What is Rakeback

Rake is an amount charged by online poker rooms to the poker players for playing on their site. Every time a pot is created in a poker hand, the poker room take a small percentage out of the pot – this is called the rake. Poker rooms also charge a fee for entering a real money poker tournament. For example, in a $10 + $1 Sit and Go, $10 is the buy-in that goes into the prize-pool while the $1 is the entry fee charged by the poker room. This is a form of rake, sometimes referred to as the “juice”.

Rakeback is a way for the online poker rooms to reward their poker players for the amount of poker they play. It is usually expressed as a percentage (for example 30%) and basically players get given back this amount of the rake that they play. If a player entered 200 $10+1 tournaments, they would effectively have paid $200 in rake. If they were on a 30% rakeback deal, the poker room would therefore pay that player $60 as a reward for their custom.

Why is Rakeback good for Players?

Poker players can be very loosely divided into three categories; casual players, rakeback grinders and the consistent winning players. To the casual player – who is quite often a losing poker player – the cost of the rake usually does not even register. They are just interested in playing poker for a bit of fun. The fact that they can get a bit of extra cash in the form of rakeback is a bonus that enables them to get some extra value and play a little more poker for each deposit.

For the rakeback grinder, rakeback is very important. This type of player tends to play a very high volume of poker. They will usually be marginal winners or marginal losers, or often around break even at the poker tables. The amount of poker they play leads to them generating a lot of rake, meaning they can earn a decent amount of rakeback each month – which is effectively their profit.

For the consistent winner or professional poker player, the rake is largely seen as a cost of doing business. A player could be winning hundreds or thousands of dollars each month playing poker, and they are effectively paying the poker room rake to provide them with this opportunity. Rakeback is probably less essential to the professional player than a rakeback grinder, as they are winning money anyway. However, they are also likely to be playing a lot of volume too so a good rakeback deal will see them increase their profits.

Receive Rakeback On An Existing Account

One of the most frequent asked questions that come up regarding rakeback is whether or not it is possible to convert an existing account into a rakeback account. The short answer is maybe, under certain circumstances getting rakeback on an existing account is possible. Please visit our Rakeback Existing Account page for details.