What's the rake in big blinds at each level?
Alex Rousso, 04/12/2012
The rake for online cash games is usually capped at a certain amount – for most sites it’s $3 (or Ђ3, etc.)*. This means that the higher you go up the stakes, the less rake you pay in relation to the big blind. In turn, this means the price of playing in terms of big blinds (BBs) goes up as you go down the levels. In other words, if players were equally (un)skilful at each level, you’d actually make more BB/100 hands at higher levels.
Some micro-stakes games benefit from a lower cap, for example the iPoker network caps its rake at $2 up to the $0.05/$0.10 level and Party Poker caps it at $1 for that level. However, on both sites the cap is $3 above the $0.1/$0.25 level. PokerStars has slightly more variation in their caps, but the same basic principle holds: the cap at $0.50/$1 on PokerStars is $2.80 and at $25/$50 it’s $3.00.
Using data from the rake analysis page at PokerTableRatings.com, we can actually approximate how much rake players pay in BBs per 100 hands at each level. In the table below, I’ve taken the average of the “big four” (i.e. Stars, Full Tilt, iPoker and Party) and worked out how much that rake is in terms of BBs for that level. There are a few caveats. First, as Full Tilt is included, you can imagine that this data isn’t completely up to date. In the last year or so, some sites have changed their rake method slightly, but this won’t affect the numbers hugely – especially given that I’ve taken an average. Second, just because the average is a certain figure, it doesn’t follow that this is the amount of rake you pay. Tighter players pay less, looser players pay more. Third, this doesn’t take into account rakeback – some sites may offer more or less on this count.
Alex Rousso, 04/12/2012
The rake for online cash games is usually capped at a certain amount – for most sites it’s $3 (or Ђ3, etc.)*. This means that the higher you go up the stakes, the less rake you pay in relation to the big blind. In turn, this means the price of playing in terms of big blinds (BBs) goes up as you go down the levels. In other words, if players were equally (un)skilful at each level, you’d actually make more BB/100 hands at higher levels.
Some micro-stakes games benefit from a lower cap, for example the iPoker network caps its rake at $2 up to the $0.05/$0.10 level and Party Poker caps it at $1 for that level. However, on both sites the cap is $3 above the $0.1/$0.25 level. PokerStars has slightly more variation in their caps, but the same basic principle holds: the cap at $0.50/$1 on PokerStars is $2.80 and at $25/$50 it’s $3.00.
Using data from the rake analysis page at PokerTableRatings.com, we can actually approximate how much rake players pay in BBs per 100 hands at each level. In the table below, I’ve taken the average of the “big four” (i.e. Stars, Full Tilt, iPoker and Party) and worked out how much that rake is in terms of BBs for that level. There are a few caveats. First, as Full Tilt is included, you can imagine that this data isn’t completely up to date. In the last year or so, some sites have changed their rake method slightly, but this won’t affect the numbers hugely – especially given that I’ve taken an average. Second, just because the average is a certain figure, it doesn’t follow that this is the amount of rake you pay. Tighter players pay less, looser players pay more. Third, this doesn’t take into account rakeback – some sites may offer more or less on this count.
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