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One of the biggest advantages of playing online poker compared to B&M; (Brick and Mortar) is that the rake is much less. Online poker rooms have far less overhead with almost unlimited table space, so they can afford to charge less rake.
But even online, there are different house rakes from site to site. Here, I’ve put together a comparison of the rake charged by different sites. Use this information to find a site that provides you the smallest price to pay in rake.
“In the poker game of life, women are the rake. They are the fuckin' rake.” - Lester 'Worm' Murphy, Rounders
The above charts show the rake structure for the major poker sites for three different limits. As you can see, even though most sites have the same maximum rake, the interval in which they collect it can have an impact on how much total rake they actually take in. As a player, you want the house to wait longer before taking the next level of rake. That way, the smaller pots don't get raked as much. Over time, this adds up.
Below is a quantitative measurement I came up with to compare the sites. Each site's number is a ratio of it's rake compared to the worst site in that category (calculated by summing the area under the curve in the above charts). The smaller the number, the better their rake structure is.
- Of course, the casino rake is the highest, with a cap at $5. It could actually be worse than this if you consider tipping the dealer, tipping the waitress, and money taken out for bad beat jackpots.
- Pacific has the worst overall rake of the online sites. They're the only site that has a $4 max.
- Poker Room has a great rake structure for $.50/1.00 but not for $3/6.
- Percentage-wise, you actually pay less rake at the higher limits, because the rake is usually capped to the same amount as the lower limits.
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