What is rake in poker?
Rake Explained - our guide
Rake can be the unspoken and misunderstood opponent that stops poker players from being winners at the table. Become a rake calculator by learning everything you need to know about this important part of the game. Understand the meaning of rake, the different structures and types of rake, and how to calculate rake before you sit down to play.
What is rake?
Rake is a mandatory fee that players pay either before or during their time playing poker.
In cash games it is usually collected as a percentage of the winning pot, but it can also be paid as a set fee based on how long a player stays at the game. Tournament poker fees paid at the beginning are also a type of rake.
Rake is an expense that eats away at your winnings and it's important that when you sit down to play you understand which type of rake your game is using as it can affect how you and your opponents should play.
What are the different types of rake?
Pot rake
A percentage of the pot at the conclusion of each hand is taken as a fee. In live card rooms, the dealer physically removes this from the pot at the table. In online games, the rake is often shown as a separate pot which is then sent towards the dealer in a subtle animation when the hand is concluded.
Capped rake
When a casino is using a pot rake approach, there is often a maximum financial limit to how much of a pot can be taken taken in a hand. As an example, a £1/£2 game (called £1 / £2 because the blinds are £1 and £2) may have a five per cent rake with a cap of £5. This means that five per cent of each pot is removed at the end of a hand, up to a maximum of £5 per hand.
Often casinos will assign the same rake to £1/£1 as £1/£2 which means that from a purely poker finance point perspective, the £1/£2 game is better to play because £5 is a smaller percentage of pot sizes. This is why it's important to understand the rake on each type of game in a casino.
No flop, no drop
This is a common rule in a pot raked poker game. It means that no rake is taken if a hand does not get to a flop, regardless of how much money goes into the pot preflop. An example of this would be if one player raises and everyone folds, or if one player raises, another re-raises, and the original bettor folds.
The No flop, no drop rule encourages players to play tighter and more aggressively preflop as they can win pots without incurring the pot rake.
Fixed fees
A different way a casino or card room can collect rake is through a fixed fee. This is a set amount that is paid and does not change based on the size of pot.
Dead drop
The form of fixed fee that operates like a big blind ante (but from the dealer button). The rake is placed on the dealer button each hand and the player in that position pays the rake before the cards are dealt.
Time collection
This is a form of fixed fee whereby a set amount is taken at a certain time throughout a poker game. This form of rake tends to be reserved for higher stakes games such as £5/£10 or £10/£20.
There are two ways in which this rake tends to be collected:
Time pot: A set amount is taken off the table from the first pot over a certain amount. In this way, it can really be down to luck who pays the rake and how often.
Player time: This is probably a fairer way to pay the rake. Here a certain amount is taken from each player at regular intervals. This tends to be every half hour or every hour.
Rake free
Some online poker rooms have in the past offered rake-free periods or rake-free bonus sessions. These tend to be very rare now as they do not offer a sustainable way for these businesses to operate. Some have used these deals as a way to entice new customers in the hope of them moving over to other more expensive offerings such as their online casinos or sports betting.
If you see a rake-free poker website deal, make sure you carry out research to check they are a reputable site. Rake-free bonuses are very valuable but very rarely offered by quality poker websites. Always read the terms and conditions.
Sometimes you can negotiate for a rake-free cash game to begin in a live casino if you are starting the game short-handed.
Tournament fees
Tournament rake is a fee that many poker players completely overlook because it's paid at the beginning of the event and only once. It usually forms between 10 per cent and 25 per cent of the tournament fee.
When you enter a poker tournament, you will see two numbers for the entry fee. Example: £50 + £5.
The smaller number (in this example £5) is the rake / tournament fee.
Live casinos have noticeably increased this fee in recent years, initially due to an increase in dealer-dealt games. However, despite labour shortages in the industry leading to more self-dealt tables, these fees have remained high.
Online poker tournament also have entry fees which tend to be a fixed percentage of the buy-in.
Rakeback
Rakeback is a bonus or reward method of paying back a proportion of the rake paid by poker players as an incentive to encourage them to keep playing on the site.
It's a scheme made available on many poker sites and offers players the chance to minimise the rake and therefore maximise their poker profits. Each website offers a slightly different scheme and often the rakeback promotion lasts for a calendar month and then is reset in some way.
Understanding and taking advantage of a website's rakeback scheme will help you to make the best of the challenges rake presents.