Jesse Yaginuma has won the 2025 WSOP Millionaire Maker, taking down over $1.25m in the enormous 11,966 entry field. The event was so big that not only one millionaire was created, with runner-up James Carroll securing his biggest ever payday of $1,012,230.
Yaginuma was the only former bracelet winner left in contention in Event #53 $1,500 Millionaire Maker, after Leo Margets busted in 23rd place. He went into the seven-player final day in second place, on 55.7m, but way behind Josh Reichard, the runaway chip leader, who had nearly 85m at that point. This was the fourth bracelet that Yaginuma has won, but his first live one.
The Millionaire Maker is one of the longest of the marquis events on the schedule, with four starting days and then a further four days to bring it to a conclusion. It’s longer than a test match is cricket, almost twice as long. Perhaps it should be renamed the Marathon Millionaire Maker. Congratulations to both champion Jesse Yaginuma and James Carroll, who both scooped enough in this tournament alone, to call themselves poker millionaires.
2025 WSOP: Event #53 $1,500 Millionaire Maker Final Table Result
| Position | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jesse Yaginuma | $1,255,180 |
| 2 | James Carroll | $1,012,320 |
| 3 | Josh Reichard | $702,360 |
| 4 | Jacques Ortega | $534,590 |
| 5 | Jeffrey Tanouye | $409,870 |
| 6 | Jonah Labranche | $316,190 |
| 7 | Alejandro Ganivet | $245,430 |
| 8 | Bruno Fuentes | $191,690 |
2025 WSOP: Event #53 $1,500 Millionaire Maker Recap
After a slow start, the final table came to life when Alejandro Ganivet was eliminated in 7th place. His A♠4♠ was dominated by Reichard’s A♦10♦ and Ganivet went off to fill in the paperwork for his $245,430 prize.
Ganivet’s departure had two significant impacts on the state of the tournament. Firstly, it blasted Josh Reichard’s into a stratospheric chip lead, his 135.5m stack orbiting way higher than any of the rest. Jesse Yaginuma’s 53.1m was the closest.
The second thing that Ganivet’s exit guaranteed was that the eventual winner’s first name would begin with a J, as all six remaining players are card carrying members of the ‘Our first name starts with J Club.’
With the non-J interloper swiftly dealt with, the J club could now focus on turning in on itself, to see which J would rise above them all, as there can be only one….er, winner of this event.
Back to the action. After the J Club Six had resumed play, Reichard soon increased his lead further, taking a sizeable pot from Yaginuma. These two were the chip leaders for quite some time, with the rest of the J-pack fighting over third place, but none especially short-stacked.
These shorter stacks then began to take bug chunks out of the chip leader who fell back to just over 110m, while James Carroll made his way from the bottom of the leaderboard, up to second place.
Jeffrey Tanouye looked like he might become the next player out, however he recovered from having just 4 big blinds and it was Jonah Labranche, who took sixth place, for $316,190. His exit also came at the hands of Reichard, who now re-established a healthy lead, pushing him back up to 144m. Labranche will feel aggrieved at the nature of the exit, as his [invalid notations] was out-gunned by Reichard’s K♠9♠ after an all spade flop.
Next out was Jeffrey Tanouye in 5th for $409,870. He had become short-stacked again and once again Reichard obliged, sending him packing with 9♣5♥ versus 7♠3♦. The action followed a flop of 2♣5♦3♠ which left Reichard ahead. The 8♠K♥ on the turn and river didn’t change anything, leaving the tournament four-handed.
Just a few minutes later, Jacques Ortega became the 4th place finisher, departing with $534,590. He became yet another victim of Riechard’s when his A♥8♠ failed to hold against the chip leader’s 6♥5♥.
With three left it was all going swimmingly well for Josh Reichard, who had grown his pile up to 189.4m, nearly three times that of James Carroll on 65m, while Jesse Yaginuma languished in last place on 45.6m.
But having dominated for so much of the final table, Riechard’s claim to the title would soon fade, as James Carroll first levelled the playing field, then took his turn to be the big chip leader. His luck ran out completely when he shoved for his ‘last’ 106m, with 3♥3♣ only to be insta-called by Carroll who had J♦J♣. No further threes of jacks made an appearance on the board and Josh Reichard became the 3rd place finisher for $702,360.
Heads Up for the Bracelet
With both players guaranteed to become mtt millionaires, the pressure was off a little, although there was still a lot of cash and bracelet to determine the ownership of. Carroll had a monster chip lead, with over 90% of the 300m in play. It could have been over very quickly, but with only 17.1m chips left, Yaginuma began to mount a fightback.
Yaginuma staged a mini-recovery, but Carroll was still in the driving seat for quite a few laps of the track. Yaginuma began to play more aggressively, pushing Carroll off a series of pots to assume the chip lead. From then on it was pedal to the metal as Yaginuma became hungry for his first live WSOP bracelet, to go with the three he has won from online play.
That dream was fulfilled after his Q♠3♦ bettered A♣10♣ on a 4♦J♠4♥Q♥5♥ board, to send James Carroll home in 2nd place with $1,012,320. The winner, Jesse Yaginuma collected $1,255,180 and is the Millionaire Maker champion.
