over $18.69 million in live poker tournament earnings. To this point, the highlight of his live career was a victory in the 2021 Super High Roller Bowl Europe for $598,000.
Imsirovic has multiple high roller event victories, including PokerGo Tour victories. However, things started to change for Imsirovic back in April 2022. Fellow pro Alex Foxen dropped a bombshell on the poker world that Imsirovic was a known cheater.
Among his allegations, Foxen claims that Imsirovic used Real-Time Assistance (RTA) software at online poker sites and was multi-accounting. Foxen also contends that Imsirovic was cheating in live poker events. He said Imsirovic was guilty of chip dumping and angle shooting in tournaments.
It was revealed around that time that Imsirovic was banned from GGPoker in 2020 for using RTA software. Despite the allegations, Imsirovic continued to play in live poker events through the Summer of 2022. He made the final table in the $75k High Roller Bounty at the 2022 World Series of Poker and cashed in the 2022 WSOP Main Event.
However, in September 2022, PokerGo announced that both Imsirovic and Jake Schindler were suspended by the PokerGo Tour. This was over cheating allegations from the pair. Schindler was also named a cheater around the same time as Imsirovic.
Will Poker Rooms Enact a Blacklist on Imsirovic and Others?
Many top poker pros, including Negreanu and Foxen, have called for an industry-wide poker blacklist. Such a list would permanently ban known cheaters from playing in live and online poker rooms. However, such a list is only as good as the rooms that use it.
A poker blacklist would be enforced by legitimate online casinos and online poker rooms, but many unregulated or unlicensed rooms would not. One such example is the popular Americas Cardroom in the United States. ACR is one site that Imsirovic is reportedly still playing at despite his current reputation.
A poker blacklist would undoubtedly be helpful for those playing in legitimate poker rooms, but those in unregulated rooms are still at risk. This is one reason we always recommend playing at licensed and regulated poker rooms and casinos. Doing so eliminates the risk associated with playing at unlicensed sites.
