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The World Series of Poker is currently in full swing, and Jesse Yaginuma appeared to pull off a huge comeback to beat James Carroll in the heads-up showdown at the Millionaire Maker event. However, both players have been deprived of their winnings over concerns they broke the rules by colluding with each other.
It’s been two months since the 56th edition of the World Series of Poker kicked off at The Horseshoe, and while the main event won’t get underway until next week, there’s already been more than sixty bracelets handed out at the lower stakes events in the lead up to the primary attraction.
That total technically includes the $1,500 Millionaire Maker No-Limit Hold’em tournament that began on June 18th, which saw close to 12,000 players buy in before the field was narrowed down to the seven competitors who earned the right to sit at the final table.
That septet was eventually winnowed down to two men when James Carroll and Jesse Yaginuma went heads up for the chance to take home the $1,255,180 prize set aside for the winner.
It sure looked like Carroll was going to end up with the jackpot when you consider he had a 10-1 chip lead over Yaginuma at one point, but things took an unexpected turn as the latter clawed his way back en route to winning his fourth WSOP bracelet (the former got $1,012,320 for his runner-up finish).
However, according to ESPN, we were treated to another twist when officials announced they had reason to believe the two men had colluded to facilitate Yaginuma’s comeback, which stemmed from a promotion involving a bonus handed out by the online poker platform ClubWPT Gold.
Last night, we were made aware of a potential breach of the official WSOP Tournament Rules during heads up play in Event 53. An investigation is underway. At this time, 1st and 2nd place have not been confirmed and neither the prize money nor the bracelet have been officially…
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) June 26, 2025
Prior to the start of the WSOP, the brand awarded a number of vouchers that could be cashed in for $1 million if a player won a tournament at the event—one Carroll would have presumably gotten a share of if he cut a deal (Yaginuma secured his reward by beating the rest of the field in a nacho-eating contest).
The collusion and chip-dumping accusations began to swirl after the two men were seen chatting during a break in the action before Carroll began to lose his lead by repeatedly folding hands after adding sizeable contributions to the pot (some touraments allow players to make deals behind the scenes, but the WSOP explicity bans the practice).
Yaginuma firmly denied any funny business after the accusations came to light, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see how this plays out.