Different Methods of Rake Distribution

There are four different formulas that are used to determine how to credit rake to a player. These four rake methods are dealt, contributed, winner takes all, and a formula that rewards losing players with more rake. Each poker room takes several items into consideration when determining what method to use. Some poker rooms have gone to great lengths to create their own proprietary methods that are so secretive, only company insiders know the exact details. The rake formula is important for all poker rooms, even if they are not rakeback friendly. That is because most poker points tied to VIP programs are directly correlated with the amount of rake taken from a pot.

Dealt – The dealt method was at one time the most popular rake method for online poker rooms. That has changed now as most poker rooms that once used the dealt formula have moved to the contributed method. The dealt rake formula is easy. Each player receives an even amount of the rake credit as long as they are dealt it, regardless of how much they contributed to the pot. If there are 10 players dealt in, each player will receive 10% of the rake credit. Dealt poker rooms include the Cake Poker Network and Everest Poker.

Winner Takes All – Winner takes all is a new method, and arguably the fairest. The winner of the pot gets credit for the entire rake taken from the pot. No other players receive any rake credit. High Pulse Poker is the only poker room that uses this method.

Recreational Player Model – Both Bodog and the Ongame Network use a secret formula that gives more rake credit to losing players than winning players. In the poker room’s opinion, this gives losing players a longer life per deposit, and motivates affiliates to refer less skilled players to their poker rooms as they will receive more commission. Critics state that this method is unfair as it is not transparent, and makes the poker rooms more money because weaker players will be lower in the VIP programs, saving the poker room money that would have gone to higher tiered players that receive a bigger percentage of their rake back.

Contributed – All other poker rooms use the contributed method. The contributed method, formerly referred to as the weighted contributed method, directly ties the amount a player contributed to the pot to the amount of rake that they are credit. If three players contribute nothing to the pot, and three players each contribute $10 to a pot where the rake is $1.50, the three players that folded will get nothing, while the three players that contributed an equal amount to the pot will receive $.50 in rake credit. The amount of rake is directly tied to the amount of the pot that a player put in it. If they put 25% of the money that is in a pot, they would receive credit for 25% of the rake. This method is unpopular for high volume players as they feel that too much rake credit is given to players that play more pots, and would likely be lower in the VIP programs or not receive rakeback. Those players feel this gives more money to the poker rooms, and less money to the poker economy.