Judge Rules in Marchington’s Favor, In Staking Case

After a fairly quick legal battle, Nick Marchington has been cleared by a Las Vegas judge to collect his entire $1.525 million WSOP prize.

Last month, Marchington was sued by C Biscuit Staking, after backing out of a deal in which they took 10% of his action. Despite refunding the group their initial investment, they still felt entitled to a potion of his winnings – but, the courts did not see it that way.

Marchington’s Staking Troubles

The trouble began in the weeks before the main event, when Marchington sold 10% of his action to C Biscuit Staking. Shortly after that, Marchington decided that he would be able to get a better deal and sell the action at a higher mark-up, and provided his stakers with refund.

Even after Marchington backed out of the deal, the group felt that they were entitled to their 10%, which would have worked out to $152,500. Considering Marchington resold the 10% stake, he could have ended up forking out over $300,000 to backers.

Fortunately for Marchington, it did not come to that. After the judge ruled in his favor, he was permitted to collect his prize and can now pay out his winnings to his actual stakers.

The Internet Weighs in on the Lawsuit

When justifying his reason for backing out of the deal, Marchington said that he had a tough summer, and need to look out for his best interests. To many, it sounds like a fair enough reason to back out of the deal, and he did his due diligence by refunding his backers.

However, many others in the poker community are not impressed. Several spectators have noted that they have never had a staking deal cancelled on them, unless the player ended up not playing in the specific event that they were backing them for.

It has created quite the stir on Twitter, and is being heavily debated by members of the poker community:

Many have stated that, while it is not illegal for Marchington to have withdrew the deal, it is still very unprofessional. The entire situation shines him in a bad light, and may deter others from wanting to back him in the future.

Still, it generally accepted among the poker community that C Biscuit is attempted to steal from Nick Marchington. In the end, they are not entitled to any of his winnings and, as expected, they had a difficult time proving otherwise in court.

For a visual representation of what player’s think of the situation, poker writer Mark Salsberg opened up a Twitter poll:

A Lesson for Poker Players

It’s important to heed this cautionary tale. Whether you’re the player or the backer, you really should know who you’re doing business with.

If you’re thinking of backing a player or putting some of your action up for staking, do your research and find out what other players have to say about whoever you’re thinking of teaming up with. The internet is full of lively poker communities, where you can ask around and find out if anyone has worked with someone that you’re considering creating a staking deal with.

This situation is pretty uncommon, as both players and backers don’t want to give themselves a bad reputation, but it can happen. So, be careful when you do any deals without some kind of binding contract in place.