Rake is the scaled commission fee taken by a cardroom operating a poker game. It is generally 2.5% to 10% of the pot in each poker hand, up to a predetermined maximum amount.^[1][2] There are also other non-percentage ways for a casino to take the rake. Some cardrooms will not take a percentage rake in any community card poker game like Texas hold 'em when a hand does not have a flop. This is called 'no flop, no drop'.^[1]

1. In Poker What Is A Rake Video
2. In Poker What Is A Rake Box
3. Taking A Rake In Poker
4. In Poker What Is A Rake Made

Poker is a player-versus-player game, and the house does not wager against its players (unlike blackjack or roulette), so this fee is the principal mechanism to generate revenue.

It is primarily levied by an establishment that supplies the necessary services for the game to take place. In online poker it covers the various costs of operation such as support, software and personnel. In traditional brick and mortar casinos it is also used to cover the costs involved with providing a dealer (though in many places tips provide the bulk of a dealer's income) for the game, support staff (from servers to supervisors), use of gaming equipment, and the physical building in which the game takes place. The rake in live games is generally higher than for online poker.

Poker is different – the house doesn’t directly play the game against other players. In online poker, the house makes money by taking a cut of each pot as a playing fee. This cut is called the rake. For real-money games, low rake poker sites siphon a portion of the final pot as rake.

1. The rake is defined in the following chart: The house charges a commission or “rake” as a percentage of the total pot won at the end of each hand. The “rake” is calculated based on the number of players in the hand, and the size of the pot. The commission (rake) is 5% and capped at a maximum of $3.
2. Rake will be collected at $0.01 for every $0.20 in the pot, instead of the previous $0.05 per $1.00 Max rake will be moving on Heads-Up Tables from $0.50 to $1.00 Max rake will be moving on Pot Limit and No Limit tables at stakes higher than $0.10/$0.25 from $3 to $4.
3. Rake is the commission fee taken by a poker room for operating the game. The commission is scaled to the buy-in and generally equals 5-10% of the pot in each hand. Most often there is a set maximum amount for the rake per hand. The set maximum amount comes into play when the stakes are high.
4. Nov 26, 2018  Rake is the payment that a casino or poker room takes for organizing and running the game. There are different methods used to collect rake, but it’s usually obtained as a percentage of the total pot. For example, a hand of poker ends with $100 in the middle. The casino takes $5 from the pot and awards the winner $95.

To win when playing in poker games where the house takes a cut, a player must not only beat opponents, but also the financial drain of the rake.^[3]

• 1Mechanism

Mechanism[edit]

There are several ways for the rake to be taken.^[4] Most rake is a fixed percentage of the pot, taken on a sliding scale, with a capped maximum amount that can be removed from the pot regardless of pot size. Less frequently, rake is a fixed amount no matter what the size of the pot.

Pot rake[edit]

A percentage rake is taken directly from the pot. In a live casino, the dealer manually removes chips from the pot while the hand is being played and sets them aside to be dropped into a secure box after completion of the hand. When playing online, the rake is taken automatically by the game software. Some software shows the rake amount next to a graphical representation of the dealer and takes it incrementally between the rounds of betting, whereas other software programs wait until the entire hand is over and then takes it from the pot total before giving the rest to the winner of the hand. This is the prevalent method of collecting rake in online poker.

Dead drop[edit]

The fee is placed on the dealer button each hand by the player in that position, and taken in by the dealer before any cards are dealt.

Time collection[edit]

Time collection (also 'timed rake' or 'table charge') is a set fee collected (typically) every half-hour during the game. This form of rake is collected in one of two ways:

• Player time: A set amount is collected from each player.
• Time pot: A set amount is collected from the first pot over a certain amount.

Time rakes are generally reserved for higher limit games ($10–$20 and above).^{[citation needed]}

Fixed fees[edit]

The fee per hand is a fixed rate and does not vary based on the size of the pot.

Tournament fees[edit]

The above examples are used in ring games, also known as cash games. The rake for participation in poker tournaments is collected as an entrance fee. This may be displayed by showing the tournament buy-in as $100+$20, with the $20 being the house fee or 'Vig'. Other times they will show they buy-in as $100 and list the percentage they take for expenses.

Subscription fees[edit]

Some online cardrooms charge a monthly subscription fee, and then do not rake individual pots or tournaments.

Rake free[edit]

Some online poker websites have done away with the rake altogether. These 'rake free' poker rooms generate revenue by increasing traffic to the company's other profitable businesses (such as a casino or sportsbook) or by charging monthly membership or deposit fees. Some sites are only completely rake-free for frequent players, while offering reduced rake instead for other customers. Due to high fixed costs of operating a poker room, such as marketing, few online poker rooms have been successful in offering rake-free game, often going bankrupt or sustaining themselves by exploiting loopholes in offshore jurisdictions to refuse to honor players' cash withdrawals. However, some financially sound poker rooms have on occasion offered rake-free games to entice new sign-ups or to encourage players to try out new game formats.

