Poker Staking

What are your thoughts on staking.

Is it good/bad for poker? Why?

Does anyone here stake using sites such as DonkeyFarm and SurfersPoker?

never heard of those sites,

but i feel that staking is just fine (just dont do it publicly on here)...

but staking is fine as long as the loaner recieves the original $$ plus whatever % that was agreed upon...

nothing wrong with it unless you dont pay it back....


just make sure you are staking a reliable person

If you do it, be sure that the person that you are staking has fully participated in the descision to be staked.

And don't run off PMing people at random either. kthx.


The big problem these days are thousands of mediocre players that think they are good players and that they deserve money to play on someone else's dime. I've staked people before (both live and online) and it's turned out fine (so far in all cases). I have standing arrangements for some home tournies I play as well were our agreement isn't staking so much as it is shared risk and increased opportunity to cash. If done right, staking can be very profitable as well. Sometimes you find a very good player without the funds to play in the games were good money can be made. Investing in that person's abilities and profiting from it while sharing the winnings with them for doing the work is great. But you have to know what you're getting into and with who so that you don't get screwed.

This book provides the most comprehensive analysis of staking I have ever seen.

Staking seems to be somewhat like consulting a psychic. If a psychic was any good, he/she would win the lottery every day. If a player was any good, they should not need staking.

Yeah, but you can stake someone that doesn't need staking so they can freeroll in a tournament/cash game. I'd say this is more akin to buying a piece of someone's action than actual staking, but if you know a certain player is +EV in a certain game and you have the cash to spare, why not ?