What Is Added Value?

Added value simply means that something is worth more than you are paying for it. If someone sells you a seat at the main event of the World Series of Poker for $5000, you have gained value, since it is worth $10,000. On the other hand, if Phil Hellmuth offers to sell you half of his World Series of Poker main event winnings for $6000, you are probably gaining value, even though the face value of such a proposition would be $5000, because he is such a strong player.

How Can You Take Advantage of Added Value?

The most common situation you will find yourself in where you can gain added value is in a tournament with a large guarantee. A guarantee means a certain amount of money will be paid out no matter how many entries they get. Generally, the buy-ins are enough to cover the guarantee but if not, you have added value. For example, with a $100 buy-in tournament with a $200,000 guarantee, the tournament would need to get 2000 players to make their guarantee. If they do not, you get added value, because there is more money available than has been contributed per person. Be on the lookout for these opportunities.

Before I forget, I just wanted to tell you about my great Italian friend called Giovanni. He still lives with his mamma, like all good Italian boys…

His mamma runs a tight ship, cooks a mean pasta and has a huge pair of lungs on her…

Anyway you know when Giovanni pulls you aside and whispers, “heh… do you know about this rakeback thing? It canna make ya some money on da side, you know what-a I mean…”

So I play along a bit… because Giovanni is usually the last one to catch on to anything… but the funny thing is that he thinks he is the first one to find out stuff… we find it quite funny!

I reply, “What you mean Giovanni, you joined the mafia or what?”

He didn’t like that reply and I had to fend him off for a bit.

But you know that even when Giovanni knows about rakeback and the best online poker rakeback deals available, then you know that this is starting to catch on everywhere and people are waking up to the fact that they can get a great income on the side, just by playing poker. Even in Italy!! So if you know Italian and can get a good rakeback deal at this site, then go for it.

Paradise Poker History

As soon as the software allowing realistic online poker play became viable, Paradise Poker jumped in, and the idea of online poker became popular almost immediately. Other sites like Party Poker and Poker Stars quickly popped up to compete with Paradise. In the early days, there were plenty of customers to go around for everyone, and Paradise enjoyed a peaceful coexistence with these other sites.

Paradise Poker in the 21st Century

After the poker world exploded in 2003, poker rooms began to advertise more widely and promote more aggressively and it became tougher to keep up. In 2005, Sportingbet, Plc, a large online betting company that services the global marketplace bought Paradise Poker.

Boss Media and Paradise Poker

After the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed in 2006, Sportingbet divested entirely from the U.S. market, which meant Paradise Poker could no longer accept U.S. players. To rebuild their player base, Paradise Poker joined Boss Media’s International Network. This has allowed them to create an environment with plenty of action games for skilled players to profit from. Paradise offers a number of games, with Texas hold’em being the most popular, and features cash games as well as tournaments.

What is Rakeback?

Affiliates employing rakeback incentive offer a percentage of rakeback to new players when they first sign up to play on a poker website. The affiliate website then calculates the amount of rake that a player contributes over the course of each month, and at the end of the month, the rakeback percentage is returned to the player’s account.

Because each player does not contribute an equal amount to each rake, it is up to the site to decide how the rakeback will be calculated. This is why there are multiple rakeback methods.

Rakeback: The Contributed Method

The contributed method is based on calculating the percentage of rake according to the amount that each individual player places in the pot. The amount of rakeback you receive is directly correlated to the amount of money that you add to the pot. So if you are playing with a $20 pot, and you personally contribute $5 to the pot, your contribution is 25 percent of the pot. Using a 10 percent rake, $2 is taken from the pot. Because you contributed 25 percent of the pot, you receive 25 percent of the rake, which is 50 cents.

Contributed Rake: The Loose Players Method

The contributed rake method is the perfect rakeback option for players who love to get in on the action and play a lot of hands. This is because you are compensated fairly for your increased contribution to the rake. Tight players who play minimal hands and wait for the big one will not benefit as greatly from contributed rakeback.

Most players weigh their success or failure by the size of their bankroll, and with rakeback, you can feel better about your monthly performance whether you win or lose.

What Is the Rake?

Online poker sites do not charge players individually for the privilege of playing. They just collect the rake from each pot. The rake is a percentage of the pot that ranges from five to ten percent, or three or four dollars a hand. This percentage is systematically claimed and removed after each hand. This either detracts from your winnings, or adds to your losses. Fortunately, there are now options for poker players to reduce the amount that they are losing to the rake.

Rakeback Options

As you probably are aware, poker websites often offer sign up bonuses to attract players with what appears at first to be free money. Once the initial sign up bonus has been claimed, the poker site continues raking in the dough with few additional player incentives.

Well, now there is another option that sites are offering called rakeback. Rakeback is exactly what the name suggests. It’s a return on the money that players put into the rake. Rakeback is a bonus that you collect on every dime that you put into the rake, thus it is like an ongoing bonus.

Find the Promise land

Not every online poker site offers rakeback. When shopping for a new poker site, be sure to look for affiliate sites that provide rakeback offers. Once you have signed up with a poker site without signing up for rakeback, you cannot switch to the rakeback option. If you attempt to open a second account on the same site, you will find yourself booted from the site, and possibly subject to additional penalties. So be sure to find a site that offers the rakeback option.

With a return on the money that you are invariably dumping into the rake, taking advantage of rakeback really makes sense.

How can the World Poker Exchange offer free online poker with no rake at all? They are able to do it because they are part of a larger operation, the World Sports Exchange, and derive tremendous revenue from their sports book operation. Hayden Ware, the founder of the World Sports Exchange, theorizes that the World Poker Exchange’s no rake poker, by offering the opportunity to play poker without a rake, will drive traffic to their site, generating more profits for their sports book operations.

How does it work? When you start playing at a poker table on the World Poker Exchange, you may get a little confused. You will in fact see a rake being dragged from each pot. However, you will see the amount of the rake be credited to your account every Monday. The site does this to show how much you would save playing at the World Poker Exchange as opposed to another Internet poker site that charges a typical rake, at the assumed rate of five percent up to a maximum of $3.

It is certain that the idea of playing poker at an Internet casino without any kind of rake will be of interest to poker players. All that remains to be seen is if it will be profitable. If no rake sites like the World Poker Exchange pull enough business from heavily trafficked online poker sites that do take rake, those other sites may find themselves forced to find other ways to make their online poker dollars. If this should happen, it is certain that all Internet poker players, be they amateur or professional, casual, once a week players or diehard’s who never miss a day at the virtual table, will benefit.

Unfortunately it’s pretty far from the truth. In reality, about 90% of those who play online are long-term losing players. The reason is the rake – the cut poker sites take from every pot.

When you win a $100 pot, you will not get the full amount. Usually you’ll get around $97 and the rest is placed in the poker site’s bank vault.

Consequently, money is constantly leaving the game and all players’ collective bankroll. So if you want to become a winning player, you must beat you opponents AND the rake.

There’s a way, however, to lower this edge. It’s called rakeback. When you sign up with a rakeback deal you’ll get a percentage of your rake refunded every month. All serious players know that this is far superior any bonus deal poker sites offer. Sometimes, especially at the lower limits, rakeback is almost necessary to make a profit.

Here, I’ll teach you the finer details of rakeback and provide useful tips on how to become a winning player. Find best real money poker sites and start playing poker.