Yaginuma, Carroll will still receive prize money
Though it stopped short of saying collusion or chip dumping occurred, the World Series of Poker has announced that there will be no winner of the $1,500 Millionaire Maker event and no bracelet will be awarded. The two final players and the ones at the center of the controversy, Jesse Yaginuma and James Carroll, will still both receive prize money.
The WSOP posted on X Monday night that the decision was made “in order to uphold the integrity of the game and to uphold our official WSOP Tournament Rules.”
The announcement simply said that Yaginuma and Carroll will “split” the combined first- and second-place prize money, but did not specify how. It seems that, based on that wording and the fact that nobody is recognized as the winner, that they might share it equally, but again, that was not made clear.
Sending signals?
The decision stemmed from suspicious play between the two men at the end of the Millionaire Maker event last Wednesday night. Carroll had a formidable 10-to-1 chip lead to start, but Yaginuma played as perfectly as one can play to come all the way back to win.
The thing was, to many onlookers, his play seemed too good to be true, while Carroll seemed to make unusually poor decisions. Many thought it looked like Carroll was dumping chips to Yaginuma, and ACR Pro Rob Kuhn took to social media to make his case for that exact scenario:
Kuhn posted a series of screenshots showing what he believed was signaling by Carroll as to the strength of his hand. He would allegedly change his bet sizing to tell Yaginuma if he was weak or strong, allowing the eventual winner to make proper folds and bets.
An extra milly at stake
Of course, there must be a reason for the alleged chip dumping, and because the tournament was heads-up, actions like that would normally make little sense. But there was a unique circumstance that is the likely reason for what the WSOP has apparently determined was going on.
Yaginuma was set to win an extra $1 million through a ClubWPT Gold promotion, but only if he won that tournament. People have speculated that he and Carroll agreed that Yaginuma would win and the two would share the ClubWPT prize. And because the World Series of Poker does not allow deals at the final table, they had to figure out a way for Yaginuma to collect all the chips while starting at such a disadvantage.
Again, despite the WSOP’s ruling, any chip dumping or collusion is only alleged. Yaginuma has previously denied any agreement between him and Carroll. Regardless of what did or did not happen, though, he will not win a bracelet and will not be named the winner of the Millionaire Maker.
Image credit: PokerGO.com
