The legitimacy of a World Series of Poker comeback for the ages is being questioned after thousands of viewers watched a 16-to-1 chip advantage systematically disappear in a way that is making people ask: “What the hell was that?”

On the surface, the answer is they watched Jesse Yaginuma comeback from eight big blinds to win his third WSOP bracelet in dramatic style by seemingly playing perfectly against two-time World Poker Tour champ James Carroll, who played the part of a road kill victim in the $1,500 Millionaire Maker.

The two were each guaranteed at least $1 million for being the last players in the event that attracted a record 11,996 entries — but Yaginuma also carried with him a WPT Gold ticket he won through a promotion the online poker sweepstakes platform ran. Yaginuma won his ticket in a nacho eating contest.

That ticket was worth an additional $1 million to Yaginuma if he could somehow pull-off the comeback.

And right after mid-stakes banger Josh Reichard was eliminated in third place after playing pocket threes poorly, that’s exactly what happened.

So did the players make a deal during the extended break after Reichard was eliminated, or did Yaginuma simply play perfect poker against Carroll, who melted under all those lights and cameras?

UPDATE: The WSOP made this update on its socials late this morning:

“Last night, we were made aware of a potential breach of the official WSOP Tournament Rules during heads up play in Event 53. An investigation is underway. At this time, 1st and 2nd place have not been confirmed and neither the prize money nor the bracelet have been officially awarded.”

“Flummoxed”

Yaginuma started the heads-up match by making one of the best folds a player could make with their tournament life on the line. After the match started with some back and forth, this hand took place (around 3:24:35 of the broadcast).

Yaginuma, under 10 big blinds, limped from the small blind with 75, and watched Carroll check to see the flop give him top pair with a flop of TT7.

But there was problem. Carroll held T6 for trips.

“It’s over right? I assume this is it, right?” said announcer David Tuchman.

Carroll bet 4 million, and it didn’t take long for Yaginuma to find the heroic fold.

“Hey, does Carroll have some sort of crazy live tell?” speculated his partner, Joe Stapleton.”I don’t think I ever seen someone fold top pair with seven big blinds to one bet.”

“I don’t get it,” Tuchman agreed. “I’m absolutely flummoxed. I mean, that’s the most inane fold I ever seen. I don’t get it.”

That left Yagimura with 18.3 million chips to Carroll’s 281.6 million with the blinds at 1.2/2.4 million. But the comeback was on and the poker world watched as Yaginuma repeatedly made Carroll fold while avoiding facing elimination — or much of any push-back from Carroll, who happened to bring in a very solid 11-6 record in heads-up play to this event.

Yaginuma then found a double-up after hitting two-pair on the river in a hand that played out as anyone would expect it to, even though his tournament life was at risk.

But there were also other hands where, if Carroll happened to wake up with something, Yagimura would have been at risk, but it never happened. Instead, Yugimura continued to chip up over and over, folding the hands he was behind in, as both players played passively.

As the broadcast continued and the announcers watched Yagimura build his stack, they begin dropping hints they thought something was not quite right, like bringing up professional wrestling while expressing disgust at the quality of play.

It must be said that this is all speculation. Yaginuma directly denied the accusation the two players had a deal to Poker.org afterwards, even though he admitted they had a talk.

Interestingly, the WSOP took down all the tweets celebrating Yaginuma’s victory. As for the WPT and if it will pay the bonus, the poker giant said “We’re looking into the matter.”

The WSOP has nothing to do with the WPT bonus, and can’t be happy about this kind of negative attention and drama that is being caused by this situation. If collusion did occur and was proven, the WSOP could take the extreme step to disqualify the players, as per its rules. The WSOP has yet to comment on this (Note: They did after publication).

This is an ongoing story.