What is rake. Let’s get back to theory and terminology

Most poker players ask themselves: what is rakeback, What is rake, how does poker rakeback work and why is it needed at all? Poker rake is a passive source of income for poker rooms. > and represents a commission that is charged to players for the opportunity to play on these very resources. When it comes to cash games, the project rake determines the share of the total bank that is paid to participants, and it usually amounts to no more than 5%. Such funds do not go to prize pools, but directly to the wallets of the resource owners. In tournaments, the rake can be up to 10%, but should not exceed 20%.

At first glance, it may seem like a small amount, but if you imagine the number of players on the resource during a certain period of time, then the result is a fairly significant amount of money, the bill goes into the thousands of dollars.

Poker rakebacks come in different forms, from direct cash back percentages to bonuses. Rakeback can also be added those who attract additional players to the resource.

Rake as a source of constant income

Thanks to the rake, you can organize a constant source of income. The main thing is to be able to properly manage funds from poker rooms, investing them wisely. The calculation of the rake in each specific case depends on the amount of funds that players contribute when participating in cash games. The rake is taken from the general bank, into which several players can simultaneously contribute. In order to determine the share between the participants, there are several methods that everyone should have an idea of.

Dealt-rake

Here is the total amount of investments is divided between all participants in the distribution, as a result of which the rake is calculated. In this case, the rake distribution can also be made by those who did not invest funds, but simply folded preflop. There are practically no rooms with such a rake system left now, except for the Horizon network and JuicyStakes room, the deal in which we present. This rake distribution system encourages nitty play by regulars and does not provoke action.

Contributed rake

Here the pot amount is distributed equally between all players, who contributed money to the distribution. The “freeloaders” in this case will not receive a cent. However, the situation is not perfect, because different players can contribute different amounts, so it is not profitable for everyone to split the rake equally.

Weight-contributed-rake

This is the main type of rake and this method of calculation is used today in most poker rooms. The amount is distributed according to the amount of funds contributed by each participant in the game. The fairest rake system, respected by all regulars, since the rake always more or less coincides with the rake report in the poker tracker.

SBR rake

It takes into account not only how much money you contributed to the pot during the hand, but also whether you are playing with money from your deposit or with money won from other players. It is used in the rooms of the iPoker network. SBR (Source Based Rake) was introduced in 2015 and significantly affected the network traffic downwards. The idea of ​​the introduced system was to encourage skins to bring amateur traffic to the network, and not the traffic of professional players, since before 2015 the iPoker field mostly consisted of regulars and bots, kneading rake for rakeback, the amount of which in some cases reached more than 100% due to dumping skin races of the network. The rake received by the SBR system can be 50-60% of the real one for the average regular and up to 100% for an amateur player.

PVI rake

Distributes and calculates rakeback based on the player’s gaming rating. The rating is based on many parameters, some of which the poker network does not disclose. It exists in the GG network. PVI (Player Value Index) takes into account many parameters of each player, including the frequency and size of deposits and cashouts, how often and how much the player wins at the tables, etc. The PVI index can be from 0 to 2 (those players who make deposits and often lose have a PVI closer to 2, and for winning players it can even reach 0.3). The average regular player’s rake accrued under this system is 30-40% of the real one.

Looking at the last rake system from the list, you can understand that some poker rooms have a more complicated rake calculation formula and it is not as transparent as others.
When choosing a room, always consider not only the rakeback amount, but also the amount of rake charged, as well as the rake calculation system. Only an assessment of all this information will help you choose the most profitable rakeback deal for you.

How is rakeback paid?

There are several methods for calculating rooms with affiliates. For rakeback deals, there are 2 main ones – a percentage of the total rake (Gross) and a percentage of the revenue rake (Net Revenue Rake).

Gross deals

The affiliate receives a percentage of the total rake played by the player in this room, and shares it with the player accordingly. This is the simplest and most convenient scheme for everyone – the player can more or less estimate his future rakeback by comparing it with the current rake reports in his poker tracker.

Revenue deals

The affiliate receives a percentage of the player’s rake minus all the room’s expenses on this player for the reporting period. These are bonus payments to the player, prizes for rake races, as well as commissions of payment systems for deposits and cashouts of the player. Everyone knows that any payment system, every e-wallet, bank takes a percentage for servicing each transfer, offline service providers usually cover this percentage, but most poker rooms do not want to do this, since due to frequent deposits and cashouts, these deductions can reach solid amounts and the profit from each player turns out to be negative. These commissions are especially painful when a player decides to get VIP status Skrill or Neteller in one of the rooms. Therefore, at present, the largest number of poker rooms work according to this calculation scheme.

Check with your affiliate the method of calculation for the transaction before you make a deposit and start playing in the poker room to avoid misunderstandings when receiving rakeback.