Rake Back facts - are they worth the trouble?

Rake Back is a rebate given to poker players. The rake is the
small table fee charged to the players for each hand of poker.
Rakes add up over time if the player plays frequently and/or for
high stakes games.

Online poker rooms, in general, do not offer rake back. They
offer sign up bonuses instead. There are a lot of bonuses
offered out there but there is only one poker room that
sanctions rake back themselves.

So why the buzz on poker forums and elsewhere about rake back
offers? These offers for rake back are coming from affiliates
that work for the poker rooms. Party Poker, the world's largest
online poker room, does not allow their affiliates to offer rake
backs. They've started to enforce a long standing no rake back
policy that can lead to these affiliates being shut out of their
program. At the very least, Party Poker will make it impossible
for them to track, and hence pay, rake back to the players. So
if a player is thinking of a good offer that's been made to them
for rake back at Party Poker, they might want to think again.

If the affiliate is caught doing this they will be shut down and
the rake back payments will stop. The affiliate will still keep
getting paid commission on the already signed up players though.

There are other risks involving rake backs. They have limits on
them. It is really not worth the affiliate's time to offer them
to the casual poker player as they are seen as never
accumulating enough rake to be profitable, so they will go after
the frequent player instead. The limits involve the player
having to contribute so much rake per month before becoming
eligible for a certain percentage of it back. Another risk is
that the affiliate will get the player to sign up then stop
paying. Most affiliates get paid commission for the life time of
the player so if they conveniently decide they will no longer
pay the rake back the player has no recourse other than not
playing at their favorite poker room.

Is it possible in these deals to get rakeback plus the sign up
bonuses? The poker rooms that do allow certain affiliates to
offer these are not as likely to offer the rake back players the
generous re-load bonuses. If you don't believe this, when was
the last time that you saw even a sign up bonus link that was
associated with a rakeback offer? Well, most have never seen
one. In 99% of the deals they won't offer both. These rake back
affiliates are, in essence, replacing the sign up bonus with a
rake back deal instead. The just want to sign up players and it
does not matter how they get them.

Always read the fine print of the rakeback offer. Often you will
see them have funny rules such as; do not enter a code at sign
up. Is it possible they wish to avoid triggering a bonus code?

In reality, only the very high end, frequent player will truly
benefit from a rake back program in any significant way. Most
players will make much more back with the signup and reload
bonuses. And for those that use them, the rake back benefits
will not make up for the bonus losses right away. It will
happen, but takes time. The only real way a player can be
guaranteed of getting paid rake back and not having to worry
about their poker account being close is find a poker room that
sanctions rake back themselves, or stick with the bonuses.

What's that about accounts being closed? Yes, they can be. If an
affiliate offers a rake back deal and the player already has an
account at that particular poker room they will not receive it
without attempting to open a duplicate account, usually in
another name. If the player is caught all related accounts will
be closed. Players have to decide if it is worth the risk of
losing their account at a room they like playing in.

Can players actually lose money joining a rakeback program? Yes.
For the majority of players out there the loss of both sign up
and re-load bonuses will be greater than the amount of rake
refunded back to them. Even the smallest sign up bonus of $25
would take two and one half months equal in rake back for the
average player.

In conclusion, it is up to the player. In most cases rake back
is probably not worth the hassle. Even for the frequent player
there is less risk involved in getting the rake back from a
poker room that sanctions it itself, not an invidual affiliate.
Frequent players are also more likely to be eligible for VIP
programs at these same poker rooms. Included among the many
benefits are special bonuses and more accumulation in that
room's point system. The average player will come out ahead with
the bonuses.

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