Rakeback programs are an important new tool for success in the online poker world. If you’re an online poker player and you’re not signed up with a rakeback program yet, it’s time to get started. You’ll have to sign-up with a poker site that you haven’t signed up with before, but there are so many great sites out there that participate in online poker rakeback programs that you’re bound to find one you like.

If you haven’t had experience with rakeback programs before, you may wonder how they work and what is included. Basically, anytime you pay rake to the online poker room, you qualify for rakeback. How much rakeback you qualify for will depend on the rakeback site and poker room, but it is usually in the neighborhood of 30 percent of the rake you pay. How much online poker rake you pay is calculated in different ways. The two most common ways are dealt, or shared rake, which means that rake credit for each pot is distributed equally among players, so if there are ten players who were dealt hands, you would get credit for ten percent of that pot’s rake, and contributed rake. In contributed rake, whatever percentage of the pot you were responsible for, you get credit for that percentage of the rake.

What about online poker tournaments? If you are primarily a tournament player, or even just enjoy the occasional sit-and-go, you may be wondering: are they included in rakeback? In most cases, yes. You should verify that your particular rakeback deal includes tournaments before you sign-up, but in general, you receive a percentage of your entry fee (not the buy-in) in rakeback. Since chips cannot be removed from play in a tournament, the entry fee serves the function of the rake.

How about online poker bonuses? While you can take advantage of online poker bonuses at poker sites where you also have rakeback, those bonuses are not included in the rakeback. In other words, if you have a $50 poker bonus from, say, Absolute Poker or Ultimate Bet, you will usually have to generate over $50 in rake before you can start collecting rakeback again.
Rakeback programs are a great way to increase your win rate and build your bankroll. Now that you earn money for every single hand or tournament you play, whether you win or not. There’s no good reason for you to play at any site where you’re not getting rakeback.