Players should be aware of what Rake at a Poker table. Basically, Rake is a fee that any online Poker site charges. It helps them cover their operating costs and overheads, but there are certain ways that can help you control the effect of rake on your Poker bankroll.
Let’s help you understand How Poker rake affects you and it’s workings!
Calculation of the Poker Rake
The commission cost charged by the online poker site that helps them in covering overheads is a Rake. The rake can differ a lot, considering any Poker tournaments it can go up to 15% of the tournament fee or at the cash games where it can be as low as 5%, capping on 10 bucks.
Rake is charged everywhere, but can differ from site to site.
What is Pot Rake?
The fee charged on cash games is known as the Pot Rake. The player must go till the flop for the hand to qualify for a rake.
Also, there are always caps on the rake charged from the pot. For instance, if a site takes 5% rake on any cash game, there’s always a maximum of 10/20 bucks.
Pot rake is quite famous with a lot of low and medium-stakes players, it’s a technique most commonly used by the popular online poker sites.
The dealer’s job is to enumerate the pot and keep a check to not let it go over the edge, and then carefully separate the chips by hand and put them in another box. In any online cash game, the rake is pulled out automatically by the computer.
In addition to that, a lot of poker sites operate on the “no flop, no rake” policy. For example, if you’re playing a 5/10 chp No Limit Texas Hold’em game and the pot is 60 bucks at the final round. The Site takes a 5% rake up to 50 maximum.
In this hand, the site would take 5/100 x 60, or 3..
Let’s say the pot is 1200. The site will take its 5%, but the max rake of 50 will easily be reached; 5% of 1200 is 60, but only 50 will be taken.
Online Poker Games Rake Rates
Online poker sites usually have an inconsistent rake based on the limits. For instance, typical rake for an online cash game should look like this (INR):
0.5/1 – 5% up to 10 max
1/2 – 5% up to 20 max
2/5 – 5/10 : 5% up to 50 max
Dead Drop Rake
This is a rake in poker games where every player has to pay the same.
In a pot rake, the winning player is always stuck with paying the rake. On the other hand, in a dead drop, the button pays an agreed fixed rake amount before the hand even starts. This guarantees that everyone at the table pays the same amount, whether they win or lose.
Fixed Fee
After several complaints from successful big poker players, Fixed fee was introduced. Why should the winning players pay all the rake amount, the players quarreled, when the other players don’t have to?
With a fixed fee, every player has to pay a certain amount for sitting down at the game table. It also allows Poker tables to carry on taking rake, even if there are multiple losing players at the table. It’s also fair to the high stakes Poker players who usually end up paying huge amounts of rake on heavy pots.
Timed Collection
Some players spend hours playing in an online poker room. Hence, timed collections were introduced.
With a timed collection, every poker player has to pay the rake for every hour that the table plays. However, the players will still be charged, even if they only play on the table for 30 minutes.
Timed collections makes sure the site charges a fee from every player seated for that hour. They are also a lot more popular with the high-stakes players who usually choose to avoid higher rake fees on their pot.
Tournament Fees
You have to submit a particular amount of rake when participating in a poker tournament. Regardless of the fact that you’re playing any poker variant: Texas Hold’em or Omaha, there is a fee when you enter.
The tournament fees charged varies on the different Poker sites. Regardless, an average rake amount can be around 10-20%.
Imagine entering a Texas Hold’em tournament costing 300 bucks. The rake is 10%, so 15 are retained by the poker site and 15 goes into the prize pool.
It’s crucial to find the lowest rake online poker site when you play, At PokerHigh we charge a small amount of rake, with exciting rakeback offers as well.
No Rake
A few top online poker sites offer no rake tournaments. Freerolls are no fee tournaments with some amount of actual free prize money.
This helps them in bringing traffic from new players and have them stay on the site.
A lot of these no/low rake tournaments also have a prize guarantee (GTD), with a fair chance of an overlay. The overlay can be easily reached if not enough players have registered in order to complete the GTD prize. The poker site covers any free money left as well.
How to Earn Online Rake Bonuses
Poker sites are functioning by taking rakes from the players. However, you actually have a chance to earn some of the rake back by earning some VIP points.
You can do this by collecting points when you play tournaments or cash games online. For instance, you can earn 1 VIP point for every 5 bucks in rake you pay at PokerHigh. Usually, you will have to regularly supply to a cash game pot with rake in order to qualify, for these points
When you successfully cover the points required you will enter THC (The High Club) at PokerHigh, and start earning a rakeback percentage of up to 60%. For example if you end up contributing 12500 bucks in rake playing Hold’em cash games. You will have generated 2500 points. You will then enter the Bandit category, getting 20% rakeback and you can also redeem your points for straight cash.