I staked John Clancy (aka Johnathan Clancy or Jclan5) for mainly $5/$10 live and occasionally online and $2/$5 live cash games starting on 10/28/15 and ending on 1/25/16. Deal basically was session-based: if John owes no make-up and has a winning session, then he keeps 50% of profit for a session and I keep the other 50% for myself. If John is in make-up and has a winning session, he keeps 25% of the profit, I keep 25% for myself, and 50% goes towards makeup. This was my first time ever staking anyone and I made John aware of that from the beginning. With all things considered, I believe a fair resolution would be $10k. I will change the thread title to resolved and update the thread if John settles up with me.
John then went on a downswing, which I confirmed was pretty bad as I was usually there playing and saw the run bad. Then the downswing kept going, with John losing about $30K altogether in roughly 3 months. Keep in mind these are soft $2/$5 and $5/$10 games he's playing; Portland-area players are weak overall. Also, the games in Portland are rake free and John is a known poker pro (who has done well in both live and online poker) for over 7 years and is considered by many as one of the top five cash game players in Portland. Both he and I are considered by most regulars as by far one of the top three players at any given table.
Somewhere in that time I started getting suspicious that John was not being honest. John was having big losses at games I wasn't present for, and he barely ever had a winning session. It occurred to me that John might have incentive to lie about winnings and losses for 2 reasons; to steal money, and to lose so much that I got so frustrated and dropped him and John wouldn't owe make-up. (I looked through the records and found that essentially all of the days except two that John played when I wasn't present, he claimed a loss. John also started asking if he could play in private home games he knew about, which I said no to as I got more suspicious.)
One day at the $5-10 game, I went to use the bathroom. Note that John has only been playing for 2 hours that day and I was there the whole time before the bathroom break. While I was gone, John added on $200 to his stack. This was his only add-on during that hour, confirmed by a player and a dealer later. Less than 5 min after the addon, John told me he added on $400. Then later John texted and said he made a mistake and said he added on $500, not $400. Then after John cashed out and left, John then texted me to say that he actually added on $600, and not $500 or $400. I specifically asked John if he only added on once, and John said yes, it was the only time, and confirmed that a couple times. This confirmed a lot of suspicions I’ve had.
After that conversation, John probably suspected that I suspected him. The next day John told me that he wanted a better staking deal, as playing for 25% of winning sessions wasn't enough for him; he wanted 50%. He wanted this despite being a big loser so far in these games. This seemed like another ploy to try to get out of the staking deal again, by claiming that it wasn't a good deal and he couldn't continue it.
While of course it's unknown how much exactly he actually took, even stealing/lying once puts the whole relationship in doubt. Plus it hurts me even more because if I had trust in John, I would continue staking him, believing that he'd recoup his losses. But because I can't trust him, I have to break the contract with John in considerable make-up ($32k in makeup) and John down ~$30K.
On 2/1/16, John texted me to tell me that he only stole from me in the last two weeks. This is a couple days after I first told him I caught him stealing. Yet earlier on 1/17/16 he texted me angrily to tell me that I didn’t trust him, etc. because I texted him that same day (on 1/17/16) that I no longer wanted him to play unless I was in the same room. So John is claiming that around the same time I first made it clear to John that I was suspicious of him, he decided to start stealing. It’s either that or he’s only admitting to stealing in last two weeks because he believes that’s when I first realized he was stealing. Going through my text messages, there were a few times before 1/17/16 where John claimed to have lost more than what he originally texted me. This is the exact same thing he did in the two weeks he claimed he started stealing. Yet he never even bothered to mention these earlier times to me.
John’s best friend texted me, “He admitted to taking $ which he maintains is no more than 3-4k , and wants to make that right ASAP.” Yet only after John sees all the texts I sent his best friend, then John tells me that he (John) only stole ~$1500. Then a few days later, John told me it was actually ~$1200 and not ~$1500 that he stole.
http://i.imgur.com/OcCRoUk.png
http://i.imgur.com/6S8IHt4.png
http://i.imgur.com/PEL0WNp.png
http://i.imgur.com/74YWzXG.png
http://i.imgur.com/Nz6oMuf.png
This is how much John has won/lost in makeup per week since I’ve started staking him. This is all over the course of 3 months. John has played ~300 hours TOTAL. He has lost EVERY single week I’ve staked him. He has played a lot at live poker, online poker cash games and online tournies and is down money at every single location (even for online poker) he’s played at since I’ve started staking him.
Week #1: -$3,205
Week #2: -$2,648
Week #3: -$1,242
Week #4: -$484
Week #5: -$7,825
Week #6: -$2,082
Week #7: -$2,749
Week #8: -$3,472
Week #9: -$1,942
Week #10: -$640
Week #11: -$780
Week #12: -$1,300
Week #13: -$4,050
Week #14: -$45
Listed below are all the days he played when I wasn’t playing and his profit for those days.
On 11/7/15, John lost $1280 at live poker.
On 11/8/15, John lost $440 at live poker.
On 11/15/15, John lost $987 at live poker.
On 11/20/15, John made $2640 profit at live poker. He kept $660 for his share.
On 11/22/15, John lost $560 at live poker.
On 11/23/15, John lost $1190 at live poker.
On 11/27/15, John lost $3280 at live poker.
On 12/4/15, John lost $680 at live poker.
On 12/6/15, John lost the entire $524 on Bovada I staked him for.
On 12/11/15, John lost $2260 at live poker.
On 12/18/15, John lost $3500 at live poker.
On 12/25/15, John lost the entire $1952 he put online for Bovada and BCP that I staked him for.
On 12/29/15, John made $880 total profit at live poker. He kept $220 for his share.
On 12/30/15, John lost $440 at live poker.
On 1/1/16, John lost $640 at live poker.
On 1/4/16, John lost $780 at live poker.
On 1/16/16, John lost the entire $1300 on Bovada that I staked him for.
John lost $12,170 total when I was there. John lost $17,056 total when I was not there. Yet roughly 90% of his sessions he played, I was at the same table as him. $3776 of the $17,056 was lost at online poker where John said he’s made $120k profit in two years.
Also, look at the numbers closely. Out of 17 times, he's only had two winning days. And the days he's lost when I'm not there, he tends to lose big. Also, with online poker, he's lost it over several days instead of just one day for each time I staked him.
John never ever admitted to stealing from me until after I told him I caught him stealing. He always texted me about big losses and bad beats he suffered and almost never big hands he won. In fact, EVERY single poker video or picture of a poker hand he has ever sent me is of a hand where he lost a big pot through either a bad beat or cooler. Yet I’ve personally seen his friend receive videos of Bovada hands from John where John won big pots and this is even before I started backing John. On 12/21/15, John got first place in $30+$3 buyin online Black Chip Poker tourney for $487, but never ever bothered to mention this win to me. On at least another occasion, John won a big pot while I was at a different table in the same room, but didn’t mention it to me. The reg who lost the hand later mentioned this hand to me and only when I asked John about the hand did John admit to winning that pot. Later, the reg informed me that John told the reg not to mention to me any hands John plays in the future.