No Bracelet For You: WSOP Investigation Leads To Complicated Conclusion

The list on the World Series of Poker’s website of all the 2025 bracelet winners thus far has a hole in it. It goes straight from Event No. 52 winner Sam Rosborough to Event No. 54 winner Matt Vengrin.

That’s because, officially, there is no winner of Event No. 53.

After a highly controversial conclusion last Wednesday to that tournament, the $1,500 buy-in Millionaire Maker event, WSOP officials have made the decision not to recognize a champion or award a gold bracelet.

Jesse Yaginuma and James Carroll were the top two finishers and played heads-up for the bracelet with Yaginuma seemingly prevailing, but the poker record-keeping database The Hendon Mob now shows them both as second-place finishers.

In a Monday post on social media site X, five days after the conclusion of the tournament and four days after announcing the launch of an investigation, the WSOP declared, “in order to uphold the integrity of the game and to uphold our official WSOP Tournament Rules, no winner will be recognized and no bracelet will be awarded for this year’s tournament. The remaining prize pool will be split between the final two players.”

What exactly happened?

At the outset of heads-up play, with a field of 11,996 entries whittled to just two, Carroll, a veteran Las Vegas pro with more than $6 million in previous live tournament winnings to his name, held about a 9-to-1 chip lead over Maryland’s Yaginuma, also a longtime pro boasting more than $2.5 million in previous live tourney earnings.

They were, on paper, competing for a $1,255,180 first-place prize and a coveted WSOP bracelet, with the second-place finisher earning $1,012,320.

That means there was $2,267,500 in the remaining combined prize pool.

But what if there was a way to make it so there was $3,267,500 in the remaining combined prize pool?

ClubWPT Gold, a sweepstakes-style poker site not affiliated with the WSOP (rather, it’s affiliated with the rival World Poker Tour), offered a promotion whereby Yaginuma had qualified for a $1 million bonus if he happened to win certain qualifying WSOP events. The Millionaire Maker was one of those events.

So, in simple terms: If Carroll won, he would get $1,255,180 and Yaginuma would claim $1,012,320. But if Yaginuma won, he would get $2,255,180 and Carroll would earn $1,012,320.

And in theory, they could arrange before heads-up play to split that extra million bucks if Yaginuma prevailed. If they split it evenly, Yaginuma would get $1,755,180 and Carroll $1,512,320 — more than the latter would take home if he won the Millionaire Maker. (And, of course, there are all sorts of other percentage splits that could assure Carroll of even more money, as long as he blew his 9-to-1 chip lead and finished in second place.)

One player intentionally losing chips to another is colloquially known as “chip dumping,” and without getting into hand-by-hand detail, the reality is that several hands played out in an unusual manner, leading many observers to conclude that Carroll was chip dumping to ensure victory for his opponent and larger final payouts for both.

Still good as Gold

Despite the suspicious circumstances that led to Yaginuma being declared the winner in the moment, ClubWPT Gold confirmed to poker media outlet PokerNews last week that Yaginuma would receive the million-dollar bonus.

The WSOP, meanwhile, was not specific about how its prize money was ultimately divided, but The Hendon Mob shows both players awarded $1,133,750, indicating the money was split down the middle.

There is no modern precedent for a live WSOP tournament concluding without a winner — though there was an online bracelet event this summer that was canceled midway through due to technical failures.

In any case, the WSOP advertised before this year’s summer series that a record 100 bracelets for live tournaments would be awarded, and that turns out not to be true. It will still be a record, however, if 99 are awarded.