Investing In Poker Players - Is It Worth It?

(Photo: Cardschat.com)

The recent launch of PokerShares by Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald prompted Doug Polk to take a look at the world of poker staking, which can be a minefield fraught with potential danger for the uninformed.

It can also be a lucrative endeavor when one knows what to look for when buying the action of other players. Courtesy of Polk and a recent YouTube video, we now have a better idea how to navigate those mines.

"High stakes poker, if you start losing, it gets expensive," explained WCGRider, as to one reason why players parcel their action. Some of that expense is mitigated by poker pros who sell shares of themselves in various events to investors, typically at a markup that is set by the player looking to be staked.

For the player, it provides a level of security, as well as a tidy little profit. For instance, selling 40% of your action in a $5,000 buy-in event at 1.25 markup pulls in a quick $500.

Who Should I Stake?

The Upswing Poker co-founder advises newcomers to staking that the most popular players with the highest markups are not necessarily the best to invest in. Typically, the best values are those players who happen to be good at poker, but are not very well-known among the masses.

One might ask if it's a good bet to invest in players who make coaching and training videos. Such players must know what they are talking about since they are teaching others how to excel and win at poker, right?

Not necessarily, Polk stated, because when poker players can no longer beat the game, they turn to other avenues in order to make money. Producing coaching videos is sometimes one of those areas.

Uhm, wait, didn't Polk recently launch a coaching website?

Kidding aside, perhaps the best piece of advice about staking put forth by WCGRider is that although:

“It can have a lot of upside... it also has way more downside.”