Rakeback
If you’re an online poker player, you’ve probably already heard about rakeback . If you were never really sure what it was or how it could benefit you, you’ve come to the right place.
Let’s begin by making one thing clear: if you sign up to a rakeback deal, you’ll have secured yourself the biggest edge you’ll ever enjoy in online poker, one that is not strictly performance related (it doesn’t require any skills on your part) and one that never expires: it’ll stick to you as long as you play at the given room.
In order to understand what rakeback is, you first need to know what the rake is and how it’s taken. Poker rooms make their money through the rake. The rake is a small percentage taken off each real money pot, which goes to the house. Rookies are tempted to believe that the rake is only paid by the person who wins the pot, but it’s not so. It is actually paid by all those who actively take part in the hand.
If you put money into the pot, you pay rake, it’s as simple as that. The rake that you generate for the poker room is called your MGR. The more rake you produce, the more valuable you are for the room. Rakeback gives a set percentage of the rake you generate back to you. This percentage can be anything between 25-50%, but it can get as high as 135% in the case of prop deals , which means the room may actually end up paying you to play.
Different poker rooms use different methods to calculate player MGRs. Some use the dealt rake method, others, the contributed rake method. If you’re a rock (a tight passive player) you’re better off with the dealt rake method. In this case, the room adds some MGR for all players who have been dealt into the hand, even if they do not post any money into the pot. If you’re an aggressive fella though, you’ll end up generating MGR for other guys this way. The contributed rake method only allots rake to those who actually put money into the pot. The rocks get pretty much left out of the action this way.
Sign up for a rakeback deal today and do not let all that money go to waste. Poker is a game of small edges, remember? Well, rakeback is a huge edge. It’s only strategically correct not to play without it.