ClubWPTGold has been running a WSOP-long promotion called "Gold Rush", where if you win one of these promotional passes on their site, you get an extra million dollars if you win a 2025 summer bracelet during one of 11 pre-selected events.
I believe one guy has done it so far, and it was non-controversial, as nothing about his win looked sketchy.
Unfortunately, the inevitable has occurred, and a very likely chip dumping seems to have taken place right on stream, where the Gold Rush ticket holder "miraculously" came back from a 9:1 initial heads up chip deficit (and then as large as 15:1), where his previously well-playing opponent suddenly turned into the world's biggest fish.
Notably, the difference between first and second was rather mild compared to usual. First place was to get $1.255m, while 2nd would get $1.012m.
The well-regarded $1500 Millionaire Maker NL Holdem event featured one of those Gold Rush ticket holders, Jesse Yaginuma, but he came into heads up play with a tremendous 9:1 chip deficit. His opponent, James Carroll, did not have a Gold Rush ticket.
Carroll, who had been playing well during the entire final table, suddenly collapsed. This didn't seem due to bad luck, tilt from a bad beat, or just choking heads up. This was a blatant and sudden change in playstyle, which coincided with being heads up against the guy who would get an extra million for winning first place.
Both players are experienced. Carroll has no bracelet but 2 WPT titles. Yaginuma had won a bracelet each year from 2022-2024.
It was broadcasted on PokerGo, so you can see it for yourself below:
Go to the 3:09:31 mark to see the beginning of heads up play, which followed a break.
Coming into heads up play, Carroll led 270m to 30m in chips.
At 3:14:32, there's already a semi-questionable spot, where the very short Yaginuma doesn't shove in his last 28m holding 2 overcards and a flush draw, against an opponent checking the flop twice. He ends up checking it down and losing to a flopped pair of 3s. But okay... perhaps he just didn't want to possibly get it in drawing for 1 card.
As you continue watching, you'll see Yaginuma going all in with hands like 44 and KQ pre. That's standard, EXCEPT both times it follows a limp by Carroll -- perhaps a signal that his hand is weak enough to fold without making it look bad on stream.
At 3:19:15 you can see that Carroll raises pre with unknown cards, as he didn't show the camera. Yaginuma did this twice earlier, but then did show the cards to the camera before the flop was dealt. In this case, Carroll never showed his cards, but did flip over a 6 after Yaginuma folded his KT on an A66 flop.
This left Yaginuma down to 18.3m to Carroll's 281.6m -- a whopping 15:1 chip deficit.
Then it got stranger. Note that the blinds were 1.2m/2.4m/2.4m, meaning that Yaginuma was down to about 7 BB. Even if you're chip dumping, you have to be careful here not to accidentally bust your opponent.
So what does Carroll do? At 3:22:34, he open folds K2 suited on the button!!
The really controversial hand starts at 3:24:28. Yaginuma has 75o. He limps, and Carroll checks with T6o. Standard, but unfortunately for our "alleged" dumpers, they both hit the flop of 766, with Yaginuma drawing to 2 outs. Yaginuma ends up folding!
This is where it starts to become obvious what's going on.
Observers then came to notice a pattern:
When Carroll bet an odd number of chips, he was bluffing. When he bet an even number of chips (such as these trip sixes above), it meant he has it.
Note that Carroll bet an even number of chips in the other trip sixes hand a little earlier.
Starting at 3:28:14, they were both not showing their cards to the camera, and there was an all-in by Yaginum and fold.
At 3:30:35, Carroll went all in with AA preflop on the button, of course getting a fold from Yaginuma's 62. People noted that Carroll hadn't open-all-ined any previous hand, and suddenly does it with the one hand where he WANTS action. What?!
At 3:39:35, you can see a river where only Carroll's hand of K9 was shown to the camera, and he had only K high on a Q4TT8 board. Of course his bet was 5 chips, indicating he didn't have it. Yaginuma probably had worse and folded. (He could have gone all in there, but that would've been too obvious to spaz out there all of a sudden.)
