Poker Staking Calculator

Selling action for a tournament? See exactly who gets what.
Enter the buy-in, your markup, and each backer's percentage — or switch to a makeup deal — and get an itemized settlement for any result.

Enter the buy-in and your markup. Markup is a multiplier: 1.2 means backers pay 20% over face value for their share. Use 1.0 for a no-premium sale.
Add a row for each backer. Enter the percentage of your action each backer buys. The total can't exceed 100% — whatever you don't sell, you keep.
Enter the result. The cash amount you won — enter 0 for a bust. The breakdown updates live for any number you try.
Carrying makeup? Tick the box. In a makeup deal the backers recover the makeup plus this buy-in before any profit is split, and markup is off — you never charge both.

Results update live. Copy the shareable link to send the fully-specified deal to your backers before anyone puts up a dollar.

The deal

Buy-in ($) The full tournament entry cost, including any house fee.

Currency

Markup (multiplier) 1.2 means backers pay a 20% premium over face value. Typical range is 1.05–1.3.

Deal includes makeup

Tick this if you're carrying losses from previous staked events. Backers recover the makeup plus this buy-in before any profit is split.

Action sold One row per backer, with the % of your action they're buying.

Total action sold: 50%

Result — cash won ($) What the tournament paid you. Enter 0 for a bust.

Settlement

You pocket from the cash

$1,250

Your net on the event

+$850

Backers put up now

$600

Markup premium you collect

$100

Party	% of action	Pays now	Gets from cash	Net

What it means: Backers pay their share of the buy-in times the markup up front; the cash splits by percentage owned. Whatever you don't sell, you keep.

Staked or staking? Know your real number

✓ Track every staked session alongside your own action
✓ Side pools per session — record who has what percentage of each event
✓ Tax-ready reports of what you actually kept, not the headline cash
✓ Free for your first 10 sessions

The calculator is always free. Create a free account for more — no credit card, free for your first 10 sessions.

What is staking (selling action)?

Staking is when someone else pays part of your tournament buy-in in exchange for the same share of your winnings. If a backer buys 20% of your action in a $1,000 tournament, they cover $200 of the entry and collect 20% of whatever you cash. Players sell action to reduce variance, take shots at bigger buy-ins than their bankroll allows, or lock in guaranteed profit through markup.

The math is simple until real-world details pile up: multiple backers with different percentages, a markup premium, and makeup carried over from earlier events. This calculator itemizes all of it — what each backer pays today, what each party collects from any result, and what carries forward — so the deal is unambiguous before anyone commits.

What is markup and how do you price it?

Markup is a premium backers pay above the face value of the action, quoted as a multiplier. At 1.2 markup, 10% of a $1,000 tournament costs $120 instead of $100. The extra $20 compensates the player for their edge: a winning player's share of the action is worth more than its face value, and markup is how that expected value gets priced into the sale.

Fair markup is driven by your expected ROI in this specific field — which comes down to your win rate and the field's size and softness. Most sold action trades between 1.05 and 1.3: small edges in large, tough fields sit near the bottom of that range, while strong, proven players in soft fields command the top. Selling at 1.0 (no markup) is common between friends; anything above roughly 1.5 rarely leaves the backer positive expectation. If your true ROI is below the markup you charge, backers lose money in the long run even when you play well.

What is makeup — and why you never combine it with markup

Makeup is the running debt in a long-term staking arrangement. When the backer funds your buy-ins and you lose, the losses accumulate as makeup. Before you see a cent of profit from a future cash, the makeup plus the current buy-in must be recovered — only the amount above that line gets split. Bust again and the buy-in is added to the makeup you carry into the next event.

The classic rule of staking: markup or makeup, never both. Markup prices your edge into a one-off sale — the backer's risk ends when the tournament does. Makeup already protects the backer over the long haul, because you must dig out of the hole before profiting. Charging a premium on top of a deal where the backer also gets first claim on your winnings is double-dipping, which is why this calculator disables markup the moment you tick the makeup box.

A worked example

You enter a $1,000 tournament and sell 50% at 1.2 markup. Your backers pay $600 up front — $500 face value plus a $100 premium you keep no matter what. Your own outlay is the remaining $400 of the buy-in. You cash for $2,500: backers collect 50% = $1,250 (a $650 profit on their $600), and you keep the other $1,250 — up $850 on the event after your $400 outlay.

Now the bust case: you win nothing. Backers lose their $600, you lose your $400 — but the $100 markup premium was yours either way, so your true loss on the event is $300. That asymmetry is exactly why markup exists, and why backers should only pay it when your edge genuinely justifies it.

Frequently asked questions

What is a fair markup?

Whatever leaves the backer with positive expectation after the premium. As a rule of thumb, fair markup is roughly 1 + (your expected ROI × the share of that edge you're willing to pass on). A player with a true 30% ROI selling at 1.15 splits the edge about evenly with backers; selling at 1.3 keeps it all. Most real-world action trades between 1.05 and 1.3 — be skeptical of higher numbers unless the seller has a long, documented record in comparable fields.

How does makeup work when I finally cash?

The cash first pays back the recovery total: your accumulated makeup plus the current buy-in. Only what remains above that line is profit, split by the ownership percentages. If the cash doesn't clear the recovery total, the shortfall becomes your new makeup and carries into the next event — enter your numbers above with the makeup box ticked and the calculator shows the exact new balance.

Do I pay tax on staked winnings?

In most jurisdictions the taxable amount is what you actually kept — not the headline cash, since your backers' share was never your income. That makes clean records of every deal essential, and it's exactly what PokerCharts tax reports are built for: per-session records of the gross result, the side-pool splits, and your true net. (Rules vary by country — confirm with a tax professional.)

What happens if I bust?

In a straight markup deal, everyone simply loses their stake: backers lose what they paid up front, you lose your retained share of the buy-in (softened by the markup premium you collected). Nothing is owed afterwards — one-off action sales carry no debt. In a makeup deal it's different: the busted buy-in is added to your makeup, and you owe the backers recovery of the whole balance out of future cashes before you profit again.