Poker Terms Rake
By Taylor Cuccia, Rakeback.com Contributor
- Poker Terms Rake Example
- Poker Terms Rake Rules
- Poker Terms The Rake
- Poker Terms Rake
- Poker Terms Rake Vs
- Poker Terms Rake Crossword
As you move up game stakes, it makes sense that you’ll be paying more in absolute poker rake, since you’re playing bigger pots on average and thus more rake will be taken. However, because most poker sites cap the rake at a fixed dollar amount regardless of stakes, you actually pay less rake in terms of big blinds at higher stakes.
The more often the rake gets capped, the less rake you pay relative to lower stakes in terms of big blinds.
To illustrate, we have compiled the rake data of the top six traffic sites across all stakes and plotted a weighted average (based on traffic) of their rakes in big blinds per 100 hands (bb/100) in the graphs below. Check out the graph of your chosen game to see how your stakes played affects your rake paid.
Full Ring NLHE Rake Measured in bb/100 per Differing Game Stakes
As expected, players at the mircro stakes pay the highest relative rake. Players at 2nl really get hammered at an average of just over 8 bb/100. Things dip a bit at 5nl and decrease only slightly from stake to stake up to 50nl. At these stakes most pots are still not capping the rake so the difference from one level to the next isn’t huge.
In a 'direct' rake structure like the one used by partypoker or Winning Poker Network, more volume means more rakeback, but on GGPoker is different. Some grinders have stated that their bb/100 rate dropped to 200% after his profits were affected by the PVI Index. In general, rake in poker is simply a fee or compensation that the poker room takes from players in exchange for organizing the game. How a certain casino goes about taking a rake differs from one place to another, though. Here’s the list of some of the most common methods: A fixed percentage of the buy-in (for tournaments). Cash Game Rake – The Lowest Online. Pre-2012, PokerStars rake structure used to be that they take 5% rake of every pot up to $2 at low stakes, $3 at mid stakes, $5 at the very highest stakes, and $0.50 in heads-up pots. An incremental system was used, whereby no rake was taken until the pot reached certain fixed sizes, e.g. 5 cents per dollar.
At 100nl is when things start to drop more significantly, as we see significant drops between nearly every stake from then on.
Moving Up Stakes
To see the effect moving up stakes has on rake, lets look at an example. Lets say a player at full ring 100nl is winning at 3bb/100 after rake. That means he’s beating the game for 8.15bb/100 because of the 5.15bb/100 rake he must pay. Even with a relatively high winrate, rake is eating up 5.15/8.15 = 63.2% of this player’s profit.
If this player moves up to 200nl, where the rake is only 3.77bb/100, he pays significantly less rake than at 100nl. If he is able to maintain the same 8.15bb/100 pre-rake winrate, the rake only eats up 3.77/8.15 = 46.3% of his profit. However, because the game is tougher, its not realistic that his winrate will stay the same.
If he can keep the same post-rake winrate of 3bb/100, then his pre-rake winrate is 6.77bb/100 and rake eats up 3.77/6.77 = 55.7% of his profit.
Even this may be ambitious, so lets say he only wins at 2.25bb/100 after rake at 200nl. Now rake eats up 3.77/6.02 = 62.6% of his profit. This is still a lower percentage than when this player was winning at 3bb/100 before rake at 100nl. Whats more is that despite having a lower post-rake winrate in terms of bb/100, this player actually wins 50% more money because he is now playing higher stakes. At 200nl he earns $4.50/100 whereas at 100nl he was winning $3/100.
This is all despite his pre-rake winrate going from 8.15bb/100 to 6.02bb/100, a 26.1% decrease. Therefore, it is often advantageous to move up in stakes even if your bb/100 is lower at the higher stakes.
6-Max Poker Rake Measured in bb/100 per Differing Game Stakes
6-Max tells a similar story to full ring, only with slightly higher numbers at each stake. 2nl players are once again hammered at 10.4 bb/100 on average. Once again we mostly see small decreases up through the small stakes. Rake actually increases from 5nl to 10nl, though this is likely an anomoly in the data.
The bigger drops begin once again at 100nl and continue from there as with full ring, dropping fairly significantly up through the higher stakes.
The Importance of Rakeback
To see how important having rakeback is for a player’s profits, lets look at an example player playing 6-max 200nl. Lets say he wins a respectable 2.5bb/100 after rake but has no rakeback deal.
Poker Terms Rake Example
Now this player hears about rakeback and gets a 27% rakeback deal on his site. He’s paying 4.57bb/100 in rake, and now he gets .27*4.57 = 1.23bb/100 of that back. Now his winrate jumps to 3.73bb/100, a 49.2% increase, just from signing up for rakeback. Clearly, getting a good rakeback deal can be huge for increasing your winrate.
