Jesse Yaginuma won his fourth WSOP bracelet and a $1M ClubWPT Gold bonus with a controversial victory in the $1,500 Millionaire Maker at the World Series of Poker on Wednesday.
Yaginuma defeated James Carroll in heads-up play to win the $1.2 million top prize. Carroll settled for second and $1M after narrowly missing out on his first bracelet. The heads-up battle immediately stirred up controversy on social media, with accusations of chip-dumping and collusion — claims that Yaginuma denied in a post-win interview with PokerOrg.
Yaginuma scored his $1M bonus by winning one of a select number of tournaments while holding a ClubWPT Gold Pass. Players have earned Gold Passes in a number of ways (Yaginuma's in a nacho-eating contest), and Michael Lavin already cashed a $1M cheque after winning the $1,500 Shootout.
The promotion, which is not endorsed by the WSOP in any way, has undoubtedly affected play at the summer series, and ClubWPT Gold's approach appears to have played out to an extreme scenario.
Like Lavin, the million-dollar bonus changed Yaginuma's gameplan.
"You want to go for the win a little bit more when there's so much extra money at the top," he told us. "I wanted the ladder also, for sure, but it definitely makes you take some spots that you might not otherwise."
Yaginuma entered heads-up play with a 9-1 disadvantage — a deficit that would disappear over the course of the evening with very few showdowns. He completed his comeback with a series of raises and shoves, taking down several of Carroll's three-bets.
James Carroll lost a 9-to-1 lead in heads-up play. The big comeback
The final two players traded chips with a few small pots before a flop threatened to end Yaginuma's day for good. He had limped in with 
against Carroll's 
when the flop fell 
. Carroll's bet of just under two big blinds took the pot down. The fold left Yaginuma at his lowest point with just 17 million chips in the 1.2M/2.4M/2.4M level.
After the fold, Yaginuma started an upward trend, picking up a series of small pots before a big shove collected a key pot. Carroll held 
against Yaginuma's 
with a flop of 
. Yaginuma bet 3.5M and Carroll made it 9M, but a shove for his last 44M secured Yaginuma the pot after a quick fold.
Soon after, Yaginuma forced another fold that continued the momentum. The flop was and Carroll fired 5M before Yaginuma raised to 14M. Carroll folded again, handing Yaginuma enough chips to move above 22 big blinds.
A few moments later, Carroll raised to 9M with 
and folded when Yaginuma three-bet to 22M. Another Carroll raise to 9M with 
went into the muck when Yaginuma shoved with 
. Finally, a 15M raise from Carroll with 
died when Yaginuma shoved with 
.
The sequence left Yaginuma with more than 100 million chips, about 33% of everything in play. It soon jumped again when Carroll three-bet to 23M with 
and then folded to Yaginuma's 42M bet with 
.
In a matter of minutes, Yaginuma had the chip lead after he grabbed a big pot in a volley of bets after the flop. Yaginuma checked a flop of 
with and Carroll fired 15M with . Yaginuma made it 34M and forced another fold.
Things got worse for Carroll with an ill-timed bluff on a board of 
. Carroll had raised to 13M with 
before the flop, and Yaginuma called with 
. Yaginuma called a post-flop bet of 17M, and two checks on the turn led to a 57M bet from Carroll on the river. Yaginuma called with a pair of jacks and Carroll was on the ropes.
Carroll finally put his dying stack all in with 
and Yaginuma called with . A queen fell on the turn and Yaginuma completed a remarkable comeback for his fourth bracelet and the big ClubWPT Gold bonus.
Yaginuma denies deal, poker world reacts
The reactions to the match poured in on social media. Rob Kuhn broke down the heads-up action with a series of screen shots, and Barstool's Eric Nathan admonished the match on X:
Yaginuma told us there was no heads-up deal in his post-win interview, though the two did meet. "No, not really. We talked for a little bit about poker, but yeah, that was about it."
ClubWPT Gold now must decide whether to pay out the prize. Collusion, if proven, would disqualify the winner from claiming the $1M bonus. But that would also come with a big black eye to WPT for enabling this in the first place. Maybe better to pay the money and to take the players at their word?
Bigger questions, though, have to be asked about the position WPT has put the players in. And you can be sure the WSOP will not be happy about having its product dragged through the mud because of the marketing behavior of one of its rivals.
Players may have enthusiastically welcomed the promotion, but this was something that had been talked about before and has now become a thing. How big of a thing? That is now up to WPT.
