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Prior to 2025, the World Series of Poker had handed out a bracelet to the winner of every single tournament that had been held at the annual competition since its inception 55 years ago. However, that is no longer the case thanks to the ruling issued in the wake of an investigation into collusion accusations that surfaced following an event in June.
The people who head to Las Vegas to compete in the World Series of Poker are primarily motivated by the money that’s up for grabs, but there’s also plenty of prestige associated with the bracelets that are awarded to the person who manages to outlast the rest of the field at the various events that are held each year.
As things currently stand, more than 350 people have managed to win at least one bracelet at the WSOP. That includes Jesse Yaginuma, who’d racked up three of them in online events heading into this year and was hoping to get his first one at an in-person tournament in 2025.
It initially appeared he had managed to do exactly that last month when he staged a dramatic comeback while going heads up with James Carroll at the $1,500 Millionaire Maker No-Limit Hold’em event en route to winning the $1,255,180 jackpot reserved for the winner.
However, things took an unexpected turn when WSOP officials announced they were launching an investigation into a potential case of collusion stemming from a voucher Yaginuma had secured by winning a nacho-eating contest ahead of the tournament that could be redeemed for a $1 million bonus if he was able to win an event.
The two players were seen chatting during a break in the action, and many people who watched Yaginuma surge back suspected he’d told Carroll (who was slated to receive $1,012,320 for his second-place finish) he’d get a chunk of the prize if he engaged in the illegal chip dumping that skeptical observers asserted serve to facilitate the comeback.
On Monday night, the WSOP issued an unprecedented ruling when it revealed it would not award a bracelet for the first time in the history of an event that was first held in 1970 while saying Yaginuma and Carroll would simply split the money that was still up for grabs (meaning they’ll each take hom $1,133,750)
The investigation into WSOP Event 53 has been completed.
We have concluded that in order to uphold the integrity of the game and to uphold our official WSOP Tournament Rules, no winner will be recognized and no bracelet will be awarded for this year’s tournament. The remaining… https://t.co/giL0Ij9Cwj
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 1, 2025
If you’re curious, ClubWPT Gold—the company that issued the $1 million voucher—has already said it would honor it despite the suspicious circumstances surrounding the manner in which Yaginuma earned the right to cash it in and confirmed that will still be the case after the ruling was issued.