Here at the World Series of Poker, everybody is talking about a scandal where two players, Jesse Yaginuma and James Carroll, ended up heads-up for a bracelet. Carroll had a 9-to-1 chip lead, and yet somehow Yaginuma came back and won.
These things happen, and there wouldn't have been any discussion except for the fact that Yaginuma had a special Gold Rush pass from ClubWPT Gold, which would give him an extra million dollars if he won the bracelet rather than Carroll.
People watching the tournament, the heads-up portion of it, said something wasn't on the up and up, and sure enough, after an investigation, the World Series of Poker decided that they were not going to award a bracelet and they were going to split the first- and second-place money between the two players.
We’re hearing that the players are likely to be banned permanently from Caesars properties, so the effect of this third party getting involved is likely to result in two players not being able to play at Caesars properties again, which includes the WSOP in Las Vegas.
ClubWPT Gold is paying out the extra million dollars to Yaginuma, and what happens to that million dollars, we don’t know — and probably never will.
Jesse Yaginuma won the Millionaire Maker but won't receive the bracelet.Not a victimless crime
A lot of people in poker are saying, ‘Hey, the players just did a deal, and that's their right,’ even though the World Series of Poker doesn't permit deals.
A lot of serious poker players are saying, “It was just the two of them — they can chop up the money however they want.”
I think this is a naive view. The fact is that this is not a victimless crime. The WSOP's integrity and their brand reputation are dramatically harmed by these events.
Right now, everybody at the World Series is talking about nothing except this chip-dumping scandal. It's the whole narrative of the event, and that's not what the World Series of Poker wants, and it's not good for poker either. We should be talking about the people that are playing poker — the exciting hands and the great poker that is on display here — not a scandal involving a third-party business.
The WSOP has an absolute right to protect their brand integrity and to protect the integrity of their event, and I think that their choice to not award a bracelet and to split the money between the two parties is a very fair and, actually in my way of seeing it, a fairly generous one. I think they would have been within their rights to disqualify both players and basically just push all the prize money down two places.
They chose not to do that, and I think that's really the generous solution.
This is the first time that a live WSOP bracelet has been withheld over integrity issues.
ClubWPT Gold is the real villain of the piece
But I think the real culprit here is ClubWPT Gold. They knew exactly what they were doing, and they could predict what would happen if they created this giant wave of money that would affect the outcome of final tables at the World Series of Poker.
Furthermore, when they saw what had happened, they doubled down and added more Gold Rush passes, and they are paying the million dollars to the theoretical winner, Yaginuma.
It’s one thing for companies to compete with each other. If they want to compete for turf or if they want to compete for the best schedules for their series, that's fine. But this is industrial sabotage.
When you give poker players or any human a motivation to do something, they will do it. As one player said, if you incentivize poker players to chip dump, they will chip dump, and that's exactly what ClubWPT Gold is doing.
In my view, ClubWPT Gold needs to stand down and not provide prize money like this, and they should allow the WSOP to run their business with integrity and without the effects of a third party coming in and damaging their brand and the integrity of their events.
The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of PokerOrg.
