The grand finale to Event #53: $1,500 Millionaire Maker saw both heads-up players – Jesse Yaginuma and James Carroll – lock up $1million payouts, with $250k and the bracelet still to play for.
Yaginuma, however, was in line to pick up a ClubWPT Gold promotional bonus of another $1million, having qualified by bagging one of the sweepstakes-style online site’s Gold Rush tickets.
One big problem stood in his way…a 10:1 chip deficit to his opponent. That, it seems, wasn’t going to be a problem at all, according to almost everyone who watched the livestreamed showdown play out on one of the biggest stages of all.
Wtf am I watching in the milly maker?
— Rob Kuhn (@RobKuhn_) June 26, 2025
If Yagimuna wins he wins an extra 1million from the golden pass
Carroll went from playing great to looking like he's chip dumping to Yaginuma
This is a wild watch pic.twitter.com/WxqNXtBTOw
Odds and Evens Signalling?
In a sign that perhaps there was a pre-determined signal from Carroll when he was ahead, Yaginuma found a flop fold with top pair and 7BBs behind…
Dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus spotted the betting pattern quite quickly and tweeted: “Wtf is this Yaginuma Carroll heads up poker match… if Carroll bets an odd amount he doesn’t have it and will fold to a re-raise?”
A number of other hands have been shared that seem to support the claims of chip-dumping, one of the most egregious below:
Yaginuma: J♣ 8♠
Carroll: 6♣ 3♦
Yaginuma limped from the button and Carroll raised 4x his big blind.
Flop: 10♣ 5♣ J♠
Carroll bet 2/3rds pot, which was called by Yaginuma.
Turn: 7♣
Play went check, check…
River: Q♠
Carroll bet almost pot, 57million, and received a call.
X/Twitter Polarised
Poker X/Twitter was mostly excoriating in its response to the most high-profile allegations of the 2025 WSOP so far:
- It took me 3 total hands to see the collusion pattern heads up
- Hope you guys don’t honor it. It was clear chip dumping and such a fucking horrible look for poker and the community. Absolutely disgusting.
- Imagine a really rich guy comes in and just bribes entire final tables to punt so his buddy wins a bracelet. We’re not too far from that.
There were some huge names in the game, however, who didn’t see anything wrong in what occurred.
Tonight is an extremely telling night in the poker world for who sides with a multi billion dollar private equity firm over and individual just trying to play some cards. Anyone choosing wrongly can be easily ignored from now until eternity about all things
— Scott Seiver (@scott_seiver) June 26, 2025
Please stop talking about the integrity. The tournament was over, deals happen all the time. Not a single participant was affected AT ALL. The WPT promotion has NOTHING to do with this tournament (and again no players at all affected there too) this is ironically probably the… https://t.co/N9VUPcZ6Go
— Patrick Leonard 🫡 (@padspoker) June 26, 2025
What the WSOP/WPT Say
The 2025 WSOP Tournament Rules disagree of course, and explicitly state that chip dumping is against the rules:
“Chip dumping is defined as any agreement between or among two (2) or more Participants for one or more of the Participants to bet chips with the intent of increasing another Participant’s stack.”
The rules state that the WSOP has the right to sanction anyone “found to have engaged in or attempted to engage in any act that WSOP officials believe in their sole and absolute discretion compromises or could compromise the competitive integrity of the WSOP.”
The penalties “may include, but shall not be limited to, the following:
- FORFEITURE OF CHIPS
- FORFEITURE OF PRIZE MONEY
- EJECTION FROM AN EVENT OR THE ENTIRE WSOP TOURNAMENT
- LOSS OF PRIVILEGE TO PARTICIPATE IN FUTURE WSOP EVENTS
- EXCLUSION FROM ENTERING THE PREMISES OF CASINO AND/OR ALL DESIGNATED AFFILIATES OF HOST PROPERTIES.”
ClubWPT Gold also has rules against such unethical play but so far neither they, nor the WSOP, have made an official statement on the situation.
Yaginuma was asked in a post-tournament interview whether there was any heads-up deal in place with Carroll, answering: “No, not really. We talked for a little bit about poker, but yeah, that was about it.” Carroll has yet to comment on the allegations.
UPDATE: The WSOP have tweeted out a short statement on the matter…
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
