Rakeback FAQs

If you’d like to learn the basics of rakeback, check out this short video. If you’d rather read or have additional questions, the most common queries are answered below. Remember, you can always contact us if your question isn’t addressed.

Q. What is rakeback?
Poker rooms make money by taking a small cut of every pot or charging a small fee as part of a tournament entry. That cut is called the rake. Rakeback is when rooms ‘comp’ players by refunding part of their rake or tournament fees.

Q. Why do rooms offer it?
Live poker rooms use comps like free meals or hotel rooms. Online poker rooms can’t offer those types of comps, so they use rakeback. If you think about it, a live poker room giving you a free meal is basically rakeback – you paid rake the whole time you played, and they given you a meal voucher worth what amounts to part of that rake in exchange.

Q. Can I get it directly from rooms?
Poker rooms generally don’t offer rakeback directly to players. Instead, they allow sites like ours to use rakeback as a way to help promote their rooms. Rooms also don’t want rakeback to be too public, or else they’d have to offer it to every player. Just like live rooms generally you require to sign up for a Rewards Card to get comps, poker rooms avoid offering this value to every player by only offering it through third party sites.

Q. I already have an account at a room but it doesn’t get rakeback. Can you guys get me rakeback at that room?
A. Policies vary from room to room. Use the form at the bottom of this article to submit your information and we’ll let you know what we can do. Many rooms do not allow you to switch accounts, so we can’t promise anything.

Q. Are tournament and Sit and Go fees included in rakeback?
A. Yes, those tournament fees are rake. So if a tournament costs $100+ a $9 entry fee and you have a 33% rakeback deal, you’ll get $3 of your tournament fee refunded. That can add up quickly, especially if you play SNGs or small tournaments.

Q. Does it matter which type of poker I play?
A. No. All games and limits receive rakeback.

Q. Can I still take advantage of signup and reload bonuses?
A. At many rooms, yes. Check the details of each individual offer as policies vary by room.

When a room ‘deducts’ your bonuses, here’s how it works: Let’s say you sign up at a room that has a $100 deposit bonus. Let’s say while earning the bonus you rake $500 that month. The online poker bonus is deducted from the total amount you raked before your rakeback is calculated.

Rake ($500) – Bonus ($100) = Total Rake ($400)

Let’s say you have a 25% rakeback deal. That means for that month, you’d earn $100 in rakeback ($400 * 25%) plus your $100 bonus. If you didn’t have any bonus to clear, you’d get $125 in rakeback for the month ($500 * 25%).

Q. Can I get rakeback at every room?
A. No. Some major rooms, such as PokerStars, don’t offer rakeback, and making a profit at this rooms is tougher as a result.

Q. How is rakeback paid?
A. Directly into your player account at the room.

Q. How often do I get paid?
A. Varies by room; generally weekly.

Q. How much is a Rake Back worth to me?
A.Varies by person, but even a casual player can save thousands a year in rakeback. Here are a couple of examples:

A 5/10 limit player who plays one table/4 hours every day or four tables/1 hour every day would receive about $840 a month, or $10,800 a year in Rake Back.

A tournament player who plays a dozen tournaments a week could get over a hundred dollars a month, or over a thousand a year, in rakeback.

To estimate your Rake Back, use our RakeBack calculator.

Q. How is my share of the rake calculated?
A. Rake is calculated one of two ways: contributed rake (which is sometimes called rake rebate) and rake share.

Rake Share is a simple equation: total rake taken in the hand divided by the number of players dealt into the hand. So, if 10 players are dealt cards and the total rake is $1, each player paid .10 in rake (1.00/10).

Contributed Rake figures out how much each player actually contributed. Example: 10 players are dealt into a hand. 8 people fold preflop. That leaves two players. Whatever rake is taken in the hand will be split between those two players, instead of all ten players in the Rake Share example.

These might seem like small amounts, but in online poker, hands are dealt quickly, and getting a couple of cents refunded to you per hand can really add up fast.

More questions? Contact us