Rake is the fee the cardroom or online site charges to host the game. It is how poker rooms make money, and it comes out of the players’ pockets, so it directly reduces every player’s win rate.
Types of rake
- Pot rake: a percentage of each pot, usually 5–10%, up to a maximum (the cap). Many live rooms take 10% up to $5 or $6, plus a $1–$2 bad-beat jackpot drop.
- No flop, no drop: most rooms take no rake if the hand ends before the flop.
- Time charge: at higher live stakes, each player pays a fee every half hour instead of pot rake.
- Tournament fee: in a $100 + $10 tournament, the $10 is the rake.
How much does rake cost?
At a typical $1/$2 live game taking $5 a pot plus a $1 jackpot drop, with about 30 hands an hour, the table pays roughly $120–$150 an hour. Split among nine players, that is more than $13 an hour each — about 6–7 big blinds per hour. Many players who are winners before rake are losers after it.
Rakeback
Online sites and some casinos return part of the rake through rakeback or loyalty rewards. For a high-volume player, rakeback can be the difference between a small loss and a profit.
How to reduce the cost of rake
- Play fewer small pots with marginal hands; rake hurts small pots most.
- Raise rather than limp, to win more pots before the flop.
- Move up when you can: rake as a share of the big blind usually falls at higher stakes.
Work out the rake in your game with the poker rake calculator, and track your results after rake in the free poker tracker. More terms in the poker glossary.