Rakeback

Rakeback deals are sweeping through the online poker world. Everybody wants to get in on the rake back action. Before you decide to accept a rakeback offer, you need to understand what’s included in the deal.

What’s the Rake?
The rake is the small portion of each pot that the house takes out. This is how poker rooms such as Full Tilt Poker make their money. Online poker rooms have lower rakes than land-based poker rooms. This is because the operating costs of a virtual poker room are much lower than the overhead costs of an actual brick-and-mortar operation. Land-based poker rooms can have a rake as high as 10 percent, while online poker sites usually have a rake of around five percent. This rake amount caps off at around $3 to $5.

Rakeback Deals
You can find rakeback deals on third-party affiliate sites, and for example get Full Tilt rakeback. Affiliate sites are in the business of referring poker customers to online poker rooms. For every new account that an affiliate site refers to a poker room, the affiliate will receive a portion of the net rake that the new player generates.

In order to gain more player referrals (and collect more referral fees), affiliate sites will give a percentage of the rake payments back to players that have used the affiliate site to open a new poker room account. If you already have an existing account with an online poker room, you will have to choose another site to sign up with in order to enroll in a rakeback program.

Dealt Method vs. Contributed Method
Different sites employ different methods of calculating rakeback. Your monthly gross revenue (MGR) determines how high rakeback you will receive. Some poker rooms will use the dealt method to calculate your MGR. In this scenario, you will be credited with rake whenever you are dealt into a hand. With the contributed method, only that hands that you participate in are factored into your MGR.

Most poker rooms will subtract your bonus winnings from your MGR. If you’ve earned a hefty bonus, this could cause you to lose a big chunk of your rakeback dollars. If bonuses are a concern for you, try to find a rakeback deal that will not deduct your bonuses from your MGR. Most poker sites will include your tournament fees in your MGR, but others will not. If you play tourneys often, then you need to make sure that your fees are being factored into your total net rake.

Rakeback deals can be quite lucrative, especially if you’re a frequent player. As long as you carefully read the terms and conditions of your rakeback offer, you’ll know exactly what’s included in your rakeback deal.