There are benefits and downsides to team play vs solo play. Some may or may not effect you and some you may not even care about.

- Larger effective bankroll. For example, one person with a $10k bankroll might be able to play a game worth $10/hour due to risk. If 10 people team up and each put up $10k each, they can play 10x the stakes at the same risk, making $100/hour. If you already have a sufficient bankroll, then this part isn't all that necessary.

- Similarly, if you're on a team, you get hit N0 quicker (time). If you're playing a game where N0 is 15,000 hands or 150 hours, that'll take you (obviously) 150 hours to get to. If you play with 9 other people, then it'll take each of you 15 hours (15 hours * 10 people = 150 hours) to get to the same point. Essentially, you're reducing the day-to-day volatility by sharing it with others.

- More types of play are possible with team play -- for instance, spotter + BP. Other types of AP can also be possible, or at least, make it easier to do.

Downsides, of course, is that you have to trust others. Obviously you shouldn't get into an arrangement where you don't trust others, but there are other factors, too.

- Nobody's perfect. If you're on your own and make a mistake, that's on you entirely. What happens if someone loses money (they drop a chip, get robbed, etc.)....do they owe that money back to the team, or is it viewed as a mistake that anyone can make and perhaps wouldn't necessarily be fair to charge one person that amount? Sometimes people report the incorrect win/loss on a session, what do you do about that, if someone has more (or less) than they should have at the end of the day according to their posted results?

- Disagreements: How to go about attacking a certain play, what is considered a legitimate or not legitimate expense, how are profits shared? Every question raises more questions -- if profits are shared based on # of hours played and the team is running good, can people go put in "shit hours" (low EV hours) to get their % bumped up (unfairly)? What if the team is losing, do losses also get 'paid' based on hours played? If so, no one's going to want to put in more hours during a losing period, because they'll just get attributed to having a higher % of the action (negative). If it's based on EV generated, which is probably the most fair, do you subtract their expenses from their generated EV? How do you calculate EV generated, especially in a spotter/BP approach? And the rabbit hole continues....

- Unforeseeable circumstances. What happens if someone gets arrested? What if he sues a casino? Who has action on those costs/profits? What if someone gets into a car accident or their car breaks down....does the team pay for it, or is it on that individual?

- Accounting: It's a lot easier to do your own accounting because it is what it is. If you make a mistake on accounting on solo play, then that's, again, solely on you. It's a lot more difficult when you have to add up results for several different players, their expenses, and then their appropriate shares of the win/loss.

- Other types of AP. What happens if someone finds a good promotion, but not everyone wants action on it? In one sense, you can't force everyone to take action on everything the team does, but then again, it also makes accounting a bit more difficult if everyone has a different % of the action based on different plays.




IMO -- If you're looking at team play, then either try to join an existing team or if you know another counter IRL, then team up with them. Start off simple -- do a weekend trip and share everything 50/50, or come up with a plan where you're going to share the next X amount of hours of action 50/50 (EG: Split the next 50 hours played, re-evaluate, then see if you want to do it again).