Amateur Love Music

Rakeback

November 25, 2008 on 12:25 pm | In Uncategorized | Comments Off

Online, many sites let you sign up via a third party to enter a rakeback program. Rake is the amount the site takes out of each poker game you play. In tournaments you will often see something like $10+$1. The tournament costs you $11, but only $10 is entered into the prize pool. The other dollar goes straight to the house. In cash games, a certain percentage (usually 5%) of the pot is taken out at the end of every hand. You’ll see it collecting in a side pot on most sites.

There are other companies that work with the poker sites, which offer a portion of this rake to be returned to the players. This is basically a partnership to drum up new players for the websites, and in exchange, the players get a little kickback.

The rake is returned to you at the end of every month, and depending on how much you play, and at what stakes, can be very sizable. Let’s say you play 4 $10+1 sit and go’s every day. That’s $28 in rake a week, which accumulates to $112 a month. If your rakeback program gives you even 10% of that back, you’re getting a free game a month. I pretty sure you get more than that, however.

The point is, sometimes you don’t keep track of how much money is coming out of your account that is going straight to the house. These online poker websites make tons of money based on this principle. A rakeback program is a great way to get a portion of the money you’re throwing away, back in your account.

The unfortunate thing about these programs, is that they are only for new users. Current users already play on the site and don’t need further incentive to do so. However, a bunch of existing players have started to show disappointment in this, and certain measures are being taken to change this in the future. Some direct inquiries have been resolved already.