User:PokitJaxx/Rakeback

In online poker, rakeback is a term describing the agreement between a regular player and the poker room where the poker room returns a part of collected rake back to the player. Rake is a variable fee collected from a pot in poker, which consitutes the cardroom's earnings. Since poker is technically a zero sum game, the presence of rake negates a part of a player's profits. This problem is somewhat alleviated by rakeback.

Cash game rakeback

Cash game rakeback can be calculated using two methods: dealt and contributed. The dealt method equally rewards each player dealt into the hand, no matter whether he put money in the pot and, if so, how much. For example, in a cash game hand on Full Tilt Poker where the rake amounted to $1.50, each player who received cards would get 1.50 Full Tilt points, which are later used to calculate rakeback.

On the other hand, the contributed method rewards players based on their participation in the pot. A player is awarded rakeback based on his share in the pot and the pot size. For instance, a player who put $15 in a $40 pot would receive triple the rakeback of a person who put $5 in the said pot. Examples of poker rooms using the contributed rakeback method are Boss Media and Cereus networks.

Tournament rakeback

Rake in poker tournaments (either scheduled or sit and go) is manifested as a one-time fee paid upon entering the tournament and no additional rake is deducted during the actual play. Thus, each player's rake contribution is equal and does not depend on his tournament play and pot contributions, eliminated the need for special calculation methods present in cash game play. However, not all poker rooms providing rakeback choose to reward tournament play, although this has since late 2000s become the industry standard.