2025 WSOP Millionaire Maker Heads-Up Duel Sparks Controversy

The participation and prize pool numbers during the first half of the 2025 World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas are slightly up compared to the previous year and several big names have further etched their name into the history books of the longest-running live poker competition. Last year’s festival in Sin City concluded with a major controversy which led to specific rule changes prior to the start of the 2025 WSOP but that same scenario might unfold a lot earlier this time around.

Controversy At The Millionaire Maker

The 2025 WSOP Event #53 Millionaire Maker was one of the highly-anticipated flagship tournaments for recreational players and poker pros alike. The mid-stakes buy-in of $1,500 attracted a huge prize pool of $15,924,690. After four starting days and four further tournaments, the gargantuan field of 11,996 entries had been whittled down to the final seven hopefuls for the live-streamed conclusion and that came with a special twist.

Sweeps coin poker operator ClubWPT Gold had promised a $1 Million bonus to any winners of their special promotions – some of which could simply be unlocked with random challenges – if they would then win a WSOP gold bracelet thereafter. Earlier in the festival, Michael Lavin had done just that after he steam-rolled to victory in Event #20 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em SHOOTOUT in a field of 1,299 entries.

Lavin played very aggressive and ran insanely well on the final table to claim the top prize of $267,373, among his victims was also Thai superstar Punnat Punsri who got once again denied the maiden WSOP gold bracelet and had to settle for third place worth $130,560. During the live-stream, it became known that Lavin held a Gold Rush ticket and earned the $1 million bonus from ClubWPT Gold.

Jesse Yaginuma Stages Incredible Comeback

The very same opportunity presented itself to Jesse Yaginuma, who had captured a WSOP Online Bracelet in each of the three previous years on the ring-fenced US domestic network. Down to the final three players, 16-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Josh Reichard was the chip leader but his very aggressive playing style came to a crashing end when he lost most of the chips to James Caroll. The latter is likewise an accomplished American pro, who had racked up more than $6.1 million in cashes and a WPT Main Tour title prior to this final table.

Ultimately it came down to Carroll and Yaginuma in the heads-up for the gold bracelet and only one of them had the chance to unlock the additional $1 Million bonus. Both had locked up a seven-figure score already and Caroll had a commanding lead of nine-to-one, which even grew to sixteen-to-one at some point. However, without any all-in and call, Yaginuma staged an incredible comeback which soon sparked a heated discussion within the poker community on social media.

The bet sizing in the non showdown hands came under scrutiny because the chips kept going into the same direction until Yaginuma held a commanding lead. He then sealed the victory when his button shove with queen-three was trailing against ace-ten but the turn brought a queen for the victory in the 59^th hand of heads-up action. ClubWPT Gold was quick to share on social media that they had just given out another $1 Million bonus.

WSOP Retracts Final Millionaire Maker Results

On the official X (formerly Twitter) account of the World Series of Poker, the operator also initially declared the winner but that post disappeared soon after. The next morning, the WSOP account had a new development to share and confirmed that an investigation concerning the heads-up duel was underway for a potential break of the WSOP Tournament Rules. It was also clarified that the first and second place finishers had not been confirmed with prize money and bracelet yet to be officially awarded.

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The post quickly gained a tremendous amount of interest – over 700K views – within the poker community with hundreds of replies and hundreds of thousands of views. Even the major American sports platform ESPN caught wind of the ongoing investigation with main stream media often picking up poker content only when a major controversy or scandal unfolds.

WSOP Decision Pending

At the time of writing it remains unclear what the final verdict may be, though, many poker players suggested on social media that none of the other finalists in this tournament had been harmed and the two last men standing merely took advantage of a major promotion outside of the WSOP realms. The suspicious betting patterns also only appeared to have started after a longer break prior to the heads-up duel, though, the World Series of Poker does not allow any kind of official deals during their bracelet events.

One operator’s headaches are the other’s possible fortune, as ClubWPT Gold has successfully crashed the party next door in Las Vegas as their Gold Rush Tickets are now widely talked about. Up to 1,000 of them will be given away and the seven-figure bonus prize may just be a costly but lucrative marketing expense in the long run. The next few days in Sin City will certainly be quite interesting to say the least.

*Photos by Pokernews