Amir Lehavot starts the World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2013 Main Event Final table in runner-up position to the chiplead. He is now selling equity for his November action and the community is split over the offer.
Tournament players selling percentage of their actions happens all the time, so that they can reduce variance and secure themselves a chance to buy in to higher stakes tourneys, which would otherwise be off the table for them for bankroll management purposes. Even leading pros tend to sell percentage for their EPT, WPT and WSOP performances.
While selling percentage, therefore, is of little surprise, it is rare indeed for a WSOP Main Event November Nine player to offer equity for his Final Table action. This year’s runner-up chipleader Amir Lehavot did just that, announcing via the 2+2 forum that he opens up 30% of his WSOP Main Event Final Table action:
“Selling equity for WSOP main FT
Hi all,
For those not familiar with me, my name is Amir Lehavot and I’ve been fortunate enough to make this year’s FT for WSOP main.
Prior to black Friday I was mainly an MTT online player playing mostly on poker stars (some volume on FTP also) as Amirsf. (…)
Since BF I’ve been playing more live, though very light schedule since WSOP 2012 as my son was born Sep 2012.
(…)
I have 80% of my action going into the final table; my parents have 10% and a longtime friend and investor has the other 10%.
I am opening up 30% for sale in this thread, and I will be keeping 50%.
I’m selling at ICM, this works out to be $29,248 per 1%. This is with 9th place money already subtracted out, so for each 1% invested the investor would get 1% of my prize money minus 9th place money.
If I finish 9th, 1%=0 if I finish 3rd 1% = $29,938 if I finish first, 1% = $76,263, etc
(…)
I’m setting the minimum investment at 10k.
Taking payments offline only: wire, bank xfer to BoA – or check if you mail early enough.
I’m going to be taking reserves for action until October 14, and going to finalize booked action by October 21 (so will need to receive payment by then to book action). I’ll publish final list of investors and action they are booked for at that time.
Closing this well ahead of the final table since I don’t want to deal with logistics at the last minute.
A final IMPORTANT note, for tax reasons I would need from the investors either their SSN if they are a US citizen or a ITIN number otherwise (would need either a W9 or a W-8BEN form filled, but that’s the crucial info needed). If this is not available (for example a foreign investor with no ITIN) then investor should not invest – as without this information I will need to withhold taxes from investor profits.
Thanks for your consideration, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Amir,” he wrote.
According to Lehavot, his finish distribution is calculated by an ICM calculator as follows:
1st place: 15.576%, 2nd place: 15.223%, 3rd place: 14,722%, 4th place: 14.008%, 5th place: 12.968%, 6th place: 11.389%, 7th place: 8.878%, 8th place: 5.36%, 9th place: 1.876%
Investors’ return for each finish position is as follows:
1st place: 260%, 2nd place: 151%, 3rd place: 102%, 4th place: 70%, 5th place: 47%, 6th place: 29.6%, 7th place: 16.8%, 8th place: 7.2%, 9th place: 0%
The unusual offer sparked intense debate, especially considering whether the investment is good business to begin with. Even if Lehavot runs 3rd, investors would get barely more than their investment back and they would only profit if he makes it to the heads-up. Even though the Israeli-US player says he has made his calculations based on ICM and it is +EV for investors, several players started to criticize him.
“At this rate you would now have to win it for an investor to make double his money. If I put my stake on red at a roulette table at a casino I would get double back + zero taxes. There is no + ev on a roulette wheel?
I’ve not seen any investors or takers so far & all tweets have been negative as you say. You state on twitter that you are not going to change your mind on the price you are looking for?
Are you right? Or are we all wrong.
The carrot you dangle is not at all appealing.
I advise you keep the 100% and prove us all wrong,” forum member ‘Dandan160808’ wrote, for instance.
Not all agree, however, including some renowned pros. For example, Mike ‘timex’ McDonald offered to purchase percentage with a little discount, 4% for $100,000, but Lehavot passed. Another November Nine member joined in: David Benefield posted that
“I’ll vouch for Amir being +ev over ICM at this final table. If it didn’t create a conflict of interest I would buy some.”
In case Lehavot manages to sell 30%, he earns at least as much as the 5th finisher of the finale in any scenario. If, on the other hand, he wins, he will still have more left than the 2nd prize, even after payouts.
The chip counts of the November Nine 2013 are as follows:
Seat 1: Sylvain Loosli (France) – 19,600,000
Seat 2: Michiel Brummelhuis (The Netherlands) – 11,275,000
Seat 3: Mark Newhouse (USA) – 7,350,000
Seat 4: Ryan Riess (USA) – 25,875,000
Seat 5: Amir Lehavot (Israel) – 29,700,000
Seat 6: Marc McLaughlin (Canada) – 26,525,000
Seat 7: JC Tran (USA) – 38,000,000
Seat 8: David Benefield (USA) – 6,375,000
Seat 9: Jay Farber (USA) – 25,975,000
Prizes:
1st: $8,359,531
2nd: $5,173,170
3rd: $3,727,023
4th: $2,791,983
5th: $2,106,526
6th: $1,600,792
7th: $1,225,224
8th: $944,593
9th: $733,224
Payouts with the 9th place prize money deducted:
1st: $7,626,307
2nd: $4,439,946
3rd: $2,993,799
Lehavot’s breakeven point
4th: $2,058,758
5th: $1,373,302
6th: $867,568
7th: $492,000
8th: $211,369
9th: $0
