The first major controversy of the 2025 World Series of Poker is officially upon us. The winner and the runner-up of Event #53 — The Millionaire Maker, Jesse Yaginuma and James Carroll, have had their payouts from the tournament halted as series officials are looking into serious collusion allegations.
The word collusion isn’t the one you’ll come across often when there are only two players left in a tournament, as there is no third party to collude against. However, yesterday’s event featured special circumstances where such behavior would make financial sense.
Namely, Jesse Yaginuma, the eventual winner, got his seat in the tournament via the ClubWPT Gold “Gold Pass” promo. According to the rules of this promotion, any Gold Pass holder who goes on to win a WSOP bracelet stands to receive an extra $1,000,000 from ClubWPT Gold.
Although both players were in line to receive a seven-figure payout ($1.2 million for the winner and just over a million for the runner-up), the difference between finishing first and second was huge for Yaginuma. And, to kick things off, his prospects weren’t looking too great, as he entered the final skirmish as a 9 to 1 underdog.
Turning the Tables
Even without the extra million, with a bracelet on the line and the $200k prize difference, there is no doubt that Yaginuma would be sufficiently motivated to do everything in his power to overcome the chip deficit and come out on top.
The fact he was able to do it, while impressive, wouldn’t be that shocking. We’ve seen many unlikely comebacks over the years, and this one probably wouldn’t make the top ten.
It was the way he did it that caught the eye of those watching the live stream first, and then also the WSOP officials. At one point, Jesse was down to 17 million against Carroll’s 270 million, and when he flopped a top pair against trips, it looked like it was all about to be over.
But, Yaginuma managed to find an incredible fold in this spot, and from that point on, he managed to recover his stack without ever being all in and at risk. He was responding perfectly to Carroll’s bets, folding every time he was beat and calling or raising every time he was ahead.
At one point, it was as if Jesse switched to a completely different gear, and from there on, there was no stopping him. It was a complete and utter domination, and it seemed like Carroll was completely helpless against his opponent.
Yaginuma kept chipping away, closing the gap with each hand, eventually taking over the chip lead and finishing things off to emerge victorious.
Pure Skill or Something More Nefarious?
Even during the live stream, people were taking to X/Twitter to express their disbelief at what was happening. Yaginuma’s ability to perfectly time his plays seemed out of this world and accusations of collusion started to emerge.
Most of those watching the event knew that Yaginuma was in line to pick up the extra million if he were to win, so the motive was there. Could it be that the two made a deal away from the table to allow the ClubWPT Gold qualifier to win, with the promise of sharing the prize?
That’s the theory floating around right now, and it’s exactly what the WSOP is looking into. It seems that ClubWPT Gold is also doing an investigation of its own, and the results of these two investigations could have a huge impact on both players’ bottom lines.
If the WSOP decides to disqualify both players, which is an unlikely but possible outcome, Yaginuma stands to lose $2.2 million, while Carroll would be out just over $1,000,000 that he stands to receive as the runner-up.
In an interview with Poker.org, Yaginuma denied there was any sort of deal in place between him and Carroll, saying that they did chat briefly, but they only talked a bit about poker, and that was it.
It Was Bound to Happen…
When ClubWPT Gold came up with its Gold Pass promo, something like this was almost guaranteed to happen at some point. In most tournaments, the first-place money is way below one million, so it’s a very difficult spot for the last few players.
In this particular instance, the event actually had a massive prize pool, and the alleged collusion was limited to just the final two players, which resulted in many people voicing their opinion that there isn’t anything WSOP should be doing here.
Whatever happened happened between Yaginuma and Carroll — it was their prize money one way or another, so taking away that money seems like a step too far. Judging by everything known at this moment, their actions did not influence any other players, so this doesn’t even fit the technical definition of collusion.
The incident also brought back the old discussion about whether the World Series should finally allow official deal-making (which most other live tours do), removing the need for any such underhanded tactics.
Going back to the ClubWPT Gold promo, the real question is whether they just didn’t think about this possibility (unlikely) or figured they’d just deal with it if and when it happens.
If there is one “victim” in this whole thing, it is ClubWPT Gold, as if there was collusion, they are being “swindled” out of a cool million. If they don’t have a problem with it, though, this doesn’t seem like something that the poker community should be up in arms about.
There is, of course, something to be said about the integrity of WSOP bracelets, and this is where the World Series may want to step in. However, things need to be looked at in the correct context, and these were very special and unusual circumstances.
Plus, who can really prove, beyond any reasonable doubt, that Jesse Yaginuma, with all the motivation he had, hasn’t just put up the best performance of his life?
