What Are Rakeback and How to Calculate Them

At a glance, the rake is taken by the poker room as profit while the rake back is given to you as a bonus.  The system of getting a poker rakeback is very favorable for almost all poker players.  So here’s a brief overview about rake and rakeback and how they are calculated.

The Rake: A Poker Room’s Income

Simply said, every poker room whether online or brick and mortar needs to earn money.  However, poker is a game where players compete against each other.  So the room or the house can not earn money because it is not a participant to the game unlike in Blackjack and other casino games.

To earn money, a poker room takes a rake from the total pot in each hand of a cash game.  This is considered as commission or the fee taken by the house from the winning player.  The common standard rake of most online poker rooms is 5% of the total pot up to a maximum of $3.

• Full Tilt Poker – 27% Rakeback & 100% Sign-Up Bonus up to $600. US Players Allowed.
• Cake Poker – 33% Rakeback & 100% Sign-Up Bonus up to $600. US Players Allowed.
• PKR Poker – 30% Rakeback & 100% Sign-Up Bonus up to $800.

Calculating the Rake

It is easy to calculate the rake.  All you have to do is to divide the total pot by 5 percent and you will get the amount of rake.  So if the total pot reaches $20, you need to divide this by 5% so the rake is $1.25.

Poker rooms also take rakes from tournaments in the form of buy-ins.  For example, a buy-in of $100+20 means that the house fee is $20.

What is a Poker Rake Back?

Poker rake back is a reward or bonus system of poker room.  You will get a certain percentage from each rake.  The poker rakeback system was first implemented in 2004.  This is an alternative promotion where players stand to earn regular cash back every month.  As long as you play in a raked hand and you contributed to the pot, then you will get your rake back from the poker room.

The typical rake back is 30%.  Some poker rooms have smaller rakeback promotions while others do not implement a rake back at all.  Instead, poker rooms with no rakeback promotions offer VIP programs where players earn poker points which they can use to buy merchandise or to buy tickets to tournaments.

Calculating the Rake Back

The simplest way to calculate a rakeback is to divide the rake by the number of players who contributed to the pot to get the total shared rakeback.  After that, you have to divide it with 30%, which is the typical rake back promotion.

For example, the total rake is $3 and there are 5 players who contributed to the pot, the formula would be $3 divided by 5.  So the total shared rakeback is .60.  Divide .60 with 30% and your personal rakeback is .18 cents.