Staking/Loaning Poker Money to Friends
The more you play poker, the more friends you’re going to make within the game. Hell, some people have a big group of friends that get them into the game so they’ve already got tons of poker friends from the beginning.
As you accumulate all these poker friends, the chances of one of them asking you to stake them in a tournament becomes more and more likely. In fact, it’s almost a guarantee that if you have enough poker friends one of them will ask you to help them out in some way financially. And this brings up a very interesting discussion of whether or not it’s a good idea to stake a friend in a tournament (or just poker in general).
Some players have no problem doing this, and their bankroll may even allow them to comfortably stake people. However, there are plenty of people who have no business staking their friends yet do it anyways just to help out their buddy. This is where big problems can arise because business and friends rarely mix.
The problem with staking a friend in poker is that they may have every intention of paying you back before they play, yet blow off this notion once they’re down enough money. Some people will think that just because they are your friend means they’re not fully obligated to pay everything back. This is where a poker friend can become an enemy, but it’s an all-too common scenario.
That’s why it is normally a poor decision to lend money to a poker friend - especially if you only know them online. But even if you know somebody in person it’s still not a good decision to be lending money to poker friends.