Rake is the scaled commission fee taken by a
cardroomA cardroom or card room is a gaming establishment that exclusively offers card games for play by the public. The term poker room is generally synonymous, since the gambling games played in such establishments are typically, and sometimes exclusively, variations of poker such as Texas hold 'em.Such...
operating a
pokerPoker is a sport from the family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bets and how many rounds of betting are allowed...
game. It is generally 5 to 10 percent of the
potThe pot in poker refers to the sum of money that players wager during a single hand or game, according to the betting rules of the variant being played. It is likely that the word "pot" is related to or derived from the word "jackpot"....
in each poker hand, up to a predetermined maximum amount, but not only can this percentage be anything, there are other non-percentage ways for a casino to take the rake. Some cardrooms will not take a percentage rake in any
community card pokerCommunity card poker refers to any game of poker that uses community cards , which are cards dealt face up in the center of the table and shared by all players. In these games, each player is dealt privately an incomplete hand , which are then combined with the community cards to make a complete...
game like
Texas hold 'emTexas hold 'em is the most popular poker game in the casinos and poker card rooms across North America and Europe, and online...
when a hand does not have a
flopIn poker, the flop refers to the dealing of the first three face-up cards to the board, or to those three cards themselves, in community card poker variants, particularly Texas hold 'em and Omaha hold 'em....
.
Rake is the scaled commission fee taken by a
cardroomA cardroom or card room is a gaming establishment that exclusively offers card games for play by the public. The term poker room is generally synonymous, since the gambling games played in such establishments are typically, and sometimes exclusively, variations of poker such as Texas hold 'em.Such...
operating a
pokerPoker is a sport from the family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bets and how many rounds of betting are allowed...
game. It is generally 5 to 10 percent of the
potThe pot in poker refers to the sum of money that players wager during a single hand or game, according to the betting rules of the variant being played. It is likely that the word "pot" is related to or derived from the word "jackpot"....
in each poker hand, up to a predetermined maximum amount, but not only can this percentage be anything, there are other non-percentage ways for a casino to take the rake. Some cardrooms will not take a percentage rake in any
community card pokerCommunity card poker refers to any game of poker that uses community cards , which are cards dealt face up in the center of the table and shared by all players. In these games, each player is dealt privately an incomplete hand , which are then combined with the community cards to make a complete...
game like
Texas hold 'emTexas hold 'em is the most popular poker game in the casinos and poker card rooms across North America and Europe, and online...
when a hand does not have a
flopIn poker, the flop refers to the dealing of the first three face-up cards to the board, or to those three cards themselves, in community card poker variants, particularly Texas hold 'em and Omaha hold 'em....
. This is called "no flop, no drop".
Poker is a player-versus-player game, and the house does not wager against its players (unlike
blackjackBlackjack, also known as Twenty-one, Vingt-et-un , or Pontoon, is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. The basic rules of the game involve adding the value of an initial two card hand in hopes of being dealt a value of twenty-one...
or
rouletteRoulette is a casino and gambling game named after a French diminutive for "little wheel". In the game, players may choose to place bets on either a number, a range of numbers, the colors red or black, or whether the number is odd or even....
), so this fee is the principal mechanism to generate revenues.
It is primarily levied by an establishment which supplies the necessary services for the game to take place. In
online pokerOnline poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a dramatic increase in the number of poker players worldwide...
it covers the various costs of operation such as support, software and personnel. In traditional brick and mortar casinos it is also used to cover the costs involved with providing a
dealerA poker dealer distributes cards to players and manages the action at a poker table.-Professional dealers:Any casino with a poker room must hire a staff of dealers. Casinos generally pay dealers minimum wage. However, a dealer's primary source of income is not salary, but tips from players...
(though in many places tips provide the bulk of a dealer's income) for the game, support staff (from servers to supervisors), use of gaming equipment, and the physical building in which the game takes place.
To win when playing in poker games where the house takes a cut, a player must not only beat opponents, but also the financial drain of the rake.
Pot rake
A percentage rake is taken directly from the pot. In a live casino, the dealer manually removes chips from the pot while the hand is being played and sets them aside to be dropped into a secure box after completion of the hand. When playing online, the rake is taken automatically by the game software. Some software shows the rake amount next to a graphical representation of the dealer and takes it incrementally between the rounds of betting, whereas other software programs wait until the entire hand is over and then takes it from the pot total before giving the rest to the winner of the hand.
Dead drop
The fee is placed on the dealer button each hand by the player in that position, and taken in by the dealer before any cards are dealt.
Time collection
Time collection (also "timed rake" or "table charge") is a set fee collected (typically) every half hour during the game. This form of rake is collected in one of two ways:
- Player time: A set amount is collected from each player.
- Time pot: A set amount is collected from the first pot over a certain amount.
Time rakes are generally reserved for higher limit games ($10-$20 and above).
Tournament fees
The above examples are used in
ring gameRing games, also called cash games or live action games, are poker games played with "real" chips and money at stake, usually with no predetermined end time, with players able to enter and leave as they see fit...
s, also known as cash games. The rake for participation in poker tournaments is collected as an entrance fee. This may be displayed by showing the tournament buy-in as $100+$20, with the $20 being the house fee or
"Vig"Vigorish, or simply the vig, also known as juice or the take, is the amount charged by a bookmaker, or bookie, for his services. In the United States it also means the interest on a shark's loan. The term is Yiddish slang originating from the Russian word for winnings, vyigrysh...
.
Subscription fees
Some online cardrooms charge a monthly subscription fee, and then do not rake individual pots or tournaments.
Rake free
Some
online pokerOnline poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a dramatic increase in the number of poker players worldwide...
websites have done away with the rake altogether. These "rake free" poker rooms generate revenue by increasing traffic to the company's other profitable businesses, such as
sports bettingSports betting is the general activity of predicting sports results by making a wager on the outcome of a sporting event. Perhaps more so than other forms of gambling, the legality and general acceptance of sports betting varies from nation to nation...
.
Legality
In most known legal jurisdictions, taking a rake from a poker table is explicitly illegal if the party taking the rake does not have the proper gaming licences and/or permits. The laws of many jurisdictions are written in such a manner that they do not prohibit the playing of poker for money at a private dwelling, so long as nobody is taking a rake.
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