The recently completed U. S. Poker Open at the PokerGO Studios in Las Vegas has shifted a great deal of money around the “High Roller” world. It also has caused a change atop the standings for the 2022 PokerGO Tour Player of the Year race. After holding the lead almost since its inception of the leaderboard, Ali Imsirovic has lost the lead to up and coming “High Roller” Isaac Kempton, who had a rather good run over the previous couple of weeks.
Complete Shuffle on Top Ten
Going into the USPO, it was Tony Sinishtaj who was leading the way. Sinishtaj only had one cash, however, but it was a big one – the 2022 Wynn Millions Main Event. Sinishtaj defeated Kempton in heads-up play, putting both men atop the standings heading into the USPO.
Kempton would add a tremendous run at the USPO to take over the top slot on the leaderboard. Using two deep finishes in tournaments – Event #8’s $15,000 Pot Limit Omaha tournament and Event #10’s $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha gathering – Kempton would rack up a sizeable chunk of points. Along with his work at the Wynn Millions earlier this year, Kempton has amassed 1375 points and leads the PokerGO Tour Player of the Year race despite not winning an event yet.
Imsirovic also made some moves during the USPO, finishing deep in three events including Event #11, the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em event. It was not enough to take the top slot, however, only pushing Imsirovic’s tally up to 1369 points for the year. Sinishtaj, for his part, has not added to his total after his victory at the Wynn Millions, but he still has 1250 points for third place in the standings.
Here are the Top Ten players on the PokerGO Tour leaderboard entering April:
1. Isaac Kempton, 1375 points
2. Ali Imsirovic, 1369
3. Tony Sinishtaj, 1250
4. Sean Winter, 1217
5. Sean Perry, 1147
6. Nick Petrangelo, 1119
7. Jeremy Ausmus, 1049
8. Alex Foxen, 986
9. Alex Livingston, 886
10. Cary Katz, 845
All Positioning At this Point
It is all about positioning at this point for the players vying for the PokerGO Tour crown. The players are looking to get into the final 21 players, who will be the ones who gather in December for the PokerGO Tour Championship. Those 21 players will take part in a $500,000 “winner take all” sit and go (let’s be honest, 21 players aren’t a full-fledged tournament), with the eventual victor not only picking up the $500K for winning but also the PokerGO Tour Championship.
The players will start that event with differing stacks dependent on where they finished in the standings. This means that the player who finishes the season in first will have a certain sized stack, second will have fewer chips, and so on down the ladder to the 21st place player. That player will start the PokerGO Tour Championship as the short stack and have a difficult climb to the title.
The standings that you see above are going to change rapidly over the next three months. In April and May alone, there are 26 point-scoring events for the PokerGO Tour, beginning with tomorrow’s first event at the Triton Merit Poker High Roller Series in Cyprus. Another 25 points events will be held during the World Series of Poker, meaning there are plenty of opportunities for players to ascend to the top of the leaderboard for the 2022 PokerGO Tour Player of the Year race.
