Staking means one person (the backer) puts up some or all of another player's buy-ins in exchange for a share of the profits. It's one of the most common financial arrangements in poker, especially in tournaments, and it comes with its own vocabulary that can be confusing until you've seen the numbers laid out clearly.
The Basic Idea
A backer believes a player is profitable but the player either lacks the bankroll to play their preferred stakes or wants to reduce variance. They strike a deal: the backer covers the buy-ins, and any profits at the end of the arrangement get split according to a pre-agreed ratio. If the player loses, those losses don't come straight out of the backer's pocket indefinitely. Instead, they accumulate as makeup.
Staking is most common in MTTs, where variance is high, single buy-ins can run into the hundreds or thousands of dollars, and deep runs produce large payoffs. If you're thinking about what's a good tournament ROI for a player worth backing, the numbers that matter are the same ones that define whether staking terms are fair.
Key Terms You'll Hear
- Stake: The buy-in money the backer puts up. If you're playing a $1,000 tournament and your backer covers it, they've staked you $1,000.
- Horse: The player being staked. Comes from horse racing. You'll hear "I've got a horse in that series" meaning someone they're backing.
- Backer: The person providing the money. Could be a single person, a small group, or a staking company.
- Package: A defined set of tournaments covered by the staking deal. A WSOP package, for example, might cover specific events during the series at a set total buy-in amount.
- Makeup: The cumulative deficit a player owes before profit splitting begins. Covered in detail below.
- Markup: Selling action above face value. Also explained below.
What Makeup Actually Means
Makeup is the part of staking that confuses most people the first time. Here's the principle: the backer has to recoup every dollar they've lost before the profit split kicks in. Until the running losses are cleared, the player owes the backer those losses out of future winnings. That running deficit is makeup.
The worked example below shows how this plays out across a series of sessions. In this deal, the backer covers 100% of buy-ins and takes 50% of profits. The player takes 50% but receives nothing until all accumulated losses are paid back.
| Session | Buy-In | Cash-Out | Session Result | Makeup Carried | Player Earns |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500 | $0 | -$500 | $500 | $0 |
| 2 | $500 | $0 | -$500 | $1,000 | $0 |
| 3 | $500 | $1,800 | +$1,300 | $0 (cleared $1,000 makeup, $300 left) | $150 |
| 4 | $500 | $0 | -$500 | $500 | $0 |
| 5 | $500 | $2,600 | +$2,100 | $0 (cleared $500 makeup, $1,600 left) | $800 |
Walk through session 3 step by step. The player cashes $1,800 on a $500 buy-in, a net profit of $1,300. But they're carrying $1,000 of makeup from sessions 1 and 2. That $1,000 goes back to the backer first. That leaves $300 of profit to split 50/50, so the player takes $150 and the backer takes $150 plus the $1,000 makeup repayment. After session 3, makeup is zero.
Session 4 is another loss, so makeup climbs to $500 again. Session 5 produces a $2,100 net profit. The first $500 of that clears the makeup. The remaining $1,600 splits 50/50: $800 to the player, $800 to the backer.
The key point: the player never profits until they've erased their deficit. The backer never shares profits before recouping losses. That symmetry is what makes makeup a fair mechanism rather than a free ride for either side.
How the Profit Split Settles
Most staking deals specify a simple ratio: 50/50, 60/40, or 70/30 in favor of the backer. The ratio depends on how much the backer is putting up and how proven the player is. A grinder with a demonstrated long-run ROI across thousands of tournaments will command better terms than someone just moving up in stakes.
If you're wondering whether you're ready to move up stakes on your own, staking is another way to take that shot without risking money you can't afford to lose. The downside is that you forfeit a percentage of any big score.
Settlement timing matters. Some deals settle tournament by tournament. Others settle at the end of a defined package or series. Longer settlement windows mean makeup can accumulate more before it's cleared, which can create tension if a player goes deep into the red before a big score. Always agree on the settlement period up front, in writing.
