26/02/2009 In Rakeback Advice

The poker rake is a huge hurdle in every new player’s path as soon as he/she moves on from the play money tables to the real money ones. While most people do know about the rake, most of them fail to correctly assess the impact it’ll have on their play. Most people consider the rake a minor setback and reckon that by playing well they’ll beat it anyways. Some of them believe that it is the winner who pays the rake, and therefore they do not worry about it too much.

The idea that it is the winner who pays the rake probably stems from the fact that the rake comes off the pot which eventually finds its way to the winner of the hand.

The problem however is, that the pot is raked before it is awarded to the winner, which means that it is not the winner who really pays the rake. Who is it then? Is it possible that you pay rake even as you lose a hand? Unfortunately, that’s exactly how things work.

Before it is awarded to the winner, the pot is a stand-alone entity at the table. If you take a closer look at how the pot came to be, you’ll realize who it really belongs to.

All players who put money into the pot, either via the compulsory bets (blinds) or by their own free will, have an equity in it, which means they pay a percentage of the rake as well.

How much rake a player pays depends on how much money he puts into the pot. Poker rakeback is just about the only way to recover a part of the rake that you pay. The standard rakeback deal offers around 30% rake rebate, but there are more generous deals as well, like the PowerPoker rakeback deal which gives players 33%.

The fact that everyone at the table has a direct influence over the amount of rake paid can be illustrated through a simple yet enlightening example: player A and B are both tight rocks and they play against each other heads-up twice every week. The dealer of the poker room where they play is already familiar with the amount of rake which results from the action the two generate.

One day, player C joins their table. Unlike A and B, C is a loose aggressive player, who is a beginner though and thus unfamiliar with the subtle aspects of poker strategy. C flings his stack around and at the end of the session walks away felted.

He wins nothing, yet at the end of the day, the dealer is surprised to see that the three have generated far more rake than A and B usually do.

C’s aggressiveness created much bigger pots than what A and B usually do battle over and that explains the increased rake production.

Make no mistake: whether you’re a winning or a losing player, you need rakeback. If you’re a winner, it’ll increase your winnings. If you’re a loser, it’ll limit your losses.