As 2025 turns into 2026, we are reflecting on the biggest stories of the year.
The most salacious tale of the summer centered around the $1,500 Millionaire Maker, where Jesse Yaginuma and James Carroll sent the poker world into a tailspin of controversy over a $1,000,000 bonus.
Michael Mizrachi stole the flashy final headline at the 2025 World Series of Poker with his dual victories in the Poker Player's Championship and the WSOP Main Event. His boat race finish at the final table was a loud ending and it has left a lasting impression.
But before Mizrachi, the summer series was to be defined by a whirlwind of controversy in the $1,500 Millionaire Maker, where it is suspected that James Carroll deliberately threw the final heads-up confrontation to Jesse Yaginuma.
Million dollar meltdown
ClubWPT Gold's Gold Rush promotion was designed to steal attention from the WSOP pipeline with a $1,000,000 bonus for any of its qualifiers who could win one of their designated tournaments. It would end up doing working, and perhaps a little too well. Yaginuma qualified for the bonus, leaving an extra million up to be divided up if he and Carroll could find their way to the correct winner in the Millionaire Maker.
It had already happened in a prior tournament with Michael Lavin, who locked up an extra seven figures for winning the $1,500 Shootout. Lavin told us at the time that the situation was "breaking (his) brain)" and that he played different as a result.
Lightning would end up striking twice when Yaginuma and Carroll faced off and the former erased a 9-to-1 deficit in the matter of 90 minutes with a series of hands that most deemed suspicious. We talked with Jesse afterwards and he denied any deal had been made to let him win, but the public was unconvinced.
Likewise, WSOP was unconvinced and they announced the seizure of the bracelet and prize money the following morning. WSOP officials would eventually award the prize money, but no bracelet winner was recognized for that tournament. It would also appear later that both players were banned from Caesars properties and, by extension, the WSOP in Las Vegas for the foreseeable future.
For what it's worth, ClubWPT Gold held up their end of the bargain and awarded the $1,000,000 bonus. WSOP was non too pleased, but Mizrachi helped change the vibe just two weeks later.
