Good
- First and foremost, you are essentially playing risk free. There is no financial burden when you hit the tables. I feel this will allow many players to play their best game all the time, whereas sometimes if someone is losing they can't help but constantly worry about their bankroll. I also like that someone is in charge of your ABI and the highest stakes you can play. For someone who struggles with bank roll management from time to time, this really helps.
- I find when I'm playing for someone I'm far more motivated. I want to get up and play. I remember a particular Sunday where I was having a terrible day, deep runs that had no end product where the story of the day. If I was playing for myself, sometimes I'd just pack it in for the day, however I had a min number of games to play so I had to continue. Several hours later, I had my biggest score of the year so far = profit :)
- When you enter a staking deal, you normally are becoming part of a stable. It really helps to have poker contacts, people you can bounce ideas around with, discuss hands and talk about poker in general. My last staking deal had a really good skype group where we would try to do weekly meetings, to review HH etc. Just even having people to sweat you when you make a deep run is cool. If you can get into a staking deal that provides coaching from a top player, it obviously sweetens up the deal because coaching is clearly quite expensive otherwise. Ranging from $50 an hour to $150+
Bad
- May as well start with the most obvious downside to been backed. Not receiving all of your winnings. I've never had to receive a top up while been backed. Admittedly it was over a lol sample, about 1k games in total. This is one of the main reasons I'm not sure if it is better to be backed or not. When you ship an Mtt for 4 or 5 figures. It can be very tough to hit the transfer button and watch anywhere from 30-70% of it vanish from your account instantly. I understand you may not have been playing the tournament if wasn't for your backer, it still doesn't make it easy. And I will say this now, if you are the kind of person who wouldn't send the winnings, never get backed, it would ruin your name in the poker community forever.
- Been too eager to impress. I always really wanted to do well for people once they had put faith in me and backed me. A good friend of mine went on a pretty sick downswing a couple of months ago. While he wasn't suffering financially, the pressure of trying to win money for his backer was getting to him in my opinion. If your HHs are getting reviewed regularly, you might not go with your instinct in certain spots, due to been paranoid it looks like you are spewing and just pissing away your backers money. Of course your backer won't want this because they put faith in you and back you to beat the games they are putting you into.
- There is the chance you will get stuck in a deal. If you get buried in make-up, unless you have the money to do so you can't buy out of the deal. Which means you have to play yourself out of make-up. Unless your backer drops you, but not many people like to just accept defeat on large sums of money. There are other ways out, like getting another backer to buy your make up etc, but you really should think about it before getting into a deal.
So overall, I'm not entirely sure what is better, and I really think it comes down to each individual. For now I'm going to play alone. Grind out a bank roll and hopefully progress through the stakes alone. At the moment I'm also looking into possibly paying for coaching, as I really think you need to get it if going to improve to another level. I will just say, if you have decent stats and are a winning player, don't just jump into any deal. Shop around, push backers for a better deal, ask for 5% more of yourself if you win 'X' amount per week etc. Winning players are what keep backers going, so don't let them take advantage of you.
Also I can't finish this post without mentioning my mate Brian Byrne. He got picked by Alex Wice, one of the best, if not the best 180 man grinder in the world for free coaching for 2 months. He reckons he can turn Brian into a baller, earning $100/hour. It will be so sick if it happens, wish Brian nothing but the best of luck, and if you want to follow the thread do so here -Brian's progress thread!
Baller gaf in thailand here we come!!!