Selling Action and Markup
Selling action is slightly different from a traditional staking deal. Instead of one backer covering everything, a player sells pieces of their action to multiple buyers before a tournament. A player might sell 50% of their action in a $10,000 buy-in event, meaning buyers collectively put up $5,000 and collectively receive 50% of any winnings.
Markup is the premium a player charges above the face value of their action. A player selling at 1.15 markup means a buyer pays $115 for every $100 of action. If a buyer takes 10% of a $1,000 buy-in at 1.15 markup, they pay $115 instead of $100.
Why would anyone pay markup? Because a proven winning player's expected value is positive. If a player's historical ROI is 30%, buyers expect to profit even after paying a 15% premium. The math checks out when the player's edge is real and documented. A useful framework: fair markup is roughly 1 plus half the player's ROI expressed as a decimal. A player with a 20% ROI might justify selling at 1.10 markup. Above that, the buyer's edge erodes. Sellers charging 1.3 or 1.4 markup need a very strong track record or a lot of trust in the community to move their pieces.
The poker bankroll management calculator can help you think through whether selling action makes sense for your bankroll situation, especially if a single buy-in represents a large percentage of your roll.
Why Disputes Happen and How to Avoid Them
Staking disputes are almost always record-keeping disputes. Someone insists the makeup figure is $3,200. The other side is looking at $2,700. Nobody logged the buy-ins individually, nobody wrote down which tournaments were included in the package, and nobody tracked the cash-outs in a single shared document. Three months of memory is not an audit trail.
Both sides should be working from the same numbers at all times. That means logging every session covered by the staking deal with the buy-in amount, the result, and the running makeup balance. A shared spreadsheet works. A purpose-built tracker works better, because it forces the data to be recorded in a consistent format and timestamps every entry.
The stakes in question don't need to be huge for a dispute to sour a relationship. Even small packages can create tension when the accounting is fuzzy. Clear records prevent the conversation from becoming about who remembers what and let both parties focus on the deal's actual terms.
Common Staking Mistakes
- No written agreement: Handshake deals work until they don't. Write down the profit split, the makeup terms, the settlement period, and which tournaments are covered before a single dollar changes hands.
- Undefined termination: What happens if the player wants to walk away while in makeup? Can the backer pull funding mid-package? Settle this in advance.
- Ignoring makeup depth: If a player runs badly and makeup climbs to $10,000, the backer may not want to keep funding, and the player may feel trapped. Set a makeup cap or a check-in trigger at a defined loss threshold.
- No records on either side: Even if you trust your backer completely, keep your own log. It protects both of you if either side's memory fades.
- Selling action without a win rate to support markup: Charging markup without a verifiable track record is a quick way to damage your reputation in the community. Start at face value (1.0) if you don't have the numbers to justify a premium.
Is Staking Right for You
Staking works well when both parties are honest about expectations and meticulous about records. For a player, it's a way to play stakes you couldn't responsibly afford on your own bankroll, or to reduce variance during a downswing. For a backer, it's a way to invest in a player's edge if you believe the ROI is there.
It works badly when the player's edge isn't proven, when the terms weren't written down, or when neither side is tracking results consistently. More staking deals go wrong because of sloppy accounting than because anyone was deliberately dishonest.
If you're thinking about entering a staking arrangement as a player or a backer, the first thing to do is audit your actual results. Not your sense of your results. The actual numbers from actual sessions, tournament by tournament. That's what a backer will want to see, and it's what you'll need if a makeup dispute ever comes up.
How PokerCharts Helps
PokerCharts lets you log every tournament or cash session with buy-in, result, and notes. If you're staked, you can track the sessions covered under your deal in one place and see your running profit or deficit at a glance. That gives both you and your backer a single source of truth for makeup calculations, no spreadsheet archaeology required. If you're selling action in pieces, you can log each event separately and share your results history with potential buyers to justify your markup.
The free poker tracker covers your first 10 sessions at no cost. After that, it's $1.99 per month billed annually ($23.95 per year). Whether you're staking a package or just tracking your own results to build the kind of documented win rate that supports selling action, clean records make every part of your poker finances easier to manage.