Rake Me A Cake

by thetank
Submitted by: snoopy on Sat, 27/05/2006 - 10:33pm
 
Rake is a right bugger, or so everyone keeps telling me. Rake is the money taken from every pot by the house in a cash game, or the registration fee in a tournament. To be successful at poker you need to beat the game and beat the rake.

It was pointed out to me that during my quest to earn Supernova VIP status on Pokerstars, (that four thousand single table tournaments shindig) I paid $20k in rake. More than the $17k (ish) profit I eventually made.

So should I be aggrieved. After all, $37k is better than umm, less than $37k. It would be easy, and somewhat natural, to harbour a quiet discontent for the site that is taking so much of the money. After all, they’re filing profits in the squillions. Maybe I should spend my evenings moaning about how the rake is shafting me. To every man, woman and child who can’t get run away from me fast enough.

Seems a bit whiny. After all, do the cigarette companies moan when the government rakes 80% of the sale price on twenty Marlboro Light. Or do they just sit back and count the profits?

For every $55 tournament I enter, I pay $5 in rake. $1.5 of which I get back by way of frequent player point value. Special free rolls and Promotions are worth another $1, so really, it’s just $2.5 per tournament I’m paying.

Where does the profit come from when I play? It would be nice to think that it’s because I’m the best poker player in the world. I can’t delude myself into thinking this, as much as I‘d love to. Had I played against top notch opposition, with no rake, I wouldn’t have made anything close to $37k. Maybe I wouldn’t have even been in profit at all.

To pay the bills, in the long run, you need fishiness in the game. People who will fold when they shouldn’t, people who will call when they shouldn’t. People who neglect to raise when they should and people who are basically just a few fries short of the Happy Meal. To get these circus animals in my game, I need to let them know it is there. The site does that for me, by spending millions upon millions in advertising.

So my $2.5 per tournament helps me make money. They round up the mutters, I just turn up and play.

It’s cheaper for companies to base their call centres somewhere in the Indian sub-continent. Sadly, this brings about communication difficulties, especially as I’m a hard man to understand myself. The site that I play on, has its customer services department in countries where my language (English, don’t you start!) is the national language.

It costs more for them, but it makes things easier for me. When it comes to me having a problem or question, it’s nice to be able to explain your situation on the first attempt. This is another reason why I’m not too bothered about paying the $2.5, I feel I’m being looked after.

There are areas where the rake will kill you. Playing cash games heads up or three handed and low limit live cash games being amongst them. When it comes to paying online rake for single table tournaments though, I don’t mind so much. I’ll keep that attitude for as long as I’m able to beat the game. I’ll play another 4,000 and when the site takes $20k, so long as I get my $17k (and $6k in bonuses), I’ll be a happy camper.
 
Thomas 'thetank' Stott