Patrick Leonard Shares His Thoughts on Mark-Up and Buying Action

Mark-ups have been a controversial topic in the poker community in recent years. How high the number is after the decimal point when a player is offering action has become a major ego battle for some players.

The latest incident that ignited the discussion involved poker legend Phil Hellmuth, who is known to not be shy about his high opinion of himself — although he usually does his bragging in a charming way. This time, he got his son included in the controversy as well. Hellmuth was selling WSOP action on his son Phil Hellmuth III’s behalf, and decided to charge a 1.4 markup for perceptive buyers.

This drew backlash from Shaun Deeb and some poker fans online: after all, the youngest Phil Hellmuth has a modest $35,000 in live tournament cashes to his name.

The discussion prompted well-known WSOP bracelet winner British poker pro Patrick Leonard to write up a short essay on the topic of mark-ups and selling action. However, before we get into his thoughts, let’s get some basic things straight.

What is Mark-Up in Poker?

Poker players have been “selling action,” meaning selling a percentage of their buy-ins as investment, to people for decades. Mark-up is the premium a highly skilled poker player charges when selling investments into their game.

If a player sells action with no mark-up, the percentage of their buy-in sold is exactly proportional to the profit share they are offering. For example, if a player sells 10 percent of their action in a $1,000 tournament, they will ask for $100 in exchange for 10 percent of their potential profits.

However, if a player feels they are very skilled compared to the field, they can apply a multiplier to the fee they are charging for the piece of their action, but to the profit share. So, if another player in the same hypothetical $1,000 tourney thinks they are that good, they can charge a 1.2 mark-up. This means that in order to buy 10 percent of this pro’s potential profit, you would have to pay $120 instead of the $100 with no mark-up. 

Patrick Leonard on Mark-Up 

“I’ve bought action in over 10 million poker tournaments and here is what I think about markups and buying action in poker tournaments,” Leonard starts his piece.

He goes on to write, “Gauging what is fair value is one of the toughest things in poker and the reason why there are less than 3 poker stables that have stood the test of time. Over the last 15 years online and live poker has been propped up and maintained due to inefficient buyers/stables with a poor understanding of possible win rates”.

Leonard makes the point that while it is a good decision to sell action for pros and recs alike, there are a number of factors that push mark-ups to unreasonably high levels. It is natural for a player to overestimate their own skill level; and the people selling action rarely take into account tournament fees, which start the investment with an about 15 percent loss to begin with.

He also warns that it is basically impossible for an investor to predict the change in a poker player’s skill level. Past results are not a wholly reliable predictor of future profits, as players have shown dramatic increases and decreases in their play in short periods of time.

“There's many worse things to gamble on than buying action in poker tournaments, it usually lasts longer than a slot machine or a spin of the roulette wheel, you’ll have a personal relationship with somebody you seemingly like/want to root for and the returns can be high in large fields,” Leonard concludes his thoughts on mark-ups.

https://t.co/kZMcMYmXsx

— Patrick Leonard 🫡 (@padspoker) June 20, 2026