Written by Keith Jamieson
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takeaShark is a staking site that had been struggling and has recently been taken over by the UK's no 1 poker forum, Eatmystack. Since the takeover, Stakeasharks' traffic has already grown significantly, and it has had an influx of good players, the most prominent being Jon Spinks (known on the forum as Bas), who returned over $50,000 to stakers as a result of his 3rd place finish in WCOOP#1 2007, which was held on pokerstars. Bas was fully staked and one lucky staker walked away with over $16,000 for his $65 investment There are other staking sites, but one of the main factors which should ultimately distinguish stakeashark from the other sites is the number of good quality winning players it has already attracted.
How does it work
The process is relatively straightforward. The first thing a new member should do is update their user profile so that the aliases they use on the sites are recorded. Sites currently supported are PokerStars, FullTilt and IronDuke.
Posting a stake is simply a case of posting a thread with the details of what you are looking for. You will be prompted to enter the amount you wish someone to play for, whether it is stake returned , and the percentage split of any profit made.
Site members will apply in your thread and when you view the thread you will see an accept button next to each person who responded.
Once you have chosen your player, by clicking on the accept button, you and they will both receive a pm from stake-bot. Yours will have details of how much need to transfer and the alias you need to transfer too. The player's pm will give them a unique transaction_id. The transaction_id is used to enter details of the amount won or 0 if the player did not cash.
Players who cash will receive a pm from stakebot telling them how much to send to stakeashark and how much to the staker. They keep the rest for themselves.
Points
Anyone who posts a stake is awarded staking points (equal to the monetary value of the stake) and anyone who plays a stake and cashes is awarded player points (again to the monetary value of the amount won). The users ROI is recorded in their profile. You may also award reputation points to another site member, and it is customary to add a comment.
Fee
The site takes 2% of any winning stakes. This 2% is used to fund freerolls, and also to fund small stakes given out to new members from the site administrators. The whole process of who owes what to whom is fully automated, so theres no need for the user to perform any calculations.
BAP
A new BAP(Buy-a-piece) section has also been added. This is intended for players who would like to play in a event or series of events and the player posting the BAP is asked to pay a small fee (based on the value of the BAP). Details of a BAP must be posted in the BAP application thread, before they can be posted. This is to ensure that they are sufficiently detailed so that other members can make an informed choice. Fees for BAPs (which are based on the value of the BAP) must be paid before they will be allowed to be posted. Once a BAP is posted, Players may then express an interest in buying a number of shares in the BAP. The price-per-share is displayed in the BAP.
TERMS
HORSE
A Horse, in terms of staking, is the person who is chosen to play a stake. People play stakes to build their reputation and their bankroll. Even if you don't manage to make the money, your backer may well have liked your performance and may choose to stake you again.
STAKER
A staker is a person who offers buy-ins for someone to play a game of their choice. The staker is generally looking for a return on their investment, so will generally be looking for players who show potential. To this regard, they usually ask "The Horse" for a rail thread, which is basically a commentary on the game being played from the player usually with hand histories on significant hands. This also acts as proof that the player actually played the stake. Some stakers may also watch their "Horse" as they play, either with or without their knowledge.
Keith Jamieson