In the lead up to the 2022 PokerGO Tour Heads-Up Showdown event, the ARIA Resort & Casino hosted the first of a trio of high roller tournaments on Wednesday, Apr. 20. The $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event drew a field of 44 total entries, which resulted in a prize pool of $440,000 that was paid out among the top seven finishers. The last player standing was Ali Imsirovic, who earned $149,600 as the champion.
This was already the 27-year-old poker pro’s fifth title and 17th final-table finish of 2022. He was already the leader in both the Card Player and PokerGO Tour Player of the Year points races, but has now extended his lead as he looks to go back-to-back after winning both awards in 2021. He has cashed for more than $3 million in live tournaments so far in 2022.
The money bubble burst in this event when World Poker Tour champion and World Series of Poker bracelet winner Dylan Linde ran pocket sevens into the pocket jacks of Jesse Lonis.
Recent _Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown) $50,000 buy-in champion Andrew Lichtenberger lost a key pot with pocket kings facing the A-J of Imsiurovic to fall to the bottom of the chip counts. He then got the last of his stack in with K-10, only to have Jamil Wakil wake up with pocket aces. Lichtenberger was unable to come from behind and was eliminated in seventh place ($17,600).
Lonis was the next to fall, with his pocket kings being coolered by the pocket aces of Wakil, who extended his chip lead after his larger pair held up. Lonis earned $26,400 as the sixth-place finisher. This was his eighth final-table showing of 2022. He now sits inside the top 100 in the POY standings.
Sean Winter also made a splash in the points races thanks to a deep run in this event. The recent U.S. Poker Open player of the series award winner finished fifth for $35,200 when his pocket threes clashed with the pocket jacks of Justin Saliba. With 11 final-table finishes, two titles, and $1,890,300 in year-to-date earnings, Winter now sits in seventh place in the overall POY rankings. He is seventh on the PGT leaderboard.
After several pair-over-pair scenarios resulted in the most recent eliminations, Justin Saliba found himself in a classic prefop race for the last of his stack. His pocket sevens were ahead of Wakil’s K-J suited to start, but a king on the turn gave Wakil the lead and he never looked back. Saliba secured $48,400 as the fourth-place finisher.
Craig Mason got the last of his chips in with 9
8 on a KJ10 flop. He was facing K9 for Imsirovic. The 5 turn and 9 river were of no help to Mason and he was eliminated in third place ($66,000).
With that, heads-up play began with Wakil holding 2,320,000 to Imsirovic’s 2,080,000. Imsirovic quickly overtook the lead, and was able to extend to more than a 16:1 advantage by the time the final hand was dealt. Wakil shoved with 106 and Imsirovic called holding 77. The board ran out K4493 and Wakil was knocked out as the runner-up ($96,800).
Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded at the final table”
| Place | Player | Earnings (USD) | POY Points | PGT Points |
| 1 | Ali Imsirovic | $149,600 | 300 | 150 |
| 2 | Jamil Wakil | $96,800 | 250 | 97 |
| 3 | Craig Mason | $66,000 | 200 | 66 |
| 4 | Justin Saliba | $48,400 | 150 | 48 |
| 5 | Sean Winter | $35,200 | 125 | 35 |
| 6 | Jesse Lonis | $26,400 | 100 | 26 |
| 7 | Andrew Lichtenberger | $17,600 | 75 | 18 |
Photo provided by PokerGO.
