The purpose of casinos is to rake in profit while keeping gamers entertained. It’s a win-win situation that has proven its worth over many years. In poker, the casino profit motive relies on what is known as rake. In both live and online poker, players must be aware of the rake in order to calculate their potential profits correctly. Fortunately, there’s no great mystery about how rake works in poker. Take a closer look.
What Is a Rake In Poker?
The game of poker differs from casino table games such as blackjack, roulette and baccarat, in that poker players don’t bet against the house. Instead, they bet against each other, effectively pooling their cash resources to grow pots, which they then try to take from each other in a battle of wits, strategy and skill. At the end of a poker game, the pot goes to the player with the best hand, not the house. This begs the question: How do casinos make money on poker games? The phenomenon of “rake” is the answer to this question.
A rake, first of all, has nothing to do with gardening. Rake exists as a means for casinos to generate revenue from hosting cash poker games. Essentially, the casino takes a portion of the total winnings in order to offset the costs of facilitating play. The dealer simply takes a percentage of the chips out of the pot and sets them aside before awarding the remainder to the winner. In a land-based casino, this money helps to pay for staff, overheads and equipment. Online poker sites use the proceeds of rake to cover operating costs, such as web hosting, support and software. The amount of rake charged varies from one establishment to another.
How Casinos Calculate and Take Poker Rake
Casinos have multiple ways of calculating and taking the rake. In the majority of cases, it’s expressed as a percentage of the pot, usually between 2.5–10% of the pot. Often the rake is capped, especially in high-stakes games, where it could have a negative impact on the gaming experience. Ask a dealer on the floor what the rake is and they will typically reply, “The rake is X percent capped at X percent.” If you’re playing online poker, the rake structure will be available on the site. Be sure to study it carefully when you’re working out how many poker tables you should play.
When it comes to collecting poker rake, there are various ways this happens. In live cash games, the dealer removes chips from the pot and puts them aside, placing them in a secure box when the hand is done. If you’re playing online, the poker software collects the rake automatically, either incrementally between betting rounds or from the final amount, depending on the site. Less common methods include dead drops, when the player in dealer position puts the rake on the button for the dealer to collect before dealing out the cards, and time collection, where a set amount is collected at fixed time intervals (e.g., every half-hour.)
Many casinos apply a “no flop, no drop” rule to community card games such as Texas Hold’em and Omaha. If the hand ends before reaching the flop, the casino doesn’t take a rake.
Rake doesn’t apply to poker tournaments because the casino’s costs are covered by the buy-in.
Can Private Hosts Take Rake?
Perhaps you’re wondering whether you can also make money from this practice. The short answer is no. Legally, gaming establishments can only take a rake if they have the necessary permits and gaming licenses. Most states allow players to run cash games and even poker tournaments in their private homes, but it’s generally not allowed for the game host to make a profit by charging tournament fees or taking a rake.
It has to be said, too, that the atmosphere of a home game would change if the host was known to be profiting from their guests. That said, members of private poker clubs can agree to pay membership fees to split the operating costs of running a table.
You can beat the rake, but unfortunately, it is not something you can avoid. You want to find the games with the lowest rake and cap to have the highest win rate possible.
How To Beat the Rake
Much like folding at the right time, poker rake is a necessary evil. It reduces potential profits, but there’d be no games without it. While the rake is impossible to avoid, there are ways you can reduce its impact on your winnings. One is to avoid small pots. The aim is to get into pots that exceed the rake cap. Say you’re playing in a room with a 10% rake capped at $6. Pots up to $60 will be raked the full amount, but the rake percentage will diminish progressively in any pot over $60 and above.
A second, related rake-beating tip is to avoid short-stacked games that typically produce small pots.
A third tip is to take advantage of the “no flop, no drop” policy and steal the blinds. If you succeed, all the profit will go to you and not the house.
A fourth tip is to play where the rake is lowest. In a casino, you can ask the dealers what the lowest-raked games are. Online, you can compare the rake structures of the different poker sites.
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