World Series of Poker Staking Proposal

Subject: The Case for Purchasing a Stake — 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event Championship Tournament

Jeremy Ball of Mystic, CT will be participating in the 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event Championship Tournament in Las Vegas in July of this year.  Jeremy is seeking financial assistance to stake him in this competition.  He will have a personal stake of 25% of the overall costs and is seeking interested parties to take a chance and invest in his skills for the remaining funds needed.

 Background:

• Jeremy began playing poker in early 2004, one year after the “boom” of poker began when a “nobody” named Chris Moneymaker won the World Series Main Event (for $2.5 million) after he qualified in a $86 online “satellite” tournament. However, Jeremy had already committed to joining the Navy around this time and left in April 2005 to pursue that calling.
• One of Jeremy’s dreams has always been to play in the World Series Main Event Championship in Las Vegas, NV. In the summer of 2007, based on timing and available funds, he did spend 3 weeks in Las Vegas, funding the entire trip with poker winnings, and he did enter in (and “cash”) in the only WSOP tournament he has ever played (placing 102nd out of a field of just over 2000 players).

 Discussion:

• Professional Poker Players “cash” on average 1 out of every 10 times they enter a tournament. Although Jeremy cannot guarantee a win, or even that he will “cash,” here is some of his tournament history:
  • The very first tournament he played in live at a casino was with his brother, Justin, in the summer of 2007 (following that trip to Vegas). The two of them placed 1st and 2nd in that tournament (Jeremy won it).
  • As mentioned above, he is 1 for 1 “cashing” in WSOP events
  • Jeremy plays live tournaments from time-to-time, when both family and military obligations have allowed. Since 2014 he has cashed in 40% of the tournaments entered.
  • As a warmup for the summer series in Vegas, in March 2018 Jeremy entered in two events at the Foxwoods Poker Classic  — one hold’em and one PLO tournament — in the hold’em tournament he placed 78th out of 1,212 entrants and in the PLO tournament he placed 3rd out of 56 entrants, cashing in both and netting a profit (ROI) of 386% on his investment.

Additional Information:

• By staking Jeremy you will not only be buying into a piece of the World Series Main Event, you will be buying into two other side events as well that he intends to play while in Las Vegas — both of which are his favorite game in poker, called “Omaha.” The biggest investment, of course, is the Main Event. Last year, out of 7221 entrants, 1084 cashed (top 15%, at the end of Day III), top 10 scored at least $1M, and the winner ultimately took home $8.15M. Whatever your stake is in the entire package is your stake of total entries and your share of winnings, should there be any. IMPORTANT NOTE:  Any distributable winnings will have to be net of income tax obligations incurred by Jeremy.
• To demonstrate his own confidence, Jeremy will have a 25% stake of this entire package — he has skin in the game/motivation to do well not just for you, but for himself as well.
• It is important to recognize Jeremy cannot guarantee that he will get a good run of cards or that luck will be on his side, but what he can guarantee is that he will play hard, and he will play well, and he will play well enough to be competitive. In other words, your investment is not something he will be taking lightly

Investment:

The overall budget for the Main Event and two Omaha side tournaments (which overlap with the Main Event and should Jeremy go deep in the Main Event he may not end up playing in) along with hotel and air fare (food is generally not expensive or comp’d) is $18,000.00.  Jeremy needs to raise $9,000.00 of that amount.

The easiest approach is to participate at levels of $180.00 increments.  1% is $180.00, 5% is $900.00 etc.  Again, any return is based on after-tax net winnings and will be pro-rata distributed to those participating.