Makeup

Makeup is the running balance a backed player owes their backer from past unprofitable sessions. In a typical staking arrangement the backer puts up the buy-ins; if the player loses, the loss accrues as makeup. Future winnings cover the makeup first, then any remaining profit is split per the agreement (commonly 50/50).

Makeup is not a debt in the legal sense — the player has no obligation to pay it back from outside funds. It only matters if the player continues playing under the same backer. This creates an incentive structure where players accumulate makeup they may never clear, often leaking value at the margin (skipping high-EV but high-variance spots, switching backers to “reset” makeup, etc.).

Two layers worth distinguishing: session makeup (one game, settled tournament-by-tournament) and standing makeup (cumulative across the relationship). Most operational disputes in stables come from ambiguity between the two.

In Mucho+MOTA, the Stable ledger represents makeup as a derived balance over an event-sourced log — see accounting for poker stables and the makeup wiki entry.