Rake Back FAQ

The 'rake' is the amount the poker room removes from each pot, as a fee, for hosting/offering the poker game. The amount taken from each pot varies by limits, but is generally anywhere from $1-$3 on average per hand.

When you sign up with a poker room through RakebackPros, you will receive a refund for every $1.00 that you pay in rake. This refund is known as rakeback. No matter what limits you play, whether you are a professional or just play poker for fun, receiving rakeback will greatly increase your win-rate, and allow you to make more money.

So there you are, sitting in front of your computer, investing both precious time and money playing online poker. Let's face it maybe you're not that good. Or maybe you are the next poker god. Either way, it is good to know your time and money are going to a better place, and that you are being appreciated by your online poker room casino. For this reason, it is good to get something back, and this is possible only through a good rakeback deal. When you play online poker, you will inevitably get raked in most of your hands. If you have a good rakeback deal working for you, you will get a portion of that money back.

So how do you ensure you are getting a good deal? Rake back deals are like free advice - Everyone's got one. People knock at your door, send you millions of emails, barge right into your offices and offer you a online poker rakeback deal. There are a few ways you can ensure you get a good deal. You can either ask your online casino or alternatively a great and very safe method is to check with websites which only deal with rakeback like RakebackPros. Either way, make sure you are enrolled in rake back programs as this is the only way you earn when you lose, and make sure your cash is working extra hard for you.

MGR stands for Monthly Gross Revenue. This is the number your rakeback is based on. MGR is your share of the rake generated in pots you play minus any deductions the poker rooms take out. Deductions might include bonuses, deposit fees, store purchases or other in-house promotions. Some poker rooms deduct all of those items as fees while others do not deduct any. It is always best to make sure what is deducted from your MGR at the poker room of your choice to make sure you are maximizing your rakeback potential. This information is available on the poker site review pages here at RakebackPros.

Each poker room may have a different term for "Total Rake" or "Net Revenue", but it is essentially the total rake paid by you as calculated by the poker room. When RakebackPros pays your rakeback, it is always a percentage of your Net Revenue.

In the online poker world, there are at least four different ways that a site will calculate the rake that a player generates.

Dealt - The easiest method of calculating rake generated. It is calculated simply by dividing the rake taken from the table by the amount of players dealt cards in the hand. Example: $1 rake with 10 players dealt cards. Each player would receive $0.10 in MGR attributed to them.

Average Contributed - Contributed rake is calculated by taking the amount of rake taken from the table and dividing it between the players who made a contribution to the pot. A player who folded before the flop and did not contribute at all to the pot would not get credit for any rake. Example: $1 rake with 10 players dealt cards, 4 of which contribute to the pot (including both blinds). Each player would get credit for $0.25 in MGR.

Weighted Contributed - Weighted contributed is like contributed, but is different in the fact that it allocates MGR based on how much of the pot a player contributed to. Example: Three players contributed money to the pot. The pot is $20 with a $1 rake. Player 1 and player 2 each contributed $8 and player 3 contributed the remaining $4. Player 1 and 2 would each receive 40% of the rake in MGR ($0.40) and Player 3 would receive the remaining 20% ($0.20).

Ongame Essence - Essentially they use a weighted contributed method and then adjust the numbers based on a player's skill level. A player who is superior to his opponents will earn fewer points; a interior player would earn more. Based on reports we have received from players, the calculation is generally no more than +/- 25%. An exact formula has not been released by Ongame.

A rake race is a variation of promotions, in which players on a particular poker room compete for a usually predetermined prize pool. The competition is to generate the most amount of rake over a one month period. The rake race leader board for each individual poker room is viewable when you click on that particular poker room through either the promotions page or our monthly promotions sidebar. The leader board is updated either hourly or daily. During the rake race, you will advance in position if you generate more rake than the other players. The most important advantage of a rake race is that with the help of it, you can acquire an additional cash prize to top your rakebacks and winnings every month.

A rake chase is similar to a rake race, but in this case players compete to reach a target amount of MGR (or VIP points in some cases) of the tier system. If you are among the first to reach this MGR amount, you will receive a predetermined cash reward. You should continue playing and beat a set amount of players to the next level, as you will get progressively bigger rewards. Even if you miss out on the early prizes, you can still compete for all the prizes that have not yet been rewarded!

