[AragornX151]

So I don't play nearly this high, but a close friend and I (not an efriend, one of my best pals) were talking about this a lot lately, and I wanted to chime in here...I first wanted to ask, though:

Do the regulars here who do the staking thing regularly always do it on a "my word is golden" basis? Because even with one of my closest friends (we're like brothers), I'd want any kind of substantial staking deal to be in full writing, and he would too, including ALL terms.

As an example, I would be willing to stake him to a 5-5 PL Omaha game in the future, as he has a big overlay in that game. It's a +ev move for both sides. However, in the interest of making sure that everything is done without any confusion, we'd want to discuss all aspects ahead of time; the buy-ins I'm comfortable with him using, the strategy (short-stack, deepstack), and to what length of time the stake is for. Then he could play stress-free (I.E. not changing strategies playing with "someone else's $" as much), and I would feel comfortable with my investment, no matter which way it ultimately turns out...at least it would be ethically strong.

These things are not about just trust; I know he'd never screw me over. But it's easy to mistake a term here or there that can lead to serious misunderstandings. There's no reason not to have a contract when this amount of money is at stake, and I'd have one of my friends who's a lawyer look it over to make sure everything is kosher. That would eliminate any chance of mixups. Does anyone here do this, or at least put it in writing in some form? I mean, staking is such a thin line.

Also, it would be pretty easy to uphold online as the sites can send you hand histories for the player from the date of the stake onward. I assume the sites would be willing to comply with this if agreed to by both parties ahead of time...doesn't this seem like a surefire way to eliminate these kinds of problems with online staking? It would present issues if someone is being staked by multiple people at once, I suppose, but other than that...anyway, at the least, terms of these kinds of agreements should be in writing, like they are for all other forms of serious money exchanges.

In this case, I don't think the IM logs are sufficient enough to prove anything in court. Everything is so hazily outlined, and both sides deserve blame for various aspects. IMO, Boosted's actions are extremely unethical (it's clear that OP is not aware of what he's getting himself into, and Boosted does nothing to alleviate that confusion) but not illegal. OP deserves some serious blame for agreeing to such hazily agreed terms, and while it sure seems to me that he was taken advantage of to some level, you have to be very careful when shipping someone 60K...