Rakeback[edit]

Rakeback is a player rewards method that began in 2004, whereby some online poker sites or their affiliate partners return part of the rake or tournament entries a player pays as an incentive for them to continue playing on that site ^[5]

Rakeback in cash games can be calculated using two different methods: dealt and contributed. The dealt method awards the same amount of rakeback to each player dealt into a hand, and the contributed method rewards players based on their actual contribution to the pot. In poker tournaments, rakeback is deducted from cardroom's entry fee. Rakeback is similar to comps in 'brick and mortar' casinos.

As online poker becomes more mainstream online poker professionals have begun using rakeback as a means of increasing profits or cutting their losses. Depending upon the stakes the player is playing, how many tables they are playing at once, and the number of hours played daily, online poker pros can earn thousands of dollars in rakeback every month. This gave rise to so-called rakeback pros, players using a less intensive losing strategy at many tables simultaneously while offsetting their losses through rakeback.

Not every online poker room offers rakeback. Sites such as America's Cardroom, Intertops and Grand Poker allow affiliates to offer rakeback as a direct percentage of rake and tournament entries paid back to the players. Other card rooms such as PokerStars, PartyPoker, Ongame Network and the iPoker Network forbid affiliates to give rakeback. Instead they offer in-house loyalty programs that gives cash and other rewards to players based upon how much they play.^[6] At such networks, rakeback deals are sometimes cut between an affiliate and a player without the poker operator's knowledge. Such deals, if discovered, tend to result in the expulsion of either offending party, and, sometimes, in penalties for the poker operator, if they are part of a bigger poker network.

In brick and mortar rooms, the floorperson may offer a rake reduction or rake-free play to players willing to start a table shorthanded.

Legality[edit]

In most legal jurisdictions, taking a rake from a poker table is explicitly illegal if the party taking the rake does not have the proper gaming licences and/or permits. The laws of many jurisdictions do not prohibit the playing of poker for money at a private dwelling, provided that no one takes a rake.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

1. ^ ^ab'Poker Rake - Calculate Poker Room Rake - Calculating the Rake'. www.pokerstars.com. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
2. ^'View The Rake and Blind Structure For Cash Games at partypoker'. www.partypoker.com. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
3. ^Raked Over the Coals: Poker Rake, archived from the original on 2015-10-15, retrieved 2017-02-13
4. ^'Poker Article: The Effects of the Rake or Time Charge on your Bottom Line By: Dave in Cali - The Poker Forum.com'. www.thepokerforum.com. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
5. ^'Is Rakeback Legitimate?'. ProfessionalRakeback.com.
6. ^flopturnriver.com (2010-01-13). 'Make Thousands by Playing at PokerStars in 2010'. Flopturnriver.com. Retrieved 2010-01-29.

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What is Rakeback?

Rakeback Definition

rakeback: cash refund of rake charged from a player by poker room.

Poker Rooms Make Money by Charging Rake

Rake is the only way for poker rooms to make money, since unlike with other casino games, in poker the players are wagering money against other players and not against the house. Online poker rooms take roughly 5% of pot size as rake.

• More about poker rake

In Poker What Is A Rake Video

Rakeback is a Cash Refund of Rake

Rakeback is a way for you to save on poker rake costs. By creating your new online poker room accounts through Rakeback.com, you will save on average 30% of any rake you pay. Once your poker account is registered in Rakeback.com system, we can keep track of all rake you pay to the poker room. And based on revenue share agreement made between the poker room and Rakeback.com, we are able to credit your poker account with rakeback payments of your rake. Rakeback is typically paid once per calendar month, directly back to your poker account.

Please try the Rakeback Calculator tool to see an estimate of how much rake you are currently paying, and how big your savings could be if you were using rakeback.

How Your Rake is Calculated

Some online poker rooms display the total amount of rake taken from a pot, but none show what your individual rake contribution has been. For accounting purposes, however, your personal rake is recorded in the poker room backend, and rakeback is based on these rake reports. There are two main ways that poker rooms use to calculate your individual rake contribution: shared and contributed.

In the shared method, rake is divided evenly among all players that were dealt cards. For example, if there are ten players sitting at the table and total rake is $1, each player would be assigned 10 cents of rake.

In the contributed method, players must contribute money to the pot to get assigned rake. The rake a player gets credited with is proportionate to the amount of his/her pot contribution. If you were to contribute $50 to a pot of $150 and the total rake taken was $3, you would be assigned $1 rake.

So How Do I Get Rakeback?

In Poker What Is A Rake Box

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