Two different methods that you can use to help me get into the 2010 Word Series of Poker

The Problem - How to get $6,000 for tournament buy-in fees for the 2010 World Series of Poker

I have come up with two methods that you can use to help me get into the 2010 WSOP.

Solution #1

Before I get to the first method that some people may be interested in (others not so much), I need to discuss a little bit about how the poker tournament system works. So bear with me for a bit (if you already know how tournament poker buy-ins work you can skip down to "The Solution - Multi Tournament Fractional Ownership" Section).

If you know me you know that I love poker. I read about poker, I play poker, I teach poker. When I am not at work I am thinking about, planning for, and reviewing poker hands. You should also know that Poker isn't my full time job just yet. I have responsibilities (like 4 kids, a wife, rent, car payments, and bills) and I take these responsibilities even more seriously than I take poker.

What this means is I play live tournament poker about once a month right now. While this is great, and more than I was able to play before moving to Henderson 6 months ago, it really isn't a "full time" effort.

There are some things that you may not know about large buy-in tournaments like the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Specifically, how a part time semi-pro like myself can play in tournaments that cost anywhere from $1,000 - $10,000.

Currently there are 3 main funding paths open to players.

• Direct Buy-in. This means that if a player wants to buy-in to a $10,000 event they take $10,000 out of the bank, go to the casino and pay for the entry (the entry could be as much as $11,000 for a $10,000 tournament if there is an entry fee. The WSOP does not have an additional entry fee, the entry fee is subtracted from the Buy-in).
  
  This is the most difficult method for a semi-pro player to take because to play in a reasonable number of WSOP tournaments requires a minimum of $6,000 and as much as $145,000 (if you wanted to try to play all of the Hold'em events). In fact this direct buy-in method can be difficult for even a seasoned full time pro.
  
• Satellite Tournaments. A Satellite tournament is a smaller, lower cost tournament where, if you win, you win an entry into the larger more expensive tournament. There are two types of Satellite tournaments in the WSOP.
  
  • Single Table Satellite. A single table satellite is 10 people who pay the same amount to play, and first place is given all of the money for winning. For example if the buy-in is $120, first place would pay $1,000. If the buy-in is $1,050, first place would pay $10,000. (the extra amount is the fee that the casino charges to have the satellite).
  • Multi Table or Super Satellite. A Multi-Table or Super Satellite takes as many entries as possible. The number of people who join determines the number of places paid. Usually this would be 1 winner for every 10 entries so if 100 people sign up, 10 people would win the same amount, an entry to the more expensive tournament. For example, in a MT\SS with a buy-in of $120, if 100 people signed up, the top 10 finishers would each get a $1000 tournament entry chip (A tournament entry chip is not valid for cash, only for entry into another tournament). Usually this type of tournament is not offered for only $120. It would be more normal for a MT\SS to have a buy-in of $1060 and the winners would receive $10,000 a tournament entry chip.
• Sponsorships, Backers, and Selling Shares. The last ways that poker players have for entering tournaments is to have sponsors, backers, sell shares, or a combination of the three.
  
  • Sponsors - The top pros have sponsorship deals with well known companies like Coke or Pepsi, as well as sponsorships from the prevalent poker web sites. A sponsor pays the pro to wear their patch or to say something specific during an interview. To get a sponsorship deal you pretty much need to have won or gone very deep in a large televised tournament. The benefit of a sponsor is that the player keeps 100% of their after tax winnings.
    
  • Backers - Some players have backers. Backers can be friends who hedge their tournament entry fee investments by offering parts of their winnings to each other or one or more people who provide money to the player for the tournament buy-in. While the situation of players in the same tournament owning a piece each other can be ethically murky and can border on collusion if one player doesn't play fully to knock someone out when they can, these deals are not technically banned. Another potential issue is that many times these deals are handshake deals. There have been several times where the backers have had to get their winnings from the player only after going to court to prove there was a deal.
    

