Why do people stake others?

[DHamilton97]

So a lot of 'tv stars' are broke and need people to stake them for there tournaments. The thing I'm wondering is, how does this staking work ? Is a lot of it 100% backed by 1 person ? Or is it 10 people putting up 1k each for a certain player to play? Because I've heard stories of 1 person backing a single player for the whole entry fee, but why in the world would someone do this ? Ya'd think, if this player were that good, he'd have his own $ to play and not be broke. I can't not see how this would be +EV for anyone backing someone else. In the long run, it's gonna cost you a lot of money. Anyone wanna clear this up a bit ? thx ! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[xxx]

Some people are better at playing poker than handling money.

As an extreme example, Stu Unger won the WSOP 3 time, was a great poker player, and died broke.

[Quicksilvre]

They don't necessarily have to be broke. With all the big money tournaments running now, it would probably cost $300K or more to enter them all, not including travel fees. It's just a way to reduce varience.

There are a lot of different deals. There are sawtooth deals, where someone stakes a player and lets the player take home 50% (or whatever, sometimes lower) of the profits. One player may buy a percentage of another, or two players may sell a percentage to each other. Any deal that can be concieved and is acceptible for both parties are in play.

[dogmeat]

Poker is a business, even for the players. Most small businesses get loans to finance expansion. For a poker player, playing different events across the country is like expanding their market - and it's expensive.

At the WSOP, the Rio was charging $235 a night for rooms (and the Wynn was at $400 on many nights) and with meals and travel, you can expect it to cost a player $400 a day to exist, not to mention their entry fees. Having a backer really helps.

If I play at the WSOP, LA Classic, Aruba and then the tournament in Tunica, over a six month period, I still have time for cash games, but still, lots of expenses. My cost for those four events, just playing the main event and two smaller ones would be about $68K. It wouldn't be that strange for me (or even a "good" player) to not cash in 12 straight tournaments- and personally, I'd be busted.

Dogmeat [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

[James Boston]

There's a good article in this month's 2+2 Magazine.

link

[benfranklin]

[ QUOTE ]
So a lot of 'tv stars' are broke and need people to stake them for there tournaments.

[/ QUOTE ]

Many players are not broke and still prefer to be staked rather than use their own money. It's like insurance to cut down the variance.

I just read Annie Duke's book (it's not out yet, I got an advanced copy from a friend in the book business). In it, she says that she never uses any of her own money in tournaments, only in cash games. Her tournaments are 100% staked by Eric Seidel. (As I remember, she didn't say what percent of her winnings Eric gets from this.)

Many pros also trade shares in each other. Annie Duke and Chris Ferguson have a standing arrangement of trading 5% of their winnings in tournaments. This also cuts down the variance.

[Quicksilvre]

Oops, I saw "sawtooth" instead of "stakehorse" in my post.

[tek]

I can wsee the logic of wealthy people staking someone they trust in poker, golf, bowling, etc tournaments for bragging rights when their player hits big.

But doesn't cross-staking each other lead to either being a puppet of someone and/or soft play collusion?

[sammysusar]

yeah this be a big issue. there is some peoples who wants everyone to disclose thier stakages and swapages but doubt that be happenin soon. all these playas just want to get thier mug on the tv box anyways.

I want to start a fund of funds for poker players what do you all think. I pick the best players and they gey 20 of what they make