In previous reviews, we talked about the ClubWPT Gold promotion, in which the winners of certain WSOP tournaments receive an additional $1 million.

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On the night from Wednesday to Thursday, one of the participants of this promotion, Jesse Yaginuma, won the Millionaire Maker tournament with a buy-in of $1,500.

This is one of the iconic tournaments of the World Series, which the organizers bet on every year. The tournament collected 11,996 entries (in 2024 it was 10,939), the winner received $1,255,180, the second place – $1,012,320. But due to participation in the promotion, for Yaginuma, not the $250k difference between 1st and 2nd place was at stake, but $1.25 million.

The future champion started heads-up play against James Carroll with a 1-9 chip deficit, which at one point increased to 1-16.

The final table was broadcast on PokerGo and YouTube.

Spectators quickly noticed that something strange was going on in the heads-up.

"Watching the Millionaire Maker stream and the heads up is amazing," the author of the topic wrote on Reddit . "Just no mistakes by Yaginuma."

"I'm not quite sure how that's possible without having some form of tell or collusion..." the most popular commentor noted. "It was absolutely perfect play with hands that didn't easily lend themselves to perfect play."

Observers quickly found the answer, the solution turned out to be simple and elegant:

– "Carroll bet even # means he has a good hand? Carroll bet odd # means he has poop hand?"

“This!” agreed one of the spectators, “Rewatched and this theory held up.”

Rob Kuhn drew attention to what was happening on Twitter.

"Wtf am I watching in the milly maker??" he couldn't believe his eyes. "If Yaginuma 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."

– "Odd number every single time so far=light."

– "Then open shoves aces lol"

– "Then open shoves aces lol"

– "Another open shove with aces while not shoving other trivial shoves."

Sometimes the players' simple tactics failed.

Carroll bet 13 million on the river, showing he had nothing. Yaginuma called with K-high, but lost on kicker.

Reddit also compiled a selection of the most outrageous giveaways.

— "Jesse Yaginuma qualified for $1 million extra Club WPT Gold, Gold Rush ticket holder promo if he won this event. He was down to 17 million in chips at the 3 million blind level versus James Carroll, who had close to 290 million. It makes sense that both players would agree to let Yaginuma win so they could split the extra $1 million. Once Yaginuma wins with K7 and chips up to 50 million chips, Carrol starts raising garbage hands and Yaginuma reraises questionable hands almost every time and Carrol folds every single time. Happens over and over. This was not a heads up match between two great players, but an obvious chip dump for the bonus money. Wonder if WPT will pay it out. Any publicity is good publicity most of the time. You can rewatch the live stream on Youtube, but I've provided screen shots here."

"You're overcomplicating things," a commenter wrote in one of the many threads. "The most obvious evidence of collusion is that they never got all in preflop the entire heads-up. Has that ever happened before?"

The players actually went all-in for the first time only in the final hand, when Yaginuma shoved with , and Carroll (with a stack of 14 blinds) called with and did not improve.

In a conversation with PokerNews, a ClubWPT Gold representative limited himself to the phrase “we are looking into this issue.”

Immediately after the tournament, the room's official Twitter account posted the last hand and congratulated the champion on an additional bonus.

In an interview after the tournament, Yaginuma stated that he and Carroll had made no deal in heads-up:

– We chatted a little, discussed poker, but nothing more.

Poker Twitter has not condemned players for chip dumping, and in fact, they are trying to blame Rob Koon.

"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," says Scott Seiver. "Anyone choosing wrongly can be easily ignored from now until eternity about all things."

"You sure this was a wise decision?" Rob Kuhn asked. "One hell of a risk, hope they get paid regardless."

– "Want to bet on what happens?" Seiver offered.

– “I have 0 clue what's going to happen, im just pointing out the inherent risk of obvious chip dumping."

– "And I’m willing to bet on the existence or not of what you think is obvious. Done responding anyways you’re clearly bad faith troll in all of this. Happy to bet if you want, otherwise, enjoy life."

Patrick Leonard agrees with Seiver:

– "People posting about you know what is crazy btw. Let them live.

If Pokernews want to do a story then fair enough, they’re media, but what incentive do pros have to do this except fuck other pros over? We’re talking about gaming commission having to get involved now. Licenses on the line, with GG just purchasing the license this year they’re basically forced to intervene after the posts tonight. Ambassadors of other sites seem to be jumping on, but I don’t get how this helps their site? Remember we as players have been fucked over by the sites for tens of millions."

"Brother, you can't be the moral police about every other situation and then just turn a blind eye to chip dumping," Robert Kuhn objected to Pads. "What if there was chip dumping earlier at the table to that guy that effected other players?"

– You think the chip dumping is just fine? – one of the commentators was surprised. – I’m shocked. WTF?

"Has nothing to do with me," Patrick replied. "Nothing to do with anybody else, no player was harmed/cheated in any way."

“Please stop talking about the integrity,” Pads added in a separate tweet. “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 dream outcome for WPT. Please stop associating this either anything to do with the integrity of the tournament.”

– "You guys have to all be joking right?" – Matt Berkey addressed those who were calling for justice. – "Who exactly do you think is being harmed by 2 long time friends extracting a million extra in promo money by simply cooperating in a high stakes game of split or steal?"

"How about everyone else at the final table?" Mike Noory suggested. "They could have a deal in place between them before it started."

– "Would need to see some serious evidence of this prior to throwing around such allegations."

Max Silver gave a link to an article about a satellite to the $1 million tournament in 2012.

Then Jason Somerville was eliminated in 3rd place and received $400k, leaving Gus Hansen and Shaun Deeb heads-up. The winner received a ticket to the tournament, and the runner-up received $1 million in cash.

Before heads-up, Gus and Sean had some discussions, and on the very first hand, Deeb raised blind, keeping one chip for himself, and folded on the flop.

– "Haha, I thought someone would remember this," – wrote Dib . – "Second place was $1mm first was $888888 plus it was 4 am. I was awake for 45 hours and I’d have to have 75% of myself in a 1mm tourney at noon when that was a significant portion of my bankroll. I’d do it all over again."

"You don't need to vaguely tweet about the Milly Maker to keep it under wraps," Sam Greenwood told readers . "I'm pretty sure all the interested parties know about what happened with or without your tweets. Also IF their system was odd number = I'm bluffing and even number = I am not bluffing. I do not care that they tried to dump HU, but as a games player, I am offended by their game playing ability."

The official statement from the WSOP came out a few hours after the tournament ended:

– 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 awarded.

Doug Polk also weighed in, as we knew he would!