Devo's backing article

[Bonified]

On Pokerpages

Backing arrangements on the tournament circuit are "the elephant in the corner" to some extent. The majority of the casual audience have no idea that such a large proportion of the field are basically playing with someone else's money. Bryan's article is well-written, explains backing arrangements very clearly and it's good that he has brought this into the open on a site like Pokerpages which has a very large casual audience.

But ... I do have a problem with parts of it. I cannot accept that backing people is "free money". "So they go $40K in the hole. Big deal, when they will eventually cash for $200K". You can't just wish away the worst case scenario as having zero probability. The worst case scenario is so bad for the backer that even if it is low probability, it has to be factored in. Look, this does happen. This has happened. Horse is $250K in the hole, goes up to backer and says "I don't want to play any more". Now what's the backer going to do ? What do you do in this spot Bryan ? Options that I can think of are :

- Write off the $250K
- Sweet-talk the horse round into playing some more
- Take the sheets option, and tell the horse if he quits he's going to find it difficult to play with one arm

Frankly I think the sheets option is by far the best, if you're ruthless enough. If you're not, you can either write the money off or persuade your horse to keep going, which might just be digging the hole even deeper. He's already demotivated, and he's in a situation where only a huge win can get him out of it, but continuing to lose is basically not going to make his situation any worse. Not being able to pay $250K isn't really any different from not being able to pay $500K.

How likely this scenario is depends on your judgement of the staked player, both as a winning player and a trustworthy person. But I do think it is clearly wrong to assign it zero probability. I repeat, this can and does happen.

That's my main problem with it. I also find it hard to believe that when 55 bracelets are being given out every year, there are really any substantial "TV endorsements and other sponsorships" on offer. I personally would feel more pressure to cash if I was on someone else's money, but maybe that's just me.

I know Bryan posts on here so I welcome his comments, and I've never been in a backing arrangement on either side so of course if people who have been can put me right based on experience, go for it. For me, I would be very, very careful about entering a make-up arrangement on either side. It may be unlikely to go wrong, but if it does, it will go very wrong indeed. I derive a lot of satisfaction from making my own way in poker, and of course I also get to keep 100% of the profits. Now that's free money :-)