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The alleged chip dumping scandal that occurred earlier this week in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Millionaire Maker event may have seemed egregious to many poker pros. But the players involved, if they did indeed collude, didn’t make it nearly as obvious as the heads-up foes in a 2018 World Poker Tour (WPT) event.

Jesse Yaginuma won the $1,500 Milly Maker on Wednesday for over $1.2 million and an extra $1 million via a promotion from ClubWPT Gold. The bracelet is on hold as the WSOP investigates possible collusion during heads-up play against James Carroll, the runner-up who is to earn $1,012,320.

Carroll, who had a 9-1 chip advantage when the heads-up match began, was not eligible for the ClubWPT Gold prize, and Yaginuma was required to win the tournament to get that bonus money. Many poker players who watched the livestream on PokerGO concluded that the two reached a deal to ensure Yaginuma would win.

What Happened in This 2018 World Poker Tour Event?

Ryan Yu took a better-than 2-1 chip lead into heads-up play against Mike Leah in the 2018 WPT Fallsview Poker Classic in Canada, a C$5,000 buy-in tournament. First place was to pay (USD) $352,985 and a $15,000 seat in the WPT’s season-ending Tournament of Champions (TOC), while second place would receive $235,326.

The heads-up play blinds started at 60,000/120,000, and Yu made a massive raise on the first hand to 4,000,000. Leah, playing in his home country, moved all in for 4,695,000, and Yu folded.

Leah limped from the button on the next hand before his opponent made it 5,000,000, only to fold to an all-in limp-raise. That left Yu with just 1,740,000 chips. The ensuing hand started with the new short stack raising to 1,700,000 from the button, leaving 40,000 chips behind. He would, however, fold to a raise.

“When you’re beat, you’re beat,” Yu told his opponent.

Yu would double up a couple of times to less than two big blinds. He’d soon lose it all and finish in second place. Leah would claim his first and still only World Poker Tour title.

What Was the Point of Dumping Chips?

There was no denial from the players involved that Yu chip-dumped to allow his opponent to win the tournament, join the WPT Champions Club, and receive the TOC seat. Leah admitted as much in a heavily criticized Facebook post.

The heads-up players, as Leah explained, agreed to an ICM chop before playing out the match. Yu would dump the chips and take the biggest payout, and Leah would get the added perks he wanted. The situation was similar to the current controversy at the WSOP as no other players were impacted by the deal.

“I actually get to be responsible and not just ‘flip’ for $150K, and I get a WPT title, a spot in the Champions Club, entry into the TOC and my fourth Fallsview title in five years,” Leah wrote. “How could I not agree to this? We were both extremely happy with the outcome.”

“He has a massive skill advantage heads up where I’m a whale, and he’s still 40 big blinds deep,” Yu pointed out via Twitter.

But there were a couple of reasons why many poker fans took issue with the chip dumping, starting with the Fallsview event being a major and televised poker tournament that didn’t have a “real” champion. The other issue is that the WPT had a strict no-deal policy at the time.

“I have no idea how someone goes through the mental gymnastics necessary to value that WPT championship on your resume, but also rationalize to exhaustion to convince themselves that they truly earned it when they cut a deal to rig it,” Grant Hinkle said following the admitted chip-dumping incident. “Mike Leah cast a giant skeptical shadow over all of his titles now, and at the same time, he cheapened the value of the WPT championship he coveted so much.”

World Poker Tour titles don’t grow on trees. Darren Elias holds the record with four. Coincidentally, Elias won the WPT Fallsview Poker Classic a year before Leah’s run.

The World Series of Poker is in the process of investigating a similar potential chip-dumping scandal. A ruling on the matter could come at some point next week. Yaginuma received the $1 million bonus check from the ClubWPT Gold promotion. But neither he nor Carroll has been awarded money from the WSOP … yet.

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