Rake is a commission charged by the casino or cardroom and covers overheads. In poker tournaments, it might be as high as 15% of the tournament fee. In a cash poker game, the pot might be charged a 5%. Cash Game Rake – The Lowest Online. Pre-2012, PokerStars rake structure used to be that they take 5% rake of every pot up to $2 at low stakes, $3 at mid stakes, $5 at the very highest stakes, and $0.50 in heads-up pots. An incremental system was used, whereby no rake was taken until the pot reached certain fixed sizes, e.g. 5 cents per dollar. Rake (cellular automaton), a cellular automaton pattern that moves while regularly emitting spaceships; Rake (poker), the commission taken by a casino when hosting a poker game; Rake (software), a variant of the make program coded in the Ruby programming language; Arts Architecture. Rake (architecture), the slope of the roof at the end of a gable. Poker Rakeback Deals. Rakeback = Cashback. And you can get up to 80% back each month! Just as you can get cashback on real world purchases, so you can get cashback when you play online poker. It’s called 'rakeback' because you get a portion of the “rake” that the house takes as fees. The rake comes in several different forms, but the point of the rake is always the same: To make the room money. In fact, it’s the rake that provides the sole source of income for casinos from poker.

In order to understand what rakeback is, you would need to understand how poker rooms earn their revenue or earn their funds in online poker. Whether it is a tournament or a cash game, the poker rooms would take some part of the buy-in fees. For the most part, the poker rooms would take 5% of the revenue from each pot in cash games. This fee is referred to as the “rake” and a majority of players do not even notice the process. As a matter of fact, poker rooms make large sums of money from these percentages, which turn out to be a great revenue stream in the long run. Besides revenue, popular online poker sites make millions of dollars as “profit” from the tables itself. Its very different from the revenue model of casinos online which earn money not from rake but from when the player loses against the house.

Rakeback in Online Poker and Promotionals

Lately, rakeback has now turned into an exciting promotional scheme for the affiliates referring and recruiting players to poker rooms. As soon as you sign up for rakeback on a poker site, you would receive a percentage of the rake generated by the poker room. Hence the process is called a “rakeback” process.

In most cases, the rakeback figure is about 30%. Hence, from the 5% amount generated by the poker rooms from the pot, they would give back 30% to the players as a part of the “rakeback” figure. At the same time as this may not seem to be significant amount, but once you play poker for a longer period of time, it turns out to be a big amount. A majority of professional players make around $50,000 a year, from rakeback alone, besides the profits they make while playing poker. In order to claim the rakeback, you don’t really have to be a regular player. It has been observed that low limit players with a bankroll of merely $100, can also make about $1000 a year, simply by playing on smaller stakes cash tables.

Nowadays when online poker is not legal in USA, there is questions about if rakeback will return even if online poker gets legal again. Rakeback deals in Europe are not that common anymore for example. So new poker rooms has rakeback promotions, otherwise it’s back to poker bonus in many cases.

The interesting part about rakeback is the secrecy that surrounds the phenomenon. Prominent players already know the fact that poker sites do not advertise or promote rakeback schemes to the players to register with them directly.

Poker sites make their money by taking a small % (known as the rake) of a cash game pot, if the amount of money in the middle reaches a high enough total.

Poker Rake Explained

Online poker sites charge a rake when you play cash games. Poker rake is a small percentage taken from the total betting amount and this is how the site makes its profit. The poker player who wins the cash game hand will win the amount in the middle, the pot, minus the rake.

Online poker players can play between 40-60 hands per hour on one table, so you can imagine the large amount of poker rake that each player contributes over a week or month.

If you have a Rakeback Deal or a VIP Deal through RakeMeBack then you can claim back a large percentage of the rake money you have contributed to the site. This is why these cash given back to you deals are called rakeback because you get a large amount of the rake paid back to you.

Rakeback = Cashback in your bankroll

The maths are simple, by playing the same amount of cash game poker with a Rakeback Deal through RakeMeBack compared to not being paid Rakeback, you are being paid to play poker. If you play poker without a Rakeback deal then you are literally giving away free money that could be in your bankroll.

RakeMeBack Rakeback deals can turn a slightly losing player into a winning player and a decent profitable player into a good long term winner. The money you get paid back from your Rakeback Deal also helps you to move up the cash game limits so you can win more money.

Cash Game Rake Example:

If the money in the middle, the pot, is worth a total of $40 when the hand is won the site may take out $2 rake. This rake amount paid to the site will be divided between the players involved in the hand. If you have a Rakeback deal you will get a large percentage of your share of the rake money back. If you do not have a Rakeback deal you will not get paid any of the rake money back. So those players who have a Rakeback deal are in theory winning a higher amount per hour than those on non Rakeback deals.

Poker Tournament Rake Example:

Poker Tournaments charge a Fee instead of a cash game Rake. The difference is that Poker Tournaments have a fixed amount you pay, the fee, but cash game Rake is variable. RakeMeBack members with Rakeback deals will normally get a large percentage of the Poker Tournament Fee money paid back to them, so it is the same as cash game Rakeback.

If you are a tight player or a Rock (a player who does plays very few hands) then this method of calculating your rake contribution to a hand and in the long term your rakeback, is not as good as the Dealt Rake Method but better for you than the Weighted Contribution Method.

Rake Methods

There are three main methods the poker rooms use to calculate rake and therefore how much rakeback you will be paid:

What Is Pokerstars Rake

Dealt Rake Method
Contributed Rake Method
Weighted Contributed Rake Method

What Is The Rake In Poker In Vegas

Each method rewards different styles of play and so your rake and rakeback may vary between different sites, although you are playing the same cash game table stakes and amount of hands. To find out more about how each rake contribution method will effect you, your rakeback payments and how to increase your rakeback amounts click on the links below.