IStakeU.com Tops $300,000 in Poker Staking

Poker staking site IStakeU.com hit an important milestone. The total amount staked recently passed the $300,000 threshold, not too shabby for a website that opened for business in May. In addition, several of its players made waves over the weekend to bump their total earnings to $434,000.

One of its members, Will “imahustla1” Givens, chopped the high-stakes Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guaranteed on January 10th for $122,000. The next day, he took down the site’s $1K Monday for $78,000. Givens, who is available for coaching on IStakeU.com, also took down a Heartland Poker Tour event for a cool $144,000. Interestingly enough, Givens chopped heads-up in the $750,000 Guaranteed with fellow IStakeU.com member “WanderingQueen,” who walked away with $102,000.

Also a coach on the staking site is Paul “Iridium” Dewald, who banked $31,000 in online poker tournaments last week alone. Dewald has appeared atop several monthly leaderboards on Full Tilt and is a heads-up and HORSE specialist. Poker News Daily sat down with IStakeU.com’s Patrick Hahn to learn more about the newcomer to the poker staking market.

Poker News Daily: What separates IStakeU.com from other sites like it?

Patrick Hahn: Our backend and the way we created the database. You’re able to track the horses you’re staking and it keeps track of how much you are winning and losing. Before, you had to use an Excel spreadsheet. It’s also a good place to find a community. If you’re a poker player and you want to talk to others, there’s a forum. There, the more advanced players are involved with the newer players. We go over hand histories and talk to each other on Skype. We started marketing it by telling poker players and relying on word-of-mouth advertising. We rolled out in May and have 1,200 members now.

PND: How do those not in the business view the concept of poker staking?

Patrick Hahn: I still don’t think people know about the staking market. If you’re a good player, you can get backed, but you have to work your way up. People come in and ask for thousands of dollars without proving themselves. I started with a $200 stake and worked my way up.

PND: How does it feel to have crossed $300,000 in money staked?

Patrick Hahn: It feels great. We were trying to stake people with our limited funds to begin with and all of us were spreading the word on the tables when we played. “Iridium,” who is one of our members and coaches, is killing it and won $31,000 last week. He’s the one who told a couple of people like “imahustla1” about the site. We now have a World Series of Poker (WSOP) competition where the top two players and the top staker get an entry into a WSOP tournament.

PND: How do sites like IStakeU.com make money since the staking element takes place between players?

Patrick Hahn: It costs $10 per month to be a premium member. It’s free to do everything on the site except request stakes. If you pay your $10, you can put up a Buy A Share, where you go in and request a certain amount of money, say where you’re going to play, what you’re going to play, and how long it will last. You can do that as many times per month as you want. We also get 5% of the profits of a player and that’s capped at $100. Stakers pay no membership fee or commission on their profits.

PND: Can you talk about the future of the poker staking market?

Patrick Hahn: The communities are going to be expanded and people will get to know each other. You always have to start from zero and be smart about who you’re giving your money to. You do that by looking at other players’ stats, finding out who they hang out with online, and starting them out with small stakes. I’ll actually escrow an account of someone new if that eases people’s minds.

As players gain respect and start winning, they will invest in other players, their stakers will reinvest their money, and the entire community will grow exponentially. I hope to see over 5,000 new members this year alone. We are constantly trying to improve our backend to make for a better staking experience.

PND: What makes sites like IStakeU.com so successful?

Patrick Hahn: For people who aren’t very good yet, but want to be a part of something, these sites are ideal for buying shares of a player who is willing to put in the time. It’s almost just as fun to open up the tables of your horses and root them on. You may not be a great player yourself, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get involved and be winning. If you’re a great player, then poker staking sites are a good way to prove yourself and move up to higher stakes to get better. We need a mixture of both types of people on our site.

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Poker lexicon:

NO-LIMIT POKER - A game where there is no maximum bet; a player can wager any amount (perhaps above some minimum) up to whatever money is on the table in front of him.
THIRD STREET - In Stud, the third card dealt to each player.
RACE - In tournaments it is sometimes convenient to remove all lower-denomination chips from play, as the remaining players' stacks tend to grow. Small chips are converted to larger chips and any odd chips are "raced off" in the following way: each player with odd chips places them in front of his stack and is dealt one card for each chip. Highest card (rank and suit) takes all the small chips and converts them to higher-denomination chips.
WALK - A pot won by the last blind when no one opens.
S&M - Sklansky & Malmuth. Generally refers to the ideas and algorithms published by these two authors. When used in a 7-card stud context, often refers to "7 Card Stud For Advanced Players", and when used in a Hold'em context, often refers to "Texas Hold'em For Advanced Players".
QUALIFIER - A minimum standard that a hand must meet in order to win. Usually applied to the lowball side of a high-low split pot.

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