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Web Casino Online Poker Rakeback
What is poker rake?
Simply put, rake is the way for a web casino online to make money on online poker cash games. Since online poker is played against other players, and not against the house, taking a small percentage of the pot size is actually the only way for web casinos to generate profits with this game. The percentage usually varies between 3 and 5%, depending on the web casino, but is never more than 3 Euro.
Rake is basically a commission a web casino online takes to operate a poker room.
Instead of charging a rake percentage, some web casinos offer players a monthly fee. Once paid, no rake will be taken out.
What is poker rakeback?
Rakeback was created a few years ago by web casinos and their innovative affiliates, and is a percentage of the rake given back to players in order to entice them to keep playing in their establishments.
In order to earn rakeback, players must sign up to play through web casino online affiliates' web sites. Web casino affiliates earn money by bringing players to the casinos, and once these players sign up with web casinos, the affiliates earn a cut or a percentage of the rakeback. Once players sign up, the affiliates monitor the rake players pay when playing online poker, and automatically deposit the rakeback into their accounts at the end of every month.
Even though some small percentage of the rakeback is kept by affiliates, the bulk still ends up in the player's account. The percentages of the rakeback vary, but average at 30%. In other words, if you play a lot of poker, and a web casino online takes 1000 Euro in rakes every month, the rakeback program will give you 300 Euro back.
There are different ways to calculate the rake web casinos take.
- Shared Rake Method – rake is divided equally amongst all players. If the table rake is 3 EUR, and there are six players at the table, each player would be assigned .50 cents. No betting is required as the rake is divided equally.
- Contributed Rake Method – rake credit is awarded to betting players only. There are two versions. The first one is similar to the Shared Rake Method, the difference being that the rake credit is divided equally between the players who contributed to the pot.
- The Weighted Contributed Rake Method is based on the percentage of the amount a player puts in the pot. It takes into account how much money a player puts into the pot, and the resulting rake is distributed in direct proportion with the money wagered.
With Contributed rake methods, only the players who bet receive rake credits.
Rakeback is a very important, but often overlooked factor in the online poker world. Many novice players think that the only thing they should be looking for are no deposit bonuses and promotions, but the truth is that rakeback is much more beneficial, especially in the long run.
Consider this: If you play a lot of hands of online poker, the rake you pay can accumulate into thousands of Euro every month. For instance, if you pay 1000 Euro in rake monthly, and break even playing poker, you can actually profit by collecting a 300 Euro rakeback (30% average) at the end of the month.
Signing up directly with a web casino online in order to play poker is a huge mistake when you can go through an affiliate and potentially make a nice rakeback profit every month.
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