Why are so many of those "ranked tournament players" (=pocket fivers) staked in online tournaments? Are they actually losing players but play huge volume and occasionally get lucky? Why would Bax/Sheets and others stake losing players? They are no stupid. Or are they? Are these players winning in tourneys but then blowing the money away in cash games? Hookers? Crack? WTF?
My understanding is that Bax/Sheets stake players before they become uber-successful. So even if they make tons of money after that, they feel a certain loyalty to their backers and continue playing for them. Also, many stakers only back people in 10K buy in live tournaments on the condition that their online backing deal continues.