    Another form of backing a player might have is known as an Angel Backer. An Angel backer is someone who invests either the full tournament buy-in or part of the tournament buy-in for players that they like for a return of a percentage of their winnings, usually 48% - 60%. This backer however is not likely to be a participant in the actual tournament (although there is nothing that would prevent them from being a participant. However if they were it brings to mind the same collusion issues mentioned above).
    

    This type of backing is great for the poker player because they don't have to worry about earning and saving for the buy-ins and can focus on playing good poker. When they win, the backer and the player wins. When they loose, the backer takes the hit. Of course if the player doesn't win they risk loosing their backer and being required to find their buy-in for the next tournament in one of the other methods discussed here

  • Selling Shares - Selling shares is very similar to backers however the poker player has the opportunity to sell shares to someone they may have never, and my never meet. This method is also known as Fractional Ownership. With traditional backers the poker player gets their buy-in from one person or a select few people who pay the large buy-in (the most expensive tournament in the WSOP this year is $50,000). With Fractional Ownership, the poker player is looking for hundreds or even thousands of people willing to invest $1 - $10 per share. The shares are good for a specified percentage of the after tax winnings of the player. Here is an example:
    
    • I need $10,000 to buy-in to the WSOP Main Event
    • I estimate that the taxes on my winnings will be 40%
    • I am willing to offer 60% of my after tax winnings
    • I want to offer 2500 shares at $4 per share
    • Any individual investor can buy 1 - 2500 shares, what ever they are comfortable with
    • As a player I have my buy-in. My backers those people who have purchased shares, have an interest in my winning. In this example one share is worth .02% of the %60 of any after tax winnings. If we use last years Main Event as an example, where Joe Cada won $8,546,435, One $4 share would have been worth $738.41, a 18,460% ROI ($8.5 mil minus 40% for taxes = $5.1 mil. 5.1 mil times 60% = payout pool of $3 mil. $3 mil / 2500 shares = $738.41). In this example an investment of $100 for 25 shares would result in a payout of $18,460.
    • Of course there is no guarantee that a player would win 1st place. In fact, there were 6,494 entries into the 2009 Main Event so any one individuals chances of winning first place are very very small. In fact using this method for backing, a player would have to make it to at least 99th place before there was any positive ROI (beating out 6395 other players and playing flawlessly for 4 days).
    
    
    The good things about Fractional Ownership are:
    
    • An investor can look at the track record of the person they want to invest in and make an educated decision on the investment potential.
    • The player gets to set the number of shares, price per share, and the percentage of after tax winnings they are willing to offer. The higher the percentage of the winnings they offer, and the lower the cost of each individual share, the more likely the player will get enough investors to provide the full buy-in.
    • The investor can choose to invest in just one share or buy up numerous shares if they feel that the investment is especially good. An individual investor can invest as little at $1 (or from the above example $4) or as much as the total available shares times the share price
    • The investor is given a certificate for the number of shares that he owns. No back room handshake deals to prove to get paid
    • The player gets their buy-in into the high buy-in tournament
    • When the tournament is over the results are published for the world to see on several websites like www.wsop.com and www.cardplayer.com. Many events are broadcast on TV shining additional light on the actual results. Since the payout, amount kept out for taxes, and the prize pool percentage are all declared up front there is no worries that the investors payout will be less than what they expected.
    
    
    There are some drawbacks to the standard Fractional Ownership plan:
    
    • Players need a method to present their investment opportunities. Where can a player find 2,500 investors willing to put up $4.00 per share or 250 investors willing to put up $100 for 25 shares? There is only one site that offers Fractional Ownership that I know of right now, www.chipmeup.com. I have not used there services for a few reasons: They charge a fee to the player, their system does not provide a good method of defining the percentage withheld from the gross for taxes, their system is heavily weighted towards online play not live tournaments as money is transferred from chipmeup to the players online poker account. To get the money for live tournaments the player must cash out those funds and possibly pay additional fees. All of this a) reduces the total amount available for the buy-in, b) limits its adoption for live play, and/or c) requires the transactions all be completed weeks or even months before the live tournament is scheduled to start to allow for enough time for all the money transfers. Not to mention the unknown legality of transferring money to and from online poker sites and the impending UIGEA law that could make getting funds from the online sites even more problematic.
    • All of the current systems out there for Fractional Ownership are focused on a single tournament. The WSOP is 57 individual tournaments. So for a player to get backing for each WSOP tournament they would have to set up 57 different share offers. This means 57 different fees to the facilitator, 57 different groups of investors, 57 opportunities for an investor to be upset if the player busted early in one tournament and took first place in another tournament.

