Selling action means you sell a percentage of your tournament results to one or more buyers before the event starts. Each buyer pays in advance and receives that same percentage of whatever you win. If you bust, they lose what they paid. If you cash, they get their share of the prize.
This is different from ongoing staking, where a backer funds your buy-ins over time and you may carry makeup (a running loss balance) between sessions. Selling action is a one-off deal, and each tournament settles on its own. If you want the full picture of the long-term arrangements, read how poker staking works.
Players sell action for two main reasons:
Missing overlays while you grind? Profitmaxxer pings your Telegram the second a prize pool overlays or a plus-EV late-reg window opens across 12 networks. Start a free 7-day trial →
Markup is a multiplier on the face value of the piece you sell. At 1.0 the buyer pays exactly the percentage of the buy-in they receive. At 1.15, they pay $1.15 for every $1.00 of equity. For a deeper definition, see what markup is in poker.
The key point is that markup is a price, not a fee. The buyer is paying extra for each dollar of equity, so they only profit if your real return beats that extra. The premium is the ROI you must earn before the buyer simply gets their money back. At 1.15 markup, you need about a 15% ROI over time for the buyer to break even.
Most staking guides land on the same rule of thumb: markup should roughly track the seller's proven ROI. There is no official standard, since PokerStrategy notes that poker has no fixed markup rules, so each buyer judges every deal. One staking guide suggests that verified winning regulars commonly charge around 1.10 to 1.20, and that anything past 1.25 implies a very high claimed ROI that the buyer should ask you to prove. Another guide says markup above 1.2 is rarely justified in large-field online tournaments. Treat these as rules of thumb from staking education sites, not hard benchmarks. See the Deuces Cracked markup guide for one such discussion.
The table below shows the break-even logic. It assumes the buyer's expected return equals your true long-run ROI.
| Markup | Buyer's break-even ROI | What it implies |
|---|---|---|
| 1.00 | 0% | Buyer expects to break even if you are a break-even player |
| 1.05 | 5% | Modest premium, reasonable for a small, proven edge |
| 1.10 | 10% | Common for solid regulars with verified results |
| 1.20 | 20% | Needs a strong, well-documented ROI |
| 1.30 | 30% | Buyer should ask for proof and a large sample |
A PokerNews op-ed describes passing on a deal where the seller claimed a 30% lifetime ROI and priced at a 30% markup, which leaves the buyer zero expected profit even if the claim is true. Do not copy that approach. Check your numbers before you price:
You are entering a $500 tournament. You sell 40% of your action at 1.15 markup.
Step 1: Face value of the piece. 40% of $500 is $200.
Step 2: What the buyer pays. $200 x 1.15 = $230.
Step 3: What you pay. You still cover the full $500 buy-in, but you collected $230 up front. Your net outlay is $500 - $230 = $270, and you keep 60% of any prize.
Here is how that plays out:
| Outcome | Buyer result | Seller result |
|---|---|---|
| Bust | Loses $230 | Loses $270 |
| Cash $2,000 | Receives $800, profit of $570 | Receives $1,200, profit of $930 |
Now consider expected value. Suppose your true ROI is 10%, so the expected return on a $200 piece is $220. The buyer paid $230, so they expect to lose $10. You, as the seller, expect to gain that $10 on the sold piece. At 1.15 markup, you needed a true ROI of 15% for the deal to be fair. At a true 10% ROI the markup is too high, and a repeat buyer will eventually work that out.
The same formula runs the other way. If your real ROI were 20%, the piece is worth $240 and the buyer gets $10 of value at a price of $230.
You can sell action in a few ways. Be accurate about which applies to you, because rules differ by platform and by room.
Whichever route you use, put the terms in writing before the event: the percentage, the markup, the buy-in, the payment method, and who handles payouts and reporting. Agree in advance how late registration, re-entries, bounties and prize deals are treated. A buyer who funded one entry did not necessarily agree to fund your re-entry.
Late payouts are what damage a seller's reputation, far more than a markup debate. Settle promptly, share the final result screen or receipt, and track every deal in a spreadsheet so that you can answer any question about what you owe.
Markup based on your ROI is only half of the pricing picture. The tournament itself changes the value of a piece.
Overlay. If a guarantee is not met by the entries, the prize pool is larger than the buy-ins collected. That extra money is added value for every player in the field, including your buyers. A piece of an overlaid tournament is worth more than the same percentage of a tournament with no overlay, so a 1.15 markup on an overlaid event is more generous to the seller than it looks. See the biggest poker tournament overlays for what these look like in practice.
Late registration. GTO Wizard's ICM analysis of late registration finds that a late entrant's seat is worth about 10.9% more than the buy-in in a standard MTT, and about 29.76% more in a flat-paying satellite. These are ICM seat equity figures, not ROI. The exception is the PKO: GTO Wizard's PKO study finds a late starting stack loses about 14% of its value. If you plan to register late, agree with your buyers on whether you will do so before you sell, and read the best time to late register.
Profitmaxxer is a Telegram alert tool that scans 12 public poker networks (GGPoker, Americas Cardroom, PokerStars, PokerStars.es, 888poker, WPT Global, iPoker Network, CoinPoker, TigerGaming, SwC Poker, QQPK and Stake Poker) every 30 seconds. It sends overlay alerts and Max Late Reg alerts, so you can see which tournaments carry added value and when registration is about to close. Live totals are on the public stats page.
Sellers can use this in two ways. Before you sell, you can pick events where the field's overlay adds value to your piece. And you can price a package with that context rather than guessing. It does not predict your results or replace verified ROI, and it does not change what a fair markup is for a given player.
The offer is $49 per month, locked for life while you stay subscribed, with a 7-day free trial that has full access and a 30-day money-back guarantee. There is a hard cap of 30 paying members, and after that new sign-ups join a waitlist.
Selling action works best as a repeat business. A buyer who ends up slightly ahead of fair value comes back, and a buyer who feels overcharged does not.
Profitmaxxer scans 12 poker networks every 30 seconds and messages your Telegram the moment a prize pool beats the buy-ins collected (an overlay) or a plus-EV late registration window is about to close. Start free and watch the alerts land.
No card. 7-day free trial, then $49/mo. 30-day money-back guarantee. We hard-cap at 30 active members so the edge stays sharp. Past 30, new signups join the waitlist.
Prefer to start in Telegram? Open @Profitmaxxer_bot