OK, lets start at the beginning.
If you play in a MTT or SNG you will notice that the site adds on a fee to the buy in. Usually in the region of about 10%. So the buy in is $10+$1. The $1 they add on is called their RAKE.
Likewise when you play in a hand in a ring game, the site take a % of the total pot as long as its gone past the first round of betting. Again this is called RAKE.
Rakeback deals are when the sites give you a certain % of that money back, so heres an example.
You are on a 30% rakeback deal at FULL TILT.
You play 10 games of $10+$1 meaning that you've paid $10 in fees to the site.
You get 30% of those fees back which works out at roughly $3.33.
There are things that they deduct, for example if its an MTT and theres an overlay they will reduce your rake because there werent enough people playing to cover the prize money or the rake. Or they deduct any expenses you incur when depositing.
Things like promotional free money is also deducted.
Thats how Rakeback works in principle.
To work out what kind of deal would suit you, you need to consider a few points, which are really important.
Firstly, what kind of stakes are you going to be playing at. Naturally if you play 10 cent SNGs with a 1 cent rake, then its going to take forever and a day to build up any kind of decent rakeback. However, if you are a player who can multitable ring games,and can handle 10 1/2 cent ring games at once, then you are going to build up a small amount of money pretty quickly.
Secondly, there are two types or Rakeback deals, and sites differ on what they offer.
The first is where all the rake that is generated in the hand is divided equally amongst everyone who was dealt into the hand. You could fold the hand and still earn a % of the rakeback because everything is divided equally irrespective of what they bet and how much they put into the pot.
The second is where the amount of rake is divided up between those players that actually contributed to the hand. If you folded pre flop you wouldnt earn anything for that hand.
The first option generates much smaller amounts of revenue for you, but its constant and as long as you were dealt into the hand you get something from it. The second option means theres fewer hands where you get rakeback, but in those that you do earn something, what you earn is much higher.
Which option to take depends solely on the type of player you are. If youa are loose and aggressive and bet into alot of pots, then the second option would clearly be better for you as you would be putting more money into the pots, so would generate more rake.
If however you are a very tight player and you tend to fold anything but premium hands, then the first option would suit you as you would still earn rakeback on hands that you folded pre flop.
Sites are tending to move away from the first option, as they found players were multi-tabling lots of tables, but buying in with the minimum, folding all their hands, and still getting paid. This not only lost the poker sites money, but it upset the players who were putting money into the pot, only to see people who had folded get the same amount of money as what they were getting.
Full Tilt has recently moved to the contributed rake system, meaning that now players have to put money into the pot before they earn anything. IPoker sites have done similarly. However there are a few sites out there that do the shared rake system although they are getting harder to find.
If you need any help finding a site that offers rakeback, then please feel free to PM me and we can discuss what would be your best options, however I would say to you, and everyone else, that unless you are playing consistently on a site for real money then rakeback isnt really something you should consider. You simply wont earn anything. Likewise, if you play just MTTs then rakeback isnt perhaps suitable because you would consistently need to be playing MTTs at a fairly high level to generate anything like the amount of revenue you would get at ring games.
If however you are a depositing player prepared to grind away at tables then you should be looking at rakeback deals. The revenue you can generate just by playing lots of ring games can run into thousands in a year.
Subject: What is the best rakeback site? 
Wed Dec 15, 2010 6:06 pm
