Definition
Rake
Also known as Raked Pot, Tournament Fee, House Cut
By Abhinav VasudevanReviewed Editorial policy
In short
Rake is the commission a poker room takes from each pot or tournament entry. It is the house's entire income from poker, and it is the reason most players lose even in a game of skill.
The poker room does not play. It provides the table, the dealer and the software, and charges for it.
How it is taken
Cash games: a percentage of each pot, typically 2.5% to 10%, up to a cap. A common structure is 5% capped at £3. No flop, no rake: pots where everyone folds pre-flop are usually not raked.
Tournaments: a separate entry fee, quoted as buy-in + fee. A “£50 + £5” tournament means £50 goes to the prize pool and £5 to the house, a 10% charge.
Why it is the central problem in poker
Poker is zero-sum between players. Rake makes it negative-sum overall.
A table of ten equally skilled players all lose money at exactly the rate of the rake. To break even you must be better than average by more than the rake costs; to profit you must be better than that.
The arithmetic is brutal at small stakes. A £0.10/£0.25 online game might rake 5% capped at £1. Across 1,000 hands with average pots of £8, that is roughly £40 of rake extracted from the table, frequently more than the total amount the winning players take from the losing ones.
This is why beating micro-stakes online poker is genuinely difficult despite the weak opposition, and why rake structure matters more to a player’s results than almost any strategic consideration.
Rakeback
Poker rooms return a portion of rake through loyalty schemes, typically 20% to 60% for high-volume players.
For a professional grinder, rakeback is frequently the difference between a losing and winning year. It is also why volume players are courted aggressively. A player generating large rake is profitable to the room even when they are beating the other players.
Live versus online
Live rake is usually a higher percentage but taken from far fewer hands, roughly 30 hands an hour live against 60 to 100 per table online, with online players commonly running several tables.
Total rake paid per hour is therefore often higher online despite the lower percentage, which is worth knowing when comparing the two.
What to check
- The cap. A 5% rake capped at £1 is very different from 5% capped at £5
- No flop no drop. Whether unraked pots exist
- Tournament fee percentage: 10% is standard, some are much worse
- Rakeback or loyalty return: this is real money and varies enormously between rooms
Common questions
How much rake do poker rooms take?
Typically 2.5% to 10% of each pot up to a cap in cash games, and around 10% as a separate entry fee in tournaments. Pots where everyone folds pre-flop are usually not raked.
Why is small-stakes poker so hard to beat?
Because rake is proportionally enormous there. A micro-stakes table can pay more in rake across a session than the winning players take from the losing ones, so you must beat the field by more than the rake costs.