What is Poker Rakeback
For those of you that are familiar with rake and how a poker room makes their money, it is quite easy to understand how much they actually make. It is not an understatement to say that any one specific room makes several hundred, if not several thousand dollars an hour. And to think, as a player you have actually contributed to that. Short of starting your own poker room, is there a way to get a piece of that pie?
There sure is and it is called " Rakeback" And just as the name suggests, rake is paid back to the players who have paid into it. The amount that is possible to get back will vary from room to room, but the average is around 30%.
Most poker rooms do not offer this incentive directly on their site. The reasoning for that is simple; if they offered rakeback then they would be losing money. But rakeback can be found easily through a 3rd party site with very little effort. The only real catch to it is that most times a player cannot get rakeback once they have already signed up to a non-rakeback account. For example, if you signed up to Full Tilt Poker 3 years ago and found out about rakeback as you were reading this article, Full Tilt Poker would not change your account to rakeback. This is dumb, as it would only encourage more players to play, thus more money for everyone. But that is for another article.
So how does each room figure out how much to pay in rakeback? Well, each room uses one of three methods to calculate the rake contributed by each player and based of that calculation the player's percentage is taken off the top. For a better explanation, please read further.
Calculating Rakeback
If the thought of rakeback was not exciting enough, provided below are the different methods for calculating it so you can get a head start on counting all of that money you will get back.
Dealt Rakeback Method: The dealt method is when each player that into the hand is credited for contributing to the rake. For example, if Player A was sitting at a 6-handed max table and there was $.60 taken in rake, then each player is credited for contributing $.10 of the rake. If Player A was receiving rakeback, he would then receive 30% (or whatever percentage he was getting) of that $.10. As an equation, it would look like this.
(rake) / (number of players dealt cards) = MGR
MGR * Rakeback % = Rakeback Earned
In this case, 30% of $.10 would equal $.03. This may not seem like a lot, but it is not difficult to play 100+ hands per hour. That would come to $3 per hour in money that a player would not otherwise see if not for rakeback. Play 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 4 weeks per month and walk away with $480.
Contributed Rakeback Method: The contributed method is when players are credited with contributing to the rake only when they contribute to the pot. So for example, if Player A sat a hand out, he would not be credited for contributing money to the rake, thus not earning any Rakeback. However, if Player A were at a 10-handed table and only 3 of them contributed to the rake, each player would be credited with contributing 1/3 or 33% of the rake. The equation would look like this.
·(rake) / (number of players in the pot) = MGR
·MGR * Rakeback Percentage = Rakeback Earned
So if Player A were involved in a pot that had $.99 taken, then each of the 3 players would be credited with contributing $.33 to the pot. Out of this $.33, Player A would receive his 30% rakeback which would be approximately $.09.
Weighted Contributed Method: The weighted contributed method is the most precise form of calculating rakeback. This calculates rake based on how much each player involved in a hand put into the pot. For example, if there were 4 players involved in a $5 pot and Player A paid $1 into the pot, Player B paid $1.50 into the pot, Player C paid $2 into the pot and Player D paid $.50 into the pot, then each player would be credited with contributing a percentage of the rake based on the percentage of the pot that was paid by that player. If there was $1 taken in rake, Player A would be credited with paying $.20 (20%), Player B would be credited with $.30 (30%), Player C would be credited with $.40 (40%), and Player D would be credited with $.10 (10%). The equation would look like this.
(money you put into the pot / total in the pot) * (rake taken) = MGR
MGR * Rakeback Percentage = Rakeback Earned
So if player C were receiving 30% rakeback, he would earn $.12 in rakeback.
Poker Rakeback
It is probably obvious, but if a player is not receiving rakeback then they are simply missing out. It is common for players to generate hundreds of dollars a month in rakeback which is paid daily, weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly into their accounts. This helps many players break even or even become winning players. Now, how can you go wrong with that?