MGR – The Monthly Gross Revenue, or total amount of rake generated in the current month at a particular poker room.

Tiers – A rake chase usually have several tiers of rewards. The higher the tier, the bigger the rewards you can receive. You can be reward a prize at any higher tier even if the lower tier prizes are completed.

Available Spots – Each tier has a selected number of available spots. If you are among the first to reach a target amount of MGR, your name will appear on the leader board and you will receive at least the prize amount displayed.

Targets – Reaching a target MGR will lock you in for the prize amount indicated for that tier if there are still available spots when you reach that target. Players are encouraged to play early and often to secure their cash reward by reaching the target MGR faster.

Prizes – The prize amount indicates the total amount of money that will currently be awarded to you for that month’s promotion. Once you are awarded a prize, it cannot be taken away, but it can be upgraded to the prize amount of a higher tier.

A freeroll is a poker tournament with no entry fee, but still offer a prize pool, usually with thousands of dollars on the line for the players to grab. Our freeroll tournament is offered as a monthly recurring event. Free poker tournaments are an excellent way for beginners and seasoned players to improve their game and maximize profits in a completely risk-free environment.

A rakeback provider is a company that advertises for a poker room or a group of poker rooms. Rakeback providers are paid a percentage of Total Rake for each one of their players. RakebackPros then gives this payment from the poker room, in the form of rakeback, back to you, the poker player.

The first step is creating an account with RakebackPros. This carries absolutely no obligation and will allow you to view our members area as well. Once you have logged into your newly created account with RakebackPros, from the left hand side of any page, select the poker room(s) you are interested in receiving rakeback from and follow the sign up instructions. Within 5 minutes you can begin playing poker and earning rakeback!

Almost all of your rakeback stats are updated daily. If a site does not update daily there will be a note of this. There can sometimes be delays with the rakeback stats updating, but these delays are usually out of our control and are usually not more than a couple of days.

Yes! You will still be able to receive bonuses offered by the poker room and any other promotions offered by the poker room or RakebackPros if you receive rakeback from RakebackPros. Bonuses are often deducted from your Total Rake, but it is much better to receive both bonuses and rakeback than either by themselves.

Most poker rooms pay rakeback automatically to your poker room account. Some pay weekly, twice a month or monthly. For poker rooms that do not pay rakeback the payment is made here under our Payments section at 12:01am CT on the 10th of every month for the previous month's play.

Note: If your payment is made here you must have a rake back balance of $20 or more from the previous month in order to receive your rake back payment. If you are owed less than that, it will be carried over to the following month and will paid once your total has reached $20.

When you start playing at an online poker room they offer incentives to get players to make their first deposit. Most poker rooms require you to deposit a certain amount to receive the bonus. In almost all cases the bonus must be earned meaning you only receive it after playing a certain number of points or generating a certain amount of rake.

Occasionally, poker rooms will offer limited time reload bonuses. These are for existing players and often have the same requirements their first deposit bonus has. Reload bonuses are typically offered for special events to help promote tournaments such as the World Series of Poker while other times they are offered during typically slow times of the year such as holiday weekends. Some poker rooms offer monthly bonuses to their players.

Some poker rooms do allow conversions of existing account. Please contact us regarding this. We will then review your request and let you know if we can retag your existing account and offer you rakeback.

Cake Poker - We can get them moved if they did not use an affiliate. If they used an affiliate, Broadway Tables is next best. All Cake Poker skins follow this same policy, although depending on the situation it may be better for the player to move skins.

Carbon Poker - We can get players that did not use an affiliate (or a free bankroll) moved. If they used an affiliate then they can sign up for another Merge Gaming skin to receive rakeback.

Boss Media - All skins will retag.

NoiQ - We can move players not connected to an affiliate.

PKR - If a player has never deposited they can use our bonus code. There is a chance they will retag a player for rakeback if they did not use another affiliate.

We suggest looking over the entire RakebackPros site, particularly if you are new to rakeback or our site. We think it will not only answer your questions, but could possibly provide you with a deeper understanding of rakeback and the effect the rake has on poker. Our prompt customer service can answer almost all your questions as well. Click here to contact us!