Internet poker without knowing about rake or how to get poker Rakeback, but if you do, you are not maximizing your poker edge, and winning poker is all about maximizing edges. If you want to be a winning online poker player at the end of the year, you should understand rake-back basics.
The rake is the way casinos make money spreading poker games. Games like blackjack, craps, and roulette are automatic money winners for the house. The rules of the game are designed so that if you play long enough, the house will win a dollar out of every one hundred dollars you play (or two dollars, or fifty cents, it all depends on the house edge of the game in question). An individual player may go on a hot streak and win more than their share, but at the end of the day, it all balances out in favor of the house.
Poker offers no such edge to the house. In fact, the online poker site that spreads your game does not participate in the game at all. The way online poker sites make their money is by extracting a rake. The rake, a percentage of the pot that varies according to the online poker site where you choose to play, is taken from each pot that is dealt.
It may seem that only the winner of a pot is penalized, and since they are winning, it should bother them too much. However, if it is assumed that all players will win an equal amount of pots on average since you are contributing to raked pots even when you lose, you are really penalized as well. With a rake back, some of that money that you pay to play on the Internet poker site is returned to you. For the casual player, this is a nice bonus in your poker account. For the professional, this concept suddenly makes low-limit poker games beatable.
Getting rake back requires you either signing up with a poker site that features rake back or signing up with a poker site through an affiliate site that offers rake back. Be aware that certain online poker sites do not accept rake-back deals. Make sure you do a little comparison shopping, since different affiliates may offer a greater or lesser percentage of the rake that is returned to you. Also, be aware that the percentage of rake back you get may be contingent upon how often you play. Once you are signed up, you will see the amount of rake back you have earned re-deposited into your account on a weekly basis.