Summary - Multi Tournament Fractional Ownership

The solution is very simple. Just like in a single tournament fractional ownership plan I am offering 1,500 shares for 60% of the after tax prize pool. Each share costs $4.00. I am looking for 60 people interested in investing $100 for 25 shares.

The goals for this solution are as follows:

• Collect $6,000 to be used for entering the following 2010 WSOP Tournaments
  
  • Event #3 - May 29, 2010
  • Event #13 - June 5, 2010
  • Event #24 - June 12, 2010
  • Event #36 - June 19, 2010
  • Event #47 - June 26, 2010
  • Event #54 - July 1, 2010
  Each of these tournaments have a buy-in of $1,000. In 2009 a tournament with the same buy-in attracted 6012 people and first place paid $771,338.
• Offer 1,500 shares at $4/share for 60% of the after tax prize pool with 40% of the gross being withheld for estimated taxes
• Unlike the Single Tournament Fractional Ownership system offered by chipmeup.com, each share purchased directly from me would be eligible for .04% of the after tax prize pool for all 6 tournaments.
• 100% of the sales of shares goes directly to the tournament entry fees. Any administrative costs would be paid for by me.

As an additional benefit, if I enter any WSOP tournaments other than the 6 listed (This could happen if I have a deep run in one of the 6 tournaments listed and spend my own money to enter, or if I am able to satellite into other WSOP tournaments) I would include 60% of the after tax winnings from those additional tournaments into the prize pool.

Now for the stuff that you knew had to come when someone is asking you to invest in something that might not make money...

All investments involve different degrees of risk. You should be aware of your risk tolerance level and financial situations at all times. All investments are subject to risk and may result in the entire loss to the investment. This is not a guarantee for the successful performance of an investment and we are expressly prohibited from guaranteeing against losses.

Investments in Shares are transferrable but non-refundable. Investing in this or any other Fractional Ownership plan does not give you any rights or privileges to what tournaments are entered or how individual hands are played. Poker is a game of skill and luck.

As the offerer of these shares I will commit to playing to the best of my ability and not to play impaired by alcohol or drugs but I do not and cannot guarantee specific hand or tournament results.

If none of that scared you and you would still be interested in purchasing shares please contact me by email craigdrummond@cox.net. And if you are not interested in Fractional Ownership, no worries, you can still help me out... with my totally free to you solution #2!

Solution #2

The second solution takes just a little bit of time and will not cost you a dime. My blog is set up to present ads from different vendors. You see these ads on all sorts of websites. To many these ads are just noise on the page that you must wade through to get to the content you are looking for. Now it is against the rules of one of the ad providers to ask that you come to my blog just to click on the ads. So what I am doing is asking you to support this site in whatever way that you can, exploring all of the content, offers, and options.

To get enough money to enter the 6 WSOP tournaments I want means that between now and April 16th, my blog needs as many people as possible to visit and explore all the links that the blog has to offer as often as they can. The more people reading my blog, the more people that will be checking out the different areas that my site can lead them to.

Basically what I need is visitors to the blog. Visitors who will do more than just read what I have to say. So I am looking for all of my friends from Facebook and Twitter to recruit their Facebook and Twitter friends and hopefully they will recruit their Facebook and Twitter friends to visit my blog several times a week and click on any links that interest them.

With all that I could possibly get to the number of visitors needed in time for the start of the 2010 WSOP. That means I have 62 days left. Can you help? Can you bookmark this page and return a few times a week to review what is new, and explore the new options that are displayed? Can you invite your friends to do the same?

Like I said. Doesn't cost you a dime, helps me out tremendously.


Craig Drummond
PokerShark70