I'm looking for advice on how to reach a fair resolution to a staking deal.

In Oct 2017 myself and friend A decided to offer a staking deal to friend B on pokermaster (myself and friend A split the deal). We had access to good high stakes games and had been beating them pretty hard. We had been playing on the apps since the beginning of the year and are regs in Macau so we know the scene.

Friend B had been a regular 1k NL winner on zoom but had taken a year hiatus from poker to focus on other things. He had been a better player than both of us without doubt and was richer than both myself and friend A. The reason for staking was because he didn't trust/know about the apps not because he couldn't afford the stakes or didn't have money.

Friend A and B are childhood friends and I have known Friend A and B for 10 years, we have all been playing poker professionally during this time and we trust each other.

Myself and friend A were living together. Friend B rented an apartment close by so we could get him back into the swing of things and sweat and go through hands as its a new game with antes. We started off with a deal being 50/50 profit share for the first 5 buyins of profit (a buyin being 200bb), 40/60 for the next 5 buyins, and 30/70 thereafter (in his favor) with a minimum of 60k hands to be played. Basically a really good deal for him.

So he starts off and looses 15 buyins very quickly within about 5k hands, no worries these games have high variance. He then meets a girl and goes on holiday with her for a few weeks and doesn't play which I was slightly annoyed by because we are fronting the money and its a significant amount but whatever.

Then terribly one of his parents is diagnosed with late stage cancer and he has to go care for them in another country, of course we without question don't expect him to play at all. After about a month the parent dies and of course hes upset. He stays in the country for about another month sorting out the estate which ends up with him getting a large inheritance. During this time we don't say a single thing.

2 months later friend A asks him when hes going to start playing again and he says: don't pressure me I'll play when i'm ready. At this point the games are still good so we are not to worried but we know how it goes they could disappear at any time.

He then goes traveling we don't hear from him for a few months I send him a message about when hes gonna start playing again and he says hes thinking about it and gonna start soon however by now the big games aren't available anymore and we only have smaller games but still decent size but I don't hear back from him.

Since then twice I have messaged him with little response. Now the games basically are overrun with colluders and the only ones that aren't are much smaller.

So its been over a year since he played a hand which means he has fallen far behind in skill, 2 years since hes has played significantly. The available games are much worse and smaller now than when we had the deal, its not realistic that he could grind it out and get out of it in the smaller stakes.

I assume that he has become wealthy enough to not have to work again due to the inheritance he received. And would probably not play well grinding out of a hole in smaller stakes if he doesn't care about the money. It feels like he is trying to get out of it by delaying it inevitably.

So basically I want to terminate this deal, what do you think would be a fair resolution. How should I approach him and Friend A who is also now incredibly frustrated.

Are myself and friend A just liable for the whole loss and he gets a free walk. Should we split the loss 50/50 with him, or is he liable for the whole amount? Or some other resolution?

Appreciate responses.

You are on the hook for the whole loss.

If he doesn’t play poker anymore ever he owes you nothing unlesss specified.
He’s not a slave and is allowed to quit poker.

Even if the deal specifically states minimum of 60k hands he can just walk away after loosing 5k hands in?

Long term answer no.

Short term answer yes.

sounds like a ****ty friend but backing deal wise nothing you can do to get the $ back if he isn't interested in playing poker anymore

Normally when you enter a staking arrangement you would have a buy out clause which is normally say 50% of the MU. Without any prior arrangement for these events then I think you're in a pickle. Sorry.