Now that Carbon Poker – and the entire Merge Network – has eliminated the flat 35% rakeback so many players came to know and love in favor of a tiered VIP program, many players are wondering which end of the stick they got in the deal.
Is it still worth it for players who put in serious volume to play at Carbon Poker? Is the VIP program a better or worse deal for them than Carbon Poker rakeback? It turns out to be a much better deal for a number of reasons.
The first has to do with deductions. Carbon has been hitting rakeback hard with any number of deductions, while players getting their cash back from the VIP system do not seem to be as impacted by deductions. Some rakeback players have reported as much as 30% reductions in their net rakeback as a result of the increased deductions Carbon is taking.
The next has to do with the effective rate. Remember, at the top tier Carbon’s VIP program plays a flat 35% cash back – the same as the old flat rakeback rate. However, you’re earning points at the 100% rate when you’re not getting rakeback, as opposed to the 65% rate for rakeback players. So, at the top tier, both a VIP player and a rakeback player get 35% back, but the VIP players earns far more points – and can trade those points for cash, boosting their effective rakeback rate over the rate of the player receiving flat rakeback.
Read this Carbon Poker review for a more comprehensive explanation of what cash value you can assign to points depending on your VIP tier.
What about the other end of the volume spectrum? Casual and low-volume players pay the price for the gains of those at the top. The lowest tier of the VIP program awards only 6% daily cash back – a reduction of over 80% from the flat rakeback rate of 35%. With the new VIP program, Carbon has made it clear which players they value – and it’s not the small fries at the low limits.
