Ali Imsirovic Defeats Eric Worre Heads-Up to Win Event #5: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em

After an extended bubble play that took nearly an hour, heads-up play last all of seven hands before Ali Imsirovic emerged victorious in the Venetian High Roller Event #5: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em after surviving a massive cooler against Eric Worre heads-up. The 34-entrant field generated a total prize pool of $340,000, with Imsirovic taking home the $136,000 first-place prize.

Imsirovic entered heads-up play with a slight chip lead, but Worre would eventually take a 10,000 chip lead into the cooler to end the night. Imsirovic opened to 75,000, and Worre defended the big blind. The dealer spread the on the flop, and Worre check-called a 100,000 chip continuation bet. The turn checked through, and when the river hit the felt the fireworks began to fly. Worre bet 325,000, and Imsirovic used all of his shot clock before moving all-in for just over 1.5 million chips. Worre went deep into the tank, saying, “Dude, I have a great hand. I was slow playing you. I don’t think I can fold.” Before using two time extensions and eventually sliding in the call.

Worre tabled for a flopped two pair, but Imsirovic tabled for a turned set of kings to collect the pot and leave Worre with just 10,000 in chips. On the next hand, Worre was all-in holding king-five against the ace-queen of Imsirovic. The board ran out clean, Imsirovic took home the trophy and added to his already sizeable PokerGO Tour points lead.

Worre held the chip lead for most of the day after eliminating Barry Hutter late in level 8 for over a 1.3 million chip pot. Worre opened to 20,000 only to see Hutter three-bet to 55,000. Worre four-bet to 160,000, and Hutter called. The flop fell king high, and Worre moved all-in, and Hutter snap called. Hutter held aces against the ace-king of Worre. The turn was no help, but when the king of spades hit the river Worre spiked trips to collect the pot and control over 38 percent of the chips in play. Unfortunately, Worre could not parlay that chip lead into the win, settling for the $88,400 second-place prize.

Sean Winter followed up his fifth-place finish in Event #4: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em with a third place finish for $54,400 in Event #5. Winter navigated a short stack for the entire final table before falling victim to Imsirovic. Winter held pocket tens against Imsirovic’s pocket nines and looked to be in great shape to double, but a river nine sealed his fate.

Rounding out the players in the money were Cary Katz, who followed up a third-place finish in Event #4 with a fourth-place finish in Event #5 for $37,400. High Roller newcomer and the lone woman in the field, Katie Wier, finished in fifth place for $23,800 after navigating the bubble with the second shortest stack in the field from eight-handed play to the money.

Nick Schulman would fall to Imsirovic on the direct bubble after getting his last 185,000 all-in from the small blind with jack-ten. Imsirovic woke up with aces in the big blind, proceed to flop a set, and had Schulman drawing dead on the turn to bust the money bubble and send Schulman to the rail. Other notables to finish just off the money included Sam Soverel, Bill Klein, Nick Petrangelo, and David Peters.

The PokerGO News Live Reporting team will be back on The Venetian Resort Las Vegas to provide live updates of Event #6 $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em starting Saturday, August 14, at 2 p.m. PT.

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