Poker Staking and Selling Action: How Backing and Markup Work

What selling action means in poker

Selling action is simple in concept. You are entering a poker tournament, and instead of paying the whole buy-in yourself, you offer other people a percentage of your result. They pay you now. If you win, they get their percentage of the prize. If you win nothing, they get nothing.

The buy-in is the amount you pay to enter. In a live tournament, that money goes into the prize pool, minus the house fee. In a cash game, you buy chips and play hand by hand, and the house takes a rake, often 10 percent of the pot for each hand¹. Staking deals are mostly a tournament thing, because the buy-in is a fixed, known number that can be split cleanly.

Say you want to play a tournament with a buy-in of 1,000. You decide to sell 40 percent of your action. You find four backers who each take 10 percent. Each pays you 100 at face value, so you collect 400 and only have 600 of your own money at risk. If you win 10,000, each backer gets 1,000 and you keep 6,000. If you win nothing, each backer is out 100 and you are out 600.

That is the whole idea. The player reduces variance, the backer takes a shot at a return. Everything else in staking is about the price, the terms and the trust between the two sides.

Backing versus staking: the difference

The two words get used interchangeably, but they describe slightly different arrangements.

Staking usually means a formal, ongoing arrangement. A staker puts up money for a player across a series of tournaments, often with a written agreement covering which events, what percentage, and how profits are split. The staker is effectively an investor in the player's schedule.

Backing is the looser version. A friend or fellow player puts up money for one event, or a few, with a handshake and a percentage. There may be no paperwork at all.

In practice, the difference matters most when something goes wrong. A staking agreement with written terms is easier to settle than a verbal backing deal between two people who met at a table.

There is also a third role worth knowing: the player who acts as their own bankroll. In some house-banked poker games, a player can take a turn as the player/dealer, and the house dealer makes all payoffs at even money from that player's stack⁴. That is a casino mechanic, not staking, but it shows how poker rooms already handle money moving between players and a central stack.

For a staking deal, the key point is that the money moves between you and your backers directly. The casino is not involved. You pay the buy-in at the cage or the registration desk, and you settle with your backers separately.

Markup: how a share is priced

Markup is the price of a share. A share sold at face value costs exactly what it is worth on paper. A share sold at a markup costs more than face value.

Here is how it works with real numbers.

Share of a 1,000 buy-in: 10%

Backer receives if you win 10,000: 1,000

Notice that the backer's payout does not change with markup. Markup only changes what the backer pays up front. A higher markup means the backer needs you to cash more often, or cash bigger, to make the same return.

Why would anyone pay above face value? Because they think the player is good enough that the extra cost is worth it. A player with a long record of deep runs can charge a markup and still find buyers. A player with no record usually sells at face value, or offers a discount below face value to attract backers.

Markup is not a casino rule and there is no official fair number. It is a market price, set by what backers are willing to pay. If you cannot sell at your asking price, the market is telling you something.

One practical warning: markup is where most staking disputes start. If a backer thinks they paid one price for a share and you think they paid another, you have a problem. Write the number down before money changes hands.

Standard deal terms between player and backer

Most staking deals cover the same handful of points. Get these clear before you take anyone's money.

The percentage sold. How much of your action is going to backers in total. This should never exceed 100 percent.

The markup. The price per share, expressed as a number above or below face value.

Which events. One tournament, a whole series, or a set schedule. If you sell action for a series, say exactly which events count.

Profit split. Usually the backer gets their percentage of the gross prize, and the player keeps the rest. Some deals split profit after the buy-in is returned, which is different and needs to be spelled out.

Re-entry and rebuys. If you bust and re-enter, does the backer's percentage carry over to the new bullet, or do they need to pay again? This is one of the most common sources of confusion.

Taxes. Who pays tax on the prize. In most places the player receives the prize and is responsible for any tax, but the backer's share may also be taxable in their own hands.

Settlement timing. When the backer gets paid after a cash. Usually within a few days, but agree it in advance.

A written deal does not need to be a legal document. A message with the event name, the percentage, the markup and the split is enough to prevent most arguments.

Settlement and payment arrangements

Settlement is where staking deals either work smoothly or fall apart.

The basic flow: you register and pay the buy-in. You play. If you cash, the casino pays you the prize, usually at the cage. You then pay each backer their percentage of the gross prize.

In a live card room, prize money is handled at the cage, not at the table. In house-banked poker games, money and chips are never exchanged directly between a dealer and a player; you place cash on the table and the dealer exchanges it for chips⁴. Tournament payouts follow the same principle: the cage handles the money, the table handles the chips.

For staking, that means you collect the prize yourself and distribute it. The casino will not split a payout between you and three backers. If you want the backers paid directly, you have to arrange that yourself, and most casinos will not do it.

Payment methods vary. Bank transfer is the norm for larger amounts. Cash is common for smaller deals between people at the same series. Some backers and players use payment apps. Whatever you use, keep a record of who paid what and when.

One thing to sort out early: currency. If you are playing a series in South Korea with a KRW buy-in and your backers are paying in USD or SGD, agree the exchange rate and the currency of the payout before the event, not after you win.

Risks for backers and players

Both sides carry real risk, and it is worth being honest about it.

For backers:

• If the player does not cash, you lose everything you paid for the share. There is no partial refund.
• If the player sells more than 100 percent of their action, some backers will not get paid in full. This is the single most damaging thing a player can do, and it ends careers.
• If the player does not tell you about a re-entry, you may think your share is still live when it is not.
• If the player is hard to reach after a cash, getting paid can take a long time.

For players:

• If you sell at a high markup and run badly, backers may not buy your action again.
• If you sell too much of your action, you are playing for very little of your own money, which changes how you play.
• If a backer expects a say in your decisions, you have a problem. Backers buy a percentage of your result, not a seat at the table.
• If you breach a deal, word travels. Staking is a small world, and reputation is the main thing that keeps it working.

There is also a legal dimension in some markets. In Vietnam, playing poker for real money in a cash game format, or buying chips and converting them back to money, is treated as illegal gambling and can be prosecuted criminally³. That does not stop staking deals from being made, but it means the underlying game may itself be outside the law, which makes any staking agreement harder to enforce.

Where staking deals are commonly made

Staking happens wherever tournament poker happens, and in Asia that is a growing list of places.

Live tournament series. Events across the region attract players who sell action to reduce their own exposure. Series in South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines all draw players who buy and sell shares. Poker rooms operate under gaming licenses in the Philippines, with a published list of licensed poker operators⁵.

Poker clubs. In Vietnam, poker clubs run tournaments where players buy tickets to enter, with costs from a few hundred thousand dong to a few tens of millions of dong³. Club-level events are where a lot of small staking deals get made, often between regulars who know each other.

Online. Online poker is offered by licensed operators in some markets, including online poker games listed on the Philippines regulator's register of accredited gaming system administrators⁶. Online staking is harder to track because there is no shared physical space, but it happens through private groups and apps.

Between friends and fellow players. The most common staking deal is still the simplest one: two players at the same series, one with money and one with a good record, agreeing on a percentage over coffee.

If you are new to staking, start small. Sell a small percentage of a low buy-in to someone you know, settle it cleanly, and build from there. The mechanics are simple. The trust is the hard part.