The start of 2022 was full of serious allegations in the poker world, with Ali Imsirovic, Jake Schindler and Bryn Kenney being named as cheaters and even accused of practicing a "shamanic" cult. Today, we're going to take a look at Bosnian player Ali Imsirovic, whose accusation of cheating at the massive $250k Super High Roller Bowl was just the tip of the iceberg, after he already had a GG ban for multi-accounting to his credit.
Bryn Kenney, as a world number one, confronted the matter and immediately publicly denied all the accusations, but Jake and Ali crawled into the background and did not make any official statement in their defense. Both were banned from some online poker sites, and both were also banned from live events on the PokerGO Tour series. Consequently, the ground has literally fallen out from under them since last year's WSOP in the field of live high rollers.
After more than a year, suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, Ali surprised the community with a half-hour video, which starts off with a harsh, "I made a really big mistake. In 2020, during the time of covid, there was an insane amount of action on online nosebleed games, and well, I started using multi-accounting here on MTTs. I did it for about 4-5 months, and the reason I got into it was because there was a lot of nefarious stuff going on in the background in these games. I know of people who were playing team play there, sharing cards with each other, so I was looking for a way to play with them. It doesn't excuse what I did, there were players who didn't deserve me to play against them like that."
The confession goes on to dissect these games, after which Ali turns the page and vehemently denies all other allegations of fraud, led by the one brought against him by Alex Foxen last year. This was the aforementioned SHRB Cyprus situation, where, according to Foxen, Ali saw Paul Phua's cards and used them to win the game in question.
Ali opens the CO with Ah9c. Then quite visibly looks down at Paul Phua's hole cards, Ad5. The actual footage makes it even more clear than this screen shot. Paul folds and Addamo defends the BB. Ali cbets and gets raised on 642ddd, sticks in a 3bet and wins the hand. pic.twitter.com/aIhQw4Hqv4
— Alex Foxen (@WAFoxen) April 18, 2022
He called other allegations, including that he owned a stable of online cheaters or that he used real-time assistance during online games, "totally f*cking ridiculous." He likewise added that although he and Jake Schindler are friends, they never cheated together. Ali ended the video by stating, "I feel like I've done all my duty and I want to finally get over it." Well, while he may have naively expected this to be the end of it all, the reality is vastly different.
The poker community didn't embrace Ali with open arms, as he might have naively thought, but instead it unleashed a wave of hate even more. This was aided by an anonymous whistleblower who suggested that Imsirovic apparently believed that multi-account was a relatively minor offence and that by admitting to it, he might absolve himself of responsibility for any other crimes. To add insult to injury, this informant shared 22 online accounts that were alleged to be responsible for more than half a million dollars worth of fraud. While it is impossible to positively attribute them to Ali, many hints suggest that if confirmed, everything would fall into place nicely.
In fact, all the bills have a repeating pattern as they were created almost at the same time in 2020 and immediately started playing nosebleed games. For the most part, these accounts were mainly turned on by tournaments that had around 40 entrants, but what's equally striking about them is that most of them stopped being active after about 2,500 games, which is consistent with his statement about GG freezing several accounts at the end of 2020. The combined numbers of those accounts show a win of around $500,000, with at one point being as much as $1.2-million in profit. In the video, Ali admitted that GG confiscated $320,000 from him, but it's unclear if it was from his account or the other multi-accounts.
If all of this were true, it is mind-boggling how "profitable" this multi-gaming could have been. When you add up the 22 accounts that played tournaments with an average field of 40 players, you get a high probability of table sharing between those accounts, which made the game much easier. Even if these accounts weren't Ali's, they just demonstrate that multi-account in small-player field tournaments is a much more serious form of cheating than it might seem at first sight.
A nice commentary on the whole thing was added by PokerStrategy editor Barry Carter, who reflected on the timing of the whole statement. After all, since the statement on the accusation came over a year later (and over three years after the multi-accounting itself), the question is pertinent - why now? Did Ali feel so guilty that he couldn't take it any longer, or is there something else in the matter?
By comparison, Bryn Kenney gave an interview about the allegations a couple of days later, as did Martin Kabrhel a couple of days ago immediately at Doug Polk's or on his Twitter account responding to all the allegations. Whatever you think of either of these two men, the speed with which they responded to the allegations speaks in their favor. Rather, it's a sign that they have nothing to hide, while the long wait, on the contrary, indicates an effort to strategize their next move.
Barry likened the statement to the Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson affair, who spoke out about the whole FullTilt affair years after Black Friday (in May 2016 and May 2018, respectively). Yes, you guessed right, in May precisely because the WSOP kicks off at the end of it, and both of them wanted to attend. Overall, Ali's style of statement, where he immediately added an excuse at the same time with each confession, plays more into the theory that he just wanted to "do his duty", stuff our mouths with shallow statements and return to the tables contentedly.
What do you say? Do you defend his reasons for going into multi-accounting? Do you think he cheated on the other charges as well? And do you think this whole video is just an excuse for him to finally jump back into the game with a clear conscience? Let us know in the comments!
Source: PokerNews, PokerStrategy, Twitter, YouTube
