Entries by JoeKingston

If no one had an edge in Internet poker, the only one who would ever win would be the casino. This is because no matter who drags the pot in any Internet poker hand, the online casino always wins. They always win by taking a percentage, called the rake, out of each pot. While most of the players can do nothing as the casino reaches in and grabs a piece of their winnings (or adds to their losses), you can. If you know how, you can take the rake back.

Taking the Rake Back

How can you take the rake back? You can do this by taking advantage of a promotion offered by independent websites known as rakeback affiliates. These sites sign you up with a participating online poker site. As a reward for signing up through them, you automatically receive a percentage of your rake returned to you at regular intervals, usually once a month. The average rakeback a player receives is around 30 percent, but in some cases, players can receive even more. The more you play on that site, the more rake you get back.

Why Do Sites Give Rakeback?

Not all online poker sites are eligible for rakeback . There are many online poker sites out there, all interested in a piece of the Internet poker player pie. To drive new traffic to their site they are willing to give some money back. This is where rakeback comes in. These sites know that if you never play on their site, they will receive no money in rake. As a result, they are much happier to get a reduced amount of rake from you than no rake at all. Examples of popular poker sites allowing this are Cake Poker rakeback and Full Tilt Poker, both open to US players.

Taking Advantage of Rakeback

To get your rakeback, all you have to do is sign up for an Internet poker site by clicking the link on the rakeback site – Pacific rakeback, Paradise Poker rakeback or any other site. If you sign up any other way, you will not be able to receive rakeback. If you have already signed up with a site, because you were offered a sign-up bonus or a friend referred you to the site, for example, you may not sign up again and receive rakeback. Using a different account to sign up will not be permitted and you will be booted off the site and may be subject to other penalties if you are discovered.

Rakeback is a great and simple way to increase your win rate if you are a winning player or cut your losses if you are not. There are a number of different online poker sites that are linked to rakeback programs so find your favorite and get started taking your rake back today.

Many poker players are faced with a legitimate decision when choosing a new site: do they go for a rakeback program or a bonus program. If you're thinking the same thing, it's time to sit down and choose between the two.

First of all, how do you compare an online poker rakeback program to a bonus program. The answer lies in defining the two, and hopefully that will answer whether to choose a carbon poker bonus or carbon poker rakeback for instance.

Bonus Offers

Many sites offer new players a bonus for joining. The bonus is usually a percentage of the initial deposit. This bonus percentage could be anywhere from 25 to 400 percent. Bonuses are usually capped off at a certain figure. For example, a site may offer a 400 percent bonus up to $1000. That means if a player deposits $250, they will be entitled to a $1000 bonus. If they deposit $1000, they will not receive a $4000 bonus, but the same capped figure of $1000. Different sites offer different bonus schedules and it's very important to read the fine print when examining a site's bonus schedule.

Still, most sites that offer bonuses do not convert the bonus into cash immediately. The bonus is usually in the form of bonus money that is converted into real money based on the amount of hands you play. For example, for every 10 raked hand you play, you may get one bonus dollar converted into real money. In this scenario, you would have to play 1000 hands to get a $100 cash bonus, or a whopping 10,000 hands to receive the full $1000 bonus. Most bonus sites allow players to engage in low stakes games. If you play 50 hands of low-stakes poker per hour, you'd be surprised how fast the hands pile up. Again, each site has a different bonus schedule, and you need to study each site to understand what they offer.

Rakeback Programs

Rakeback programs are more direct. A rakeback is a rebate based on how much rake you've paid during a certain period. Different rakeback sites offer different percentages, but let's say a site offers 30 percent rakeback. If you pay $100 in rake per month, then you will be entitled to a $30 rake back. The amount of rake you contribute depends on the quantity of raked hands you play, in addition to the level of stakes. If you play high stakes raked poker with high average pots, chances are you contribute a lot of rake. For example, if you play 1000 hands per month, which is about 20 hours of pokerper month, and you average $3 rake per hand, then you contribute $3000 per month in rake, and would be entitled to $900 in rakeback.

Choosing a bonus or rakeback program truly depends on how much poker you play, and the stakes you engage in. In the long run, however, high rakeback is usually the best choice.