Poker Staking — Backing, Markup and Makeup Explained

At face value, buying ten percent of a buy-in entitles the backer to ten percent of what the player wins. Markup adds a premium: at 1.2 markup, that ten percent costs twelve percent of the buy-in, because the backer is buying into a player they believe has an edge.

Markup is only justified by a demonstrated edge, and a modest premium can consume all of a backer's expected profit. Backers should compute what the markup implies about required ROI before agreeing to it; players should be able to justify their number with results.

In a staking deal with makeup, losses accumulate and the player must clear them before splitting profit again. It protects the backer from funding an endless downswing, and it can trap a player in a deficit that takes months to clear.

Agree in advance what happens if the deal ends while makeup remains, whether the player may take other action, and what game selection is permitted. Those three clauses cover almost every staking dispute that occurs.

A swap trades equal percentages between two players in the same event. Neither pays anything upfront and both reduce variance, which is why swaps are ubiquitous among tournament regulars. The only real risk is counterparty risk — someone who does not pay.

Keep swap records in writing with amounts, events and dates. Memory is not a record, and the disagreement always arrives after a big score rather than before.