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Is being staked worth it as a new poker player? Should you seek staking? Poker pro Phil Galfond has answers for you!
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Like a lot of other situations in poker, being staked can be a positive or a negative experience depending on a variety of factors.
As Phil says in today’s video, when playing poker tournaments it can make a lot of sense to get staked as you can go a long time without having a big tournament win.
Be mindful though, while being staked can remove some of your risk, staking can have a negative affect on your mental game and your poker strategy as a whole if you aren’t conscious of it.
When playing poker, it can be easy to feel that you are on a ‘freeroll’ when you buy-in using someone else’s money, always keep in mind that staking arrangements usually have stipulations regarding earning back your losses / winning your way back through ‘makeup.’
Are you a new poker player or a poker beginner? Do you just need the best poker strategy or do you have a high stakes poker related question you’d like a poker professional’s advice on? Leave a comment and your question might end up in the next one of these quick poker tips videos!
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Source: YouTube
It’s still way better then not having the opportunity to play it all.. the main thing your are risking is your time (if you get in deep makeup). The backer takes on way more risk here
I could never imagine losing someone else’s money. I could see swaps or someone purchasing action at even or slight markup of 10%, but the pressure of being in make up is daunting.
what the hell is makeup?
Phil, can you please do a video on how selling action works in cash games? I've always wondered if the math gets messy
i dont get it, if the staker takes all the downside risk as phil said, make up makes no sense, does he mean the player wont get staked again until he pays it back?
An argument that comes up often locally.
Same Backer+Horse for A+B.
Scenario A: split profits + make-up losses before horse gets money.
Scenario B: split profits after each session + make-up comes from a % of horses split.
In scenario B, does the backer lose profits overall?
getting staked, alone, is nothing more than borrowing money with a really big interest rate (50% of your profits or more). yes, maybe you wouldn't be able to be playing those stakes if not for the staking (this is especially true for tournament players as Phil mentioned, due to variance) and 50% of 8K in winnings is better than 100% of 2K in winnings but that is really the only reason for it. the staker is taking advantage of that fact and their position of power in the negotiation of the deal, hence people demanding deals like 50/50. you need to be playing much higher stakes than you could with just your bankroll to justify it. otherwise, 50% is simply a huge cut to your winrate. now, I want to add, if beyond staking there is coaching, access to tools and other support like in some poker teams, that's a different scenario.
also, some people mentioned the staker is the one taking the risk but that's really not true because you will be in make-up and will be expected to pay back that make-up if you decide to rescind the deal. it would only be true if you were a dishonest person and if the staker had no way of getting that money back from you.
Do stakers really take on downside risk though? If they know the player they are staking is a long term winner, and the player being staked has to cover all losses in the form of make-up, I don't see much risk at all besides the player defaulting on the debt while in make-up. This is why I always took all of my own action, It's WAY too good of a deal for the staker.
I played professionally for a few years, granted, only ever midstakes and never really high stakes. Still, there were pretty big swings.
Getting staked never even crossed my mind though. My money, my decision. Swaps were ok, but playing with someone else's money? It just isnt right.