[FortWorthJim]

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Is there any merit to staking without makeup? Would anyone do this?

In the Mark Blade book, "Professional Poker," he said the best deal would be a 70-30 split in favor of the backer with no makeup. The percentages could be adjusted down to 65-35 or 60-40 depending on how strong the player is.

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How can you back anybody for one event and give them 30-40%? Nobody is that good. If you back for one event, and the player is great, you can give them maybe as much as 20% and have positive EV for yourself. If you do a long-term backing deal, then you can give the horse 50% or so.

The way to avoid the make-up issue is to simply never have an open-ended deal. Make the deal for a set period of time, like 6 months or a year. Then, if the player has any integrity, they will play out the period, and do their best, no matter how deep the hole becomes. Of course, if they don't have such integrity, why would you ever back them to begin with?

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

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I should have specified. He was referring to long-term deals.