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Ali Imsirovic wins USPO Event #5 – $25k NLHE

The prestigious US Poker Open (USPO) made a comeback for its 2^nd annual edition at ARIA, Las Veags. The USPO 2019 series kicked off on 13^th February with Event #1 – $10k NLHE, won by UK’s Stephen Chidwick. Chidwick made his 3^rd USPO title win, after having won back-to-back titles in the inaugural edition last year.

Another one of the UPSO events, the Event #5 $25k NLHE is now in the books too. The winner to ship the 5^th title of 2019 USPO was Ali Imsirovic, who took home $442,500 (~INR 3.16 Crores) yesterday, 18^th February, making his 4^th largest live score.

24-year old Imsirovic, originally from Bosnia & Herzegovina but now residing in US, overcame the 59-entry field in the tournament to secure his victory. He has numerous accomplishments to his name in the past. He won consecutive Poker Masters titles in September last year, winning $25k and $50k NLHEs in the 2018 Poker Masters series and making his biggest live cash in the latter for $799k. He won the iconic Poker Masters Purple Jacket too.

He likes to play high-stakes and has finished 7^th in the 2018 SHR Bowl last December for 540k. A month before that, he finished 3^rd in 2018 partypoker Caribbean Poker Party SHR for $400k. He has strong feats to his name in 2018 and he’ll be hoping to continue this trend for the rest of the year as well.

Heads-up saw well-known US pro Cary Katz pitted against Imsirovic. The final hand of the tournament saw Katz check-raise all-in after flopping a flush draw, holding Kc 5c. Imsirovic was with 9c 6s and made Sixes after tanking for a bit. The turn of 5d gave Katz a few more outs but the 8h river bricked, and Katz had to settle for 2^nd place and $295k cash prize.

Final Table Pay-outs:

1. Ali Imsirovic – $442,500
2. Cary Katz – $295,000
3. Dan Shak – $206,500
4. Nick Petrangelo – $147,500
5. Kristen Bicknell – $118,000
6. Joseph Cappello – $88,500

Brandon Adams, Chris Hunichen and Justin Bonomo filled the 7^th, 8^th and 9^th position respectively out of the top 9 paid places. The next event in the line-up, $25k PLO event had also started on yesterday. Stephen Chidwick is leading in chip counts as the only player with over 2 million chips and has great odds with him to ship it.

He has secured at least $58.5k in the tournament, which is his 4^th FT finish in 2019 USPO. Others to make it to the FT are Anthony Zinno, Tom Marchese, Sean Rafael, Ben Lamb and Cary Katz. Some of the notables who were left out in the tournament were 2018 GPI Player of the Year Alex Foxen, Erik Seidel and Run It Once founder Phil Galfond.

Final Table Chip Counts:

1. Stephen Chidwick – 2,375,000
2. Anthony Zinno – 1,225,000
3. Sean Rafael – 890,000
4. Cary Katz – 665,000
5. Ben Lamb – 450,000
6. Tom Marchese – 265,000

Keep reading GutshotMagazine.com for more such international tournament round-ups, results and general poker updates from around the world.

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