Nobody has won more titles or made more final-table appearances in 2021 than Ali Imsirovic. The 26-year-old poker pro won his 13th title of the year on Nov. 5, giving him a seven-title lead over his nearest competition in that category.
Imsirovic took down one of the recent $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em events at the ARIA November High Roller Series, earning $120,000 and 240 Card Player Player of the Year points for this latest win.
This was Imsirovic’s 27th POY-qualified final table of the year. No other player on the circuit has yet to surpass 19 final tables. As a result of his incredible consistency, he now has a 1,648 point lead over second-ranked Qing Liu in the 2021 POY race, which is sponsored by Global Poker.
Imsirovic was also awarded 120 PokerGO Tour rankings points for the win. With 3,696 points earned so far, he is also the player to beat in that race.
While Imsirovic leads in titles and final-table appearances made, there is one category in which he is not at the very top this year: POY earnings. His $4,881,960 is currently in second place behind the $7,460,268 of Michael Addamo, who has won several of the largest buy-in events of the year including the $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl, the $50,000 high roller at the World Series of Poker, and two of the biggest tournaments at the Poker Masters.
Imsirovic’s most recent title run saw him overcome a field of 30 total players in the second of a series of high rollers scheduled to take place at ARIA during the early weeks of November. He overcame a tough final table that included the likes of four-time bracelet winner Ben Yu (4th – $33,000) and World Poker Tour main event winner Seth Davies (3rd – $48,000). Mo Rahim was the runner-up, earning $78,000 for his third final-table finish of the year.
Prior to Imsirovic’s win, the first event of this high roller series saw Ren Lin top a field of 41 entries to earn $147,600. Orpen Kisacikoglu took home $98,400 as the runner-up, while Alex Foxen secured $65,600 as the third-place finisher. Foxen was also awarded 200 POY points for his 19th final-table showing of the year. He now sits in sixth place in the overall POY rankings after this latest deep run in a high-roller event.
Below is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded in these two events.
ARIA High Roller 29 – $10,000 NLH:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points | PokerGO |
| 1 | Ren Lin | $147,600 | 300 | 148 |
| 2 | Orpen Kisacikoglu | $98,400 | 250 | 98 |
| 3 | Alex Foxen | $65,600 | 200 | 66 |
| 4 | Motoyoshi Okamura | $45,100 | 150 | 45 |
| 5 | Michael Lang | $32,800 | 125 | 33 |
| 6 | Juan Pardo | $20,500 | 100 | 21 |
ARIA High Roller 30 – $10,000 NLH:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points | PokerGO |
| 1 | Ali Imsirovic | $120,000 | 240 | 120 |
| 2 | Mo Rahim | $78,000 | 200 | 78 |
| 3 | Seth Davies | $48,000 | 160 | 48 |
| 4 | Ben Yu | $33,000 | 120 | 33 |
| 5 | John Andress | $21,000 | 100 | 21 |
Photo via Imsirovic’s Instagram account.