WSOP Probing Millionaire Maker Winner, Runner-Up Over Possible Collusion

The World Series of Poker is reportedly investigating Jesse Yaginuma and James Carroll—the winner and runner-up in Wednesday's $1,500 Millionaire Maker event—for potential collusion, according to ESPN's Doug Greenberg.

The WSOP has not yet awarded either player the corresponding prize money or bracelet.

Yaginuma would be owed $1.26 million, while Carroll would be owed $1 million if both are cleared of any wrongdoing.

The curiosity regarding the pair has stemmed from Yaginuma's major comeback when the pair were facing off head-to-head, as Carroll held a 9-1 chip lead.

As Greenberg wrote, "A comeback of that kind isn't out of the question, but the manner in which the chips exchanged hands raised questions. Many of the hands won by Yaginuma came in the form of raises or reraises that were continually not contested by Carroll. Viewers of the event's livestream, including a number of professional poker players, began to speculate that Carroll was chip dumping to Yaginuma—intentionally losing hands to build up his opponent's stack—so that the two could split some portion of the prize money."

While some poker tournaments allow players to negotiate a split, WSOP rules prohibit such actions, outlawing "chip dumping; soft play; sharing card information with another Participant; sending or receiving signals from or to another Participant; the use of electronic communication with the intent to facilitate collusion; and any other act that Host Properties deem inappropriate."

Yaginuma said the two had met before their head-to-head showdown but hadn't come to any sort of agreement.

"No, not really," he told Matt Hansen of Poker.org. "We talked for a little bit about poker, but yeah, that was about it."

Yaginuma was also in line to take home an additional $1 million for the win as part of a promotion from ClubWPT Gold. He held a previously won ticket that he could have exchanged for the additional $1 million as a winner of a WSOP event, per Greenberg, while Carroll did not hold such a ticket.

Yaginuma said the $1 million bonus from ClubWPT Gold changed his approach to the final showdown.

"You want to go for the win a little bit more when there's so much extra money at the top," he told Hansen. "I wanted the ladder also, for sure, but it definitely makes you take some spots that you might not otherwise."