A Stable Income

Hear a young man with a posh accent announcing, "In my stable currently I have Rookie, Trigger, and a couple of others," and someone outside the insular poker world would be forgiven for picturing Rookie's mane flowing in the breeze and imagining him having to check Trigger for seedy toe.

Also, that their profitability as horses came in their health, and that their speed and reliability were what he was talking about when he compared their consistency and results. But that man is James "RoyalFlush" Dempsey, and his small stable is made up of both live and online poker players, staked with his own bankroll. While his investment might not be in eye watering figures, I have seen some internet stars at the World Series of Poker with horses in double figures vying for bracelets under the watchful eye of this or that prodigy, and spreading one's money around seems to be the next big thing.

Staking is a phenomenon which has grown in popularity and profile with many comfortably-off players doing, writing, and talking about it more than ever. Corporate sponsorship seems to be edging more and more towards its private version in its setup and cash-flow workings, so what are the similarities and differences between wearing a site's logo and playing the European Poker Tour circuit and wearing your pyjamas and playing $50 tournaments online with your friend's money?

Starting with the lower end, it appears that watching one's horse go deep in a tournament is about as gratifying as doing it oneself - here's Dempsey's response to one of his stable taking down Full Tilt's Sunday Brawl, taken verbatim from his "Diary about poker and other stuff, but mostly poker" on the Blonde Poker forum: "Once CL [chip leader] it was pretty much game over for his opponents and not long after our hero captured the title and an impressive $73,000+. Congratulations RookieITB [Ben Turnstill]: a top draw result and I think I am right in saying it means you now have 3 cashes bigger than my biggest ever cash! I should also note that my share of his win is bigger than anything I have ever cashed for."

Far from chagrin, the fact that staking has led to his vicariously winning more money than he has from actually playing the game himself causes him nothing but delight. He even sets his horses a mini-league to guarantee a nicely competitive spirit.

Getting a good return from a capable player begs the question, why that player would want to take the terms most staking deals offer? Dempsey's rationale is pretty standard: either he offers a one-off buy-in, expecting the initial outlay back plus two-thirds of the profit, or he takes on a player over a series of months with a 50 percent return plus "make-up".

So if a horse plays five $100 tournaments without cashing, then wins $1,600 on the sixth, he or she owes $600 straight off, and then 50 percent of the profit on top. Any way you look at it, this is not a great deal for the player (or potentially the backer if an unscrupulous horse gallops away, many buy-ins in the hole).

Leaks in otherwise talented young players' bankroll management or game selection when left to their own devices are usually to blame (or thank, depending on which side of the negotiating table you are) for the plethora of potential horses accepting backing to play at a level they cannot sustain on their own, but at which they are ultimately profitable.

It's all a question of bankroll size - if somebody offered Dempsey the same deal for high-end live tournaments, he says he would, "snap it up". It does seem that private staking ventures have a predestined end in success, however what would be the point in continuing once the big score comes? He says, "I always tell them, 'The aim of this is for you not to need me any more'."

Such immediately backer-friendly but ultimately altruistic sounding motives are one aspect separating corporate sponsorship from the individual sort. The more successful a player is, the higher his profile and the more valuable he becomes to a well-advertised site like, for example, PokerStars, whose line-up of world champions and big name Europeans seems to be continually expanding.

The idea here isn't to take advantage of an unknown yet profitable player's cash deficit until such time as it no longer exists, but to add the recognisable face of a media-friendly person to a roster showcasing their brand.

But with money tight everywhere and more players than ever apparently deserving of logos, it is not cost-effective to simply bankroll your stars with no conditions. Full Tilt seems to back just about everyone these days, but only a small number are actually sponsored fully - refunded buy-ins and even percentages owed are increasingly part of every site's deals. French team Winamax are given a certain tournament allowance for a year, and should they cash, there is a condition that 10 percent of their winnings has to be recycled into further events.

Somewhere between the worlds of private backing a lá Neil Channing (who has recently picked some thoroughbreds in the form of Omaha bracelet-winner Marty Smyth and Tony Phillips among many others) and the big online poker sites like training and staking company BadBeat.com.

Their slogan reads, "Sponsoring and Developing Winning Online Players", and they've accumulated a surprisingly loyal rogues' gallery of players including John Tabatabai, Paul Jackson, Richard Herbert, and John Conroy. Their angle is one of continuous mentoring by established players, as well as closely-monitored statistics and an individually tailored bankroll and stop-loss for each player to ease the downswings. "Risk not thy whole wad" is their motto, and while staking might be what initially brings players to the site, the support and much deeper pockets than an individual backer's are what keep them.

Channing considers his horses "my children"; to big companies they are assets, to staking sites they are profitable projects and, hopefully, ultimately mentors. With staking in the poker world becoming ubiquitous, expect to see Poker Manager 3 taking on Pro Evolution Soccer in a couple of years.

Jen Mason is a part of www.blondepoker.com. She is responsible for its live tournament coverage in the UK and abroad.