Ali Imsirovic and Jake Schindler have been banned from PokerGO events and removed from the PokerGO Tour Leaderboard rankings.
Imsirovic and Schindler have both topped the PokerGO Tour leaderboard at different points this year. Neither has been out of the top ten for the last few months. So, when the PokerGO team pulled Imsirovic and Schindler's names, they also completely rewrote the dynamics of the leaderboard.
The ban has created a tight race for first place as Phil Ivey moves to second place and Stephen Chidwick to first. There is just one point between the two players' scores. Ivey has 2,974 points and Chidwick 2,975 points.
Behind them is another cluster of players with close run scores. There are just 155 points between Michael Duek in third and Danny Tang in seventh. Between them are Jason Koon, Alex Foxen, and Espen Jorstad. All five of these players were headed for "also ran" status until Imsirovic and Schindler were removed from the rankings. Now all five players are in a competitive dash for third place.
In a series where a single victory over a decent-sized field can add a few hundred points to a score, there is still everything to play for everyone in the top ten.
The Schindler and Imsirovic bans followed high-profile accusations of cheating by other players and bans from online poker sites. PokerGO is among several organizations that have committed to more cross-platform cooperation in tackling poker's cheating problem.
The ban is indefinite and so might only be a short-term injunction. However, given the severity of the accusations, it is unlikely that the ban will lift in time to put the two players back into contention in any serious way.
Though if they do return to the leaderboard, it will cause another major reshuffle, jeopardizing the Phil Ivey victory that so many are rooting for.
