rake

Rake is the fixed percentage the card room takes from each pot, the room's main revenue stream. Rake comes out of the winner's chips and is a structural cost for every player.

Detailed Explanation

Rake is typically charged as a percentage of the pot with a cap:

• Typical cash games: 5% rake, capped at 3-5bb
• Tournaments: included in the buy-in as a fee (e.g. $50 + $5 = $55, where $5 is rake)

Rake's impact on long-run win rate:

True long-run win rate = pre-rake win rate - rake impact

Example: at 100NL, average rake per hand is $0.70. At 30 hands/hour that's $21/hour in pure rake costs. If your "no-rake win rate" is +5 bb/100, after rake it may drop to +2 or +3 bb/100.

Rake hits low-stakes players especially hard:

• Low stakes (below NL10): rake is a large share of the pot, which can turn +EV players into break-even
• Mid stakes (NL50-NL200): rake impact is moderate, skill gaps start to dominate
• High stakes (NL500+): rake share drops, skill determines win rate

Rake-aware choices:

1. Stake selection: pick stakes with a reasonable rake/buy-in ratio
2. Strategy adjustment: in high-rake environments, marginal +EV decisions can flip to -EV
3. Table selection: at the same stake, different sites have very different rake structures

Rake compounds with variance:

• Rake turns break-even players into -EV
• Variance makes marginal +EV players look -EV in the short term
• Together they determine how many hands you need to confirm you're a +EV player

Common Use Cases

• Stake selection: rake is heavy at low stakes — starting from NL25-50 is usually more reasonable
• Evaluating true win rate: tracking software's bb/100 is usually post-rake, but confirm how it's calculated
• Understanding the break-even threshold: your skill must exceed rake before you're a +EV player
• Marginal decisions: factor in rake when looking at edge-case net EV