I've been a live 1/2 player for the last two and a half years. I was looking forward to taking a shot at 2/5. While I'm not "properly" rolled for 2/5, I definitely have enough to shot take.

However, I was offered a deal where someone buys 20% of my action, gets 20% of the profits, but there's zero makeup at all. Is this a good deal?

On paper yes.

In general I would not involve myself in these types of arrangements for a multitude of reasons.

On consideration is that your 2/5 win rate may not be high enough to offset the staking arrangement.

What’s your 1/2 win rate and over how many hours? What is the rake in both games?

What is your current bankroll?

$17.30 over 1720 hours. The rake in the 1/2 game is 10% up to $6, and I'm pretty sure the 2/5 game has the same exact set up, but I could be wrong.

Current bankroll due to spending is $12,530.

You are probably bust proof at 1/2 at this point assuming you have a job and/or life expenses tucked away somewhere. My guess is that if you are being this conservative you are playing full time.

I would much prefer ear marking about 2500 and shot ting 2/5 with that. This way you have 5500bbs. I might do something like play 20% at 2/5 and 80% at 1/2 and slowly slide into more 2/5 frequency as the bankroll grows

Uni student, but I have a job. I play pretty close to full time on break, but only 15-25 hours a week when school is in session.

That doesn't sound like a bad idea. What do you think though of playing 80% 1/2, then doing the 20% at 2/5 with the stake? Or do you think that's a bad idea?

I think that a stake is usually used to mitigate some risk. With your stats and bankroll, I think there is very little risk involved in playing 20% 2/5 during primetime hours or maybe for 30 minutes to an hour if you are waiting for a 1/2 seat.

I would personally prefer to own all of my own action unless it is a very high-risk high reward situation like a drunk sultan making it rain pumpkins at a 10/25. Based on what you told me, I don't think playing 2/5 on a Friday or Saturday night for a few hours meets these qualifications.

Of course, this all comes down to personal preference. The concern I would have is that your 2/5 winrate -20% may not actually be all much better than your current 2/5 winrate.

How many hours do you currently have logged at 2/5 and what is your 2/5 winrate?

I think the worst-case scenario is that you take $2500 to the felt at 2/5 which just means you have 5000bbs at 1/2 where you are arguably immortal and should be able to rebuild quickly. Sure, it might be a bit of a setback but that's how moving up stakes works sometimes.

I appreciate all of the feedback. I actually have not played one hand of 2/5 yet.

I would encourage you to put in a few sessions of 2/5 before making a decision.

It’ll probably be a little scary at first but eventually you’ll get used to the dollar amounts In play and realize it’s typically not THAT much tougher than 1/2

best advice here imo ^
gl to you OP hopefully you do.

if you see the table has large stacks (200bb +) consider leaving or either playing extremely tight to see the differences.

No. If they were to buy 100% of your action you would be playing for free, which would be a waste of your time. A better deal would be they put up 20% of the money, and they get 20% of any losses, and 15% of any wins.

No makeup a huge tho

I mean if u can back out any time u want then just use it for like 2 sessions and drop it if u don’t want it seems like a fine way to ease into 2/5 imo

How would make-up work in a situation like this???

The guy is not staking the player, he is buying a piece of his action.

There is literally no up or downside to this (other than potential issues with someone not paying, etc.). You are simply selling 20% of your losses for 20% of your wins.

If you are plus EV in the game, you are of course giving up some money.

I guess the idea is that it would minimize the downside and make it a little smoother. Psychology factors I guess

The advantage is that it essentially allows you to play 2/4 instead of 2/5, but assuming you are a winning player then a fair price splits your winningness. Of course if you are a losing player then selling 20% of your action is beneficial because you now lose less. In this situation, where this is no price charged on the action, it wouldn't make sense to have makeup.

What these two said is great advice imo. playing some 2/5 on your own personal dime to test the waters would be a good step forwards, ime good way to take live shots is just to get the money set aside for its purpose and play ur normal game, waiting for great 2/5 games to happen naturally. You want to max ur adv, not just start cold on any old 500 game on a Wednesday night etc

The model of shot taking I really belive is this: protect your mothership role, and use it for slow/consistent growth, and take a ‘shot tax’ out of your profits, and create a smaller, separate roll for big risk/volatility in shot taking