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Tournament Rake
Similar to cash games, tournament rakes drop on a relative basis when moving up stakes as sites generally take a smaller percentage fee for bigger buy-in levels. Lower rake at these levels mean that the ROI required to beat the rake is actually lower. However, high buy-ins tend to attract tougher competition, so this may be harder than it sounds.
Depending on site and buy-in level, tournament fees range from 5% up to 17%. Traditional ROI takes rake into account, making a break-even ROI equal to 0%. However, to discuss rake levels we need to use what we are calling return on buy-in (ROBi). This is the same as ROI, but discludes the tournament fees from the investment portion of the equation. This allows us to better compare different stake levels.
A good rule of thumb is that your ROBi needs to be equal to the rake percentage just to break even. For example, if you play a $100 tournament with a 9% fee, you’ll pay a total of $109 to enter the tournament. That means that you need to cash for $109 on average to break even, which equtes to a 9% ROBi using the following equation:
ROBi= (return/investment)-1 = (109/100)-1 = 0.09 = 9%
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Casinos cannot spread live poker games without paying dealers, floormen, cocktail waitresses, chip runners, or paying for the chips, tables, cards and electricity to light the room. In order to do so, they take a rake, or a fee, from each hand of poker (up to a maximum amount regardless of the size of the pot). This serves as the house’s income needed to continue running the games and making a profit.
The rake is usually in the form of a small percentage (5%-10%)or a specified dollar amount that is taken from the pot until the maximum amount is collected. Depending on the card room, rakes commonly vary from $3 to $5 per hand, per table.
Even individuals hosting a “home game” will sometimes take a small rake from each pot to help defray the cost of refreshments. Savvy online players will sometimes check down hands so as not to “feed the rake”. If the pot is small and they feel they are up against a similar hand, they refrain from betting as doing so will only give the house a disproportionate amount of the extra bets as “rake” they will not recover as winnings.
Another form of “rake” is called a “time charge” or 'collection'. This is more common in No Limit cash games, whereby each hour or half-hour, the dealer collects a flat fee from each player.
Collection is sometimes called “house collection.” It is the method by which casinos and card rooms generate revenue. There are two distinctly different ways of collecting for the house which are commonly used. They are “per hand collection” and “time collection.” Historically, the per hand collection method has been used in low limit games, while time collection has been used in at the higher limits.
In the “per hand” collection method, a collection is taken for the house from every qualifying hand. The amount of the “per hand” collection is usually calculated in one of two ways. It can be a set fee, which may be adjusted based upon the number of players dealt in. This is commonly referred to as the “flop and drop” method. Alternatively, it can be calculated as percentage of the pot size (usually 5% or 10%). If the percentage method is used, the collection is taken in quarter or dollar increments, and there is generally a cap (usually between $3 and $6) on the amount that can be taken on any given hand. In the percentage scenario, the rake description might read something like: 10% rake, $5 max.
The other way of collecting for the house is called “time collection.” In the time collection method, no rake is ever taken from the pot. Instead, each player is charged a fee for the right to play for a predetermined period of time, usually 30 minutes. Most commonly, time collection is taken on the hour and half past, and runs between $8 and $12 for 30 minutes of play, with higher games often having a slightly higher collection rate than lower games. This sum is collected from every player, by the dealer, and dropped all at once.
Poker Terms Rake Rules
Increasingly, casinos have viewed the “per hand” collection method as superior and the “time” collection method as inferior. In fact, many casinos have abandoned time collection all together, in favor of per hand collection. There are several reasons for this. First of all it is more efficient. In the per hand collection method the dealer can take the drop while the hand is in play. With time collection, the game stops for a minute or two while rent is collected from all players. In addition to the efficiency problems with time collection, some players may attempt to avoid paying time altogether. Players who are new to the game are often allowed to pay at a reduced rate or are not required to pay until the next collection. Some players may claim to be new players when they are not, or they may try time their arrival a hand or two after collections are taken. Players may also use the call for “collections up,” as an excuse to leave for the day rather than pay for another half hour. To avoid all of this, casinos are increasingly employing the per hand collection method.
Rake in poker tournaments is taken in the form of an entry free.
Poker Terms The Rake
Poker Terms Rake
Usage: Collections Up, Time Collection, Collect the Time, Per Hand Collection, Flop And Drop Collection, Can't Beat the Rake, Rakeback, Rake BackPoker Terms Rake Vs
Previous Poker Term: Raise