Congratulations to Ali Imsirovic, Winner of Event #5: $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em ($462,000)
Today saw another six players gather at the final table for Event #5: $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em and fight over the largest prizepool thus far in the Poker Masters. It took only three hours for Ali Imsirovic to come out on top after making short order of Ben Yu in heads-up play.
Both Imsirovic and Yu admitted they are fairly new to the high-roller scene after grinding out the mid-stakes for numerous years. Yu has a little more credentials on his resume with three WSOP gold bracelets but Imsirovic is starting to make a name for himself as well. The Vancouver, Washington native will add $462,000 to his $1.1 million in career earnings after taking down the title.
While Yu pocketed $330,000 for himself, he also moved into third place in the Purple Jacket race. Just 60 points behind the leader Brandon Adams, Yu will likely hop into the remaining two events looking to accumulate enough points to take down the prestige title of Poker Masters champion.
Poker Masters Event #5 Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Ali Imsirovic | United States | $462,000 |
| 2nd | Ben Yu | United States | $330,000 |
| 3rd | Brian Rast | United States | $214,500 |
| 4th | Jake Schindler | United States | $165,000 |
| 5th | Jason Koon | United States | $132,000 |
| 6th | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | $99,000 |
Final Table Action
When the action got underway, Daniel Negreanu was sitting on just seven big blinds and his chips quickly deteriorated with each passing orbit. He was unable to spin up a stack when he was forced all in with rags against Yu's pocket eights and finished in sixth place again. It was just moments later that Jason Koon found himself all in with ace-ten but ran into the ace-king of Ismirovic. Koon was unable to overcome the sizeable deficit and exited in fifth place.
Four-handed play continued for nearly two hours with the chip stacks staying fairly level. Jake Schindler came into the day as the chipleader but seemed it took forever for him to even win his first pot. The cold deck continued for Schindler and he eventually found himself on just over five big blinds. He shoved all in from the small blind but was called by a much stronger hand from Imsirovic in the big blind. Schindler was drawing dead on the turn and walked away with a fourth-place finish.
Brian Rast held onto the chip lead for a good portion of the final table but his aggressive play style eventually led to his demise. Imsirovic laid the trap on the button with pocket jacks and Rast fell right into with ace-five in the big blind. That swung the tide in Imsirovic's favor and he never looked back. Rast eventually bowed out in third place leaving the two young guns to battle it out for the title.
Imsirovic took a sizeable chip lead into the heads-up battle with Yu and it only took three hands before all of the chips got in the middle. Imsirovic's pocket fives held against the ace-six of Yu to capture the win in quick fashion.
That wraps up another final table here at the Poker Masters but you can check out the action currently going on in Event #6: $50,000 No-Limit Hold'em. The PokerNews team will be here to bring you all of the coverage throughout the entire series until a Purple Jacket winner is crowned.
2018 Poker Masters Purple Jacket Rankings
| Rank | Player | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Brandon Adams | United States | 510 |
| 2nd | Isaac Haxton | United States | 480 |
| T-3rd | Ben Yu | United States | 360 |
| T-3rd | Ali Imsirovic | United States | 360 |
| T-5th | David Peters | United States | 300 |
| T-5th | Keith Lehr | United States | 300 |
| T-7th | Jake Schindler | United States | 270 |
| T-7th | Jonathan Depa | United States | 270 |
| 9th | Jason Koon | United States | 240 |