At 3:41:05, you see Carroll holding 75 and betting into a 9-5-3 board with 4 chips. Yaginuma folds K2. Standard, but again notice the even chips.
However, at this point, Yaginuma simply is card dead and can't accumulate chips even with whatever is going on here.
The odd-even thing might be challenged by looking at the hand at 3:46:20. Yaginuma had nothing with 84o on 2K5AJ board, while Carroll had T5 for 4th pair. Yaginuma bet 6m (6 chips, even), and Carroll ended up laying it down. However, it's possible this odd-even thing was to only be done by Carroll.
At 3:49:50, you can see Yaginuma with K9 on a 629 board bet 3.5m (4 chips), and Carroll with QT raise to 9m (9 chips -- odd), and Yaginuma then shoves, where Carroll folds. The fold is obviously correct, but the 9m check-raise bluff followed by a fold looks suspect. After this hand, Yaginuma is up to 62m.
At 3:52:25, Yaginuma has 22, limps, and Carroll has J9o and checks. Flop is 3K6. Carroll fires out 5m (5 chips, odd again), and Yaginuma makes it 14m with his deuces, causing a fold! What a soul read!
At 3:55:41, commentator David Tuchman finally can't stand it. He says, "We've seen some really interesting all-ins from Yaginuma... 65, J8, hands you don't conventionally think you're gonna move in with those kinda hands, but Yaginuma... he just seemingly always knows where he's at."
At 3:58:08, Tuchman stops being as subtle. When Yaginuma limped with K4o, and Carroll raised to 9m with JTo (again, notice odd chips), Tuchman remarked, "What do you think Yaginuma is going to do here?.... I bet you he shoves.... It's just the way Yaginuma likes to do it." Sure enough, he re-raised to 23m, and Carroll folded. LOL!
At 4:14:47, with Yaginuma now in the chip lead despite never being at risk for his tournament life despite being down 15:1, limped with J8o. Carroll raised 13m (odd, of course) with 63o, and Yaginuma called. Flop came JT5, and Carroll bet 17m despite having 6 high. Of course, being odd again, Yaginuma called with top pair, letting him bluff at it. Turn was 7c, giving both guys a 1-card flush draw, and Carroll a straight possibility. They both checked, and when Qs rolled off (changing nothing for either player), Carroll bet 57m -- again, an odd number. Yaginuma of course called after some phony tanking, and won the hand!!!
At 4:20:20, Caroll raised Yaginuma's K5o limp to 13m, Yagiuma went over the top to 51m, and got a fold. Amazing!! By the end of this hand, Carroll was down to 38m and Yaginuma had 261m, and you know where this was headed.
Spoiler alert... Yaginuma won the bracelet!!!!!1111
WHAT A COMEBACK GUYZ
ClubWPTGold played it off like everything was cool, and awarded the $1m, either not wanting to call attention to the fact that their promo indirectly led to this, or fully knowing and being happy that the controversy would make their competitor look bad.
https://twitter.com/ClubWPTGold/status/1938090565863719263
WSOP did the same, trying to act like this was a normal finish (but notably didn't mention the improbable comeback from 15:1 down by Yaginuma!)
They posted two tweets -- one congratulating Yaginuma for winning, and another congratulating Carroll for his 2nd place finish. The Yaginuma one was deleted quickly, and I never saw it. The Carroll one stayed up awhile, and I commented on it.
Nothing has replaced the deleted tweets. There are currently ZERO tweets from WSOP regarding the result of the event!
Of course, PFA always has the goods, so here's the Carroll tweet they deleted (and you can also see my Dr. Evil response):
PokerGo seems to have no problem celebrating this "victory":
https://twitter.com/PokerGO/status/1938111200354562478
I'll give "Cookie Monster" credit. He's the guy who won the Seniors $5k event last year. Quirky dude, but I like him. He predicted this would happen, way back on June 6:
https://twitter.com/PokerCookieM/status/1931203266936815894
More on this in the next post...
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Originally Posted by Dan Druff
