Rakeback Strategy

Contributed Rakeback is one of the most common online poker Rakeback deals, but unless you are the right kind of player to apply a proper Contributed Rakeback Strategy, you may be better off choosing a different online poker rakeback offer.

In this article, we will describe the fundamentals of a contributed Rakeback Strategy, and who stands to earn the most profits from this type of Rakeback deal. We'll also compare Contributed Rakeback to Shared Rakeback through an example hand to show how one can be more profitable than another, if you fit player type requirements for a good Contributed Rakeback Strategy.

Contributed Rakeback Strategy - Who Benefits From Contributed Rakeback

Simply put, an aggressive online poker player has the best potential to earn profits from Contributed Rakeback. Any poker player can profit, but aggressive players stand to gain the most. A Loose poker player will earn even more from a Contributed Rakeback Strategy than a Tight poker player, but as long as they play aggressively, both may find this online poker Rakeback deal quite advantageous.

Contributed Rakeback pays players according to how much they contribute to a pot. An aggressive poker player frequently contributes more chips to a pot than the conservative nature of a passive poker player. As long as you are contributing more than the median amount (the average of all participating players), a Contributed Rakeback Strategy is for you.

The reason loose poker players benefit more is because they participate in more hands than tight poker players. Contributed Rakeback is only paid to players who participate in the hand, contributing chips into the pot. A tight poker player folds more often, therefore won't earn Rakeback as consistently as a loose poker player.

Contributed Rakeback Strategy - Contributed vs. Shared Rakeback

Now we will compare a Contributed Rakeback deal to a Shared Rakeback deal, using an example hand to explain how an aggressive poker player will earn more from a Contributed Rakeback strategy.

In this example, we'll say you're playing $2/$4 NL Texas Hold'em with 6 players. The hand begins with Small Blind and Big Blind bets of $2 and $4 respectively. You call the $4 BB, as does one other player. Two other players fold, the SB calls $4 and the BB checks.

Four players have put $4 into the pot, totaling a $16 pot.

After the Flop, you wager $12, called by the other player. Both Blind bettors choose to Fold. The pot is now $40.

In the next betting round, you wager $10, called by your opponent. The pot is now $60. Another round of betting comes and you wager $20. Your opponent folds and you win. The rakes pot stops at 60 because most online poker rooms do not recalculate the pot until all players have acted. The fold results in a stop of the pot calculation, so the raked pot ends at $60.

Since Contributed Rakeback is paid according to what percentage of the pot you contributed, we need to find out what percentage of the pot came from your chip stack. You wagered a total of $26 in a $60 pot, which comes to about 43% of the pot.

Next, we calculate the rake. The industry standard is 5% of the pot, capped at $3. 5% of $60 is $3, so the rake is $3.

Next, we need to find 43% of the $3 rake.

$3 x 0.43 = $1.29

Your Contributed Rakeback will be based on this amount, $1.29. The average Rakeback is 30%, so we need to find 30% of $1.29 to find your Contributed Rakeback earnings for this hand.

$1.29 x 0.3 = $0.387 (rounded up to $0.39)

We now know as a Contributed Rakeback earner, you would receive $0.39 for this hand.

What would have happened if you were applying a Shared Rakeback deal? Shared Rakeback does not go by the amount you contribute; instead dividing the entire rake evenly by the number of players who participated in the hand (contributed any chips).

There were 4 players participating in the hand (the other two folded), so we would divide the $3 rake by 4 players.

$3 / 4 = $0.75

Next, we calculate your Shared Rakeback payout, based again on the average 30% Rakeback deal.

$0.75 x 0.3 = $0.225 (rounded up to $0.23)

By this example, you would have earned $0.23 in Shared Rakeback. That's a $0.16 difference from the Contributed Rakeback payout. While $0.16 may not seem like much, that is paid for a single hand. Over the course of a few hours, you may participate in hundreds of hand.

Obviously, as an aggressive poker player, you would stand to earn a much higher profit over time from this Contributed Rakeback Strategy.

Other forms of Rakeback:

Shared Rakeback

Dealt Rakeback