Stake Jeff

Welcome to the official blog of staking me, Jeff Vickers, into premier poker tournaments, most notably the World Series of Poker. As both a poker player and filmmaker with an entrepreneurial spirit, I have NOT put up this blog looking for a handout. I am looking for backers. People willing to invest in me, looking for serious returns.

I am choosing to be staked for a few reasons.

First, I regard poker first and foremost a business. A business that is very fun and exciting, yes, but a business none the less. Many notable pros do advocate a strategy of playing with no more than 5% of your bankroll for a cash game buy-in, and no more than 2% of your bankroll for a tournament buy-in. Applying that model to WSOP tourneys, to buy in for the Main Event, for $10,000, I would need a minimum bankroll of $500,000 to justifiably enter. I have been progressively, yet slowly, building my bankroll, almost exclusively on Full Tilt Poker, and will one day build the bankroll to that amount. I just don't want to wait several more years.

As such, and thinking in an entrepreneurial manner, most business are built with the help of investors. Most entrepreneurs start fresh with ideas, short on cash. I myself am much the same. Joe Cada, last year's WSOP Main Event Champion, was staked, and with his backers split $8.5 million. Peter Eastgate, Jerry Yang and Chris Moneymaker made it into the tournament through qualifying satellites, leveraging a much smaller buy-in into a gigantic payoff. I am pro-actively playing through online satellites, but considering that Full Tilt Poker's Main Event satellite (yes, the one that puts you through to the Main Event, not a satellite to said tourney) required me to outlast 31984 entrants, I definitely need some luck on my side to push through.

So it boils down to either waiting out the methodical bankroll building process, or using leverage. As business uses the economic equivalent of this mechanical principle, so shall I. Leveraging, in a poker sense, allows one to play in tournaments beyond their normal means, and share in jackpots (if successful).

And I do intend to share. Which brings me to the penultimate purpose of all of this. Looking at poker as a business, there's another end. There is the business model of investment and ROI. The dollars and cents of the poker game. But the other side is far more obvious, once you consider it. Branding, marketing, promotion. Consider probably my favourite player to watch, Daniel Negreanu. Aside from my personal bias as Dan is Canadian, I think of all the poker players around he's branded himself the best. By far. Many people I know who are far from fans or players of poker almost instantly recognize him. His table demeanor is fun, positive, and very conducive to TV. He has a fan base.

Now for myself, I am not looking for a fan club. I am not involved in the game of poker just to make some quick cash and walk away. My interest in poker and earning a living playing the game comes from my desire to be paid to do what I love. I have played poker and many other card games literally ALL MY LIFE. And I hope to share my love and interest in the game with an intrinsic few who genuinely share my passion and are willing to invest in me.

My hope is to foster these relationships I will soon develop into lifelong business partnerships.

If you're ready, come and Stake Jeff!