Staking - Part II

This column is a follow-up to my last column about staking poker players. In that column, I touched on several crucial aspects of staking, and I definitely recommend that anyone staking a player or considering staking one read that column. The basic gist of the column was that staking is often a losing proposition, so one must be very careful regarding whom he stakes and how big he lets the staked person play. Also, their agreement should be made very clear at the start of their staking relationship, and any changes in the agreement also should be clear to both parties. I also emphasized that trusting the person you are backing is the most important part of determining whom to stake, as the entire staking business simply does not work without complete trust on both sides of the relationship. Now, here's some more information about staking that I didn't get to in my last column.



Whom you should stake is an extremely difficult and tricky proposition. First and foremost, you need to have complete trust in them; I just cannot emphasize this point enough! At the same time, however, staking your close friends can turn out very badly, as the business aspect of staking can put a tremendous strain on your friendship, and your friendship can also cloud your thinking and lead you to make poor decisions regarding the staking business. I have known many great friendships that have been soiled by a staking relationship, and oftentimes it happens even when both sides make money during the staking process! Even with the most well-conceived staking agreements, unpredictable disputes can still rise and grow into massive wrinkles in both the staking relationship and the friendship. Now having said that, I am not necessarily suggesting that you stake only people with whom you are not good friends; just be extremely careful that you don't jeopardize your friendship with your business relationship. The ideal staking situation is likely to be with a player in whom you have complete trust, with whom you are friendly but not to the point where you'll make poor business decisions just to try to see him succeed, and for whom you have tremendous respect in the type of game(s) you are staking him in. Also, staking a player who is down on his luck and lacking confidence or is going through serious personal/family issues is a very risky proposition (although many players who need or want to be staked are going through one or more of these issues, which is often a major reason why a good player may not have the money or desire to play for himself).



As tempting as it is to try to help out a friend who is going through a rough personal, emotional, or financial time, these staking arrangements often end up being disastrous for both parties involved. Playing good poker is difficult enough without simultaneously going through other problems. Encourage your potential staked player to work through his other problems before returning to the poker arena. If you do end up staking a player who is going through financial problems, it may be best to set up a short-term plan in which you help him with his bills and other financial obligations while he is just starting to play for you, so that he doesn't have financial pressure to win immediately (which may cause him to make a variety of poor playing decisions). I would generally treat any money you give to a staked player in this manner as a straight loan, to be paid back as soon as he has righted himself financially. Now, expenses incurred while being staked are a different matter entirely, from my perspective.



Covering expenses such as travel, food, and sometimes even short-term living expenses for a player who is being staked is a costly proposition that many people refuse to do. I believe, however, that it is entirely unfair to expect a staked player to cover his own expenses when he is playing entirely for you, especially if you are staking a tournament player who incurs a lot of travel expenses. My solution to this problem is that all travel expenses are to be paid for out of the staked player's bankroll, and are then treated as make-up, just like a losing session. To me, this seems like the only fair way to handle expenses. This works in a twofold manner by not making expenses an immediate financial burden for the staked player, but also holding the staked player accountable for his expenses and likely providing motivation for the staked player not to spend extravagantly, as all expenses need to be made up before either party makes any money.



One new staking issue that has come up, which really concerns only players who are staked online, is rakeback. Some of the major sites now offer to give a percentage of the rake generated from an account back to that account. The amount of rakeback you can get from each of the major sites varies widely, especially based on how well you are connected with the site in question, but generally, people with no formal connections can still get 20 percent or more rakeback by signing up with a website's affiliate/rakeback programs. In general, I make sure that anyone I stake online plays on an account under his own name (which makes cashing out much easier), but an account in which I deal with the finances (as the backer) and get the rakeback. Recently, I polled players on my site, thunderkeller.com, to see what they thought was fair in terms of who should get the rakeback, and they almost unanimously agreed that the rakeback should be split equally between the player generating the rake and the backer supplying the bankroll. I agree that in a utopian environment, I would be happy to split the rakeback with the people I stake, but oftentimes the logistics of it make this impossible. So instead, I keep track of the rakeback and use it to do nice things for the players I stake, such as take them out to lavish dinners, throw parties, buy them nice equipment to play on, and cover miscellaneous expenses (like alcohol after a big winning session!).



I could go on and on about the intricacies of staking, but I am satisfied that I have at least touched on the major points in these two columns.



Take care, and may your stakehorses never bust you.

Thomas "Thunder" Keller is a 25-year-old professional poker player and one of poker's young and rising stars. He can often be found playing at UltimateBet.com under the name thunderkeller. To learn more about him and to enlist in his new squadron, go to his website at http://www.thunderkeller.com/. Be sure to check out his frequent blog on the front page of CardPlayer.com or at various places throughout cyberspace. Also, feel free to contact him at [email protected]. Part I of this series can be found at www.CardPlayer.com.