Best Rakeback Programs

Updated In May, 2012 - About 75% of online poker rooms offer rakeback in 2011. Some online poker players will not signup at a poker room unless they receive rakeback. This "I have to have rakeback" attitude is a clear indication that they have a lot to learn about online poker. While rakeback is an excellent marketing vehicle, it isn't much of a incentive to play at a particular online poker room in my opinion. I'm getting a little ahead of myself though. What is rakeback? You are probably aware that poker rooms make their money by taking a tiny percentage out of each pot. This amount varies from room to room but usually caps at 3%. If you are playing at the small stakes tables the most the room will take out is a few cents. At the high stakes tables the rake caps at $3. All in all, the poker rooms only take a tiny fraction out of each pot and they do so in a fair manner.

Many poker rooms try to entice players to leave their current poker room by giving them a higher percentage of their rake back, even rooms on the same poker network. Another problem is that affiliates make special "under the table" deals with players to get them to signup under their tracker by offering them rakeback at non-rakeback rooms, or breaking the poker room's rakeback policy by offering them a percent or two over the maximum allowed. This has created an atmosphere riddled with scandals, closed accounts and generally shady practices.

What is so great about rakeback to begin with? Why doesn't the poker rooms just take out less rake to begin with? The answer is simple. If the poker rooms took less rake out, the players wouldn't "feel" like they were getting some kind of special bonus or something. I know, it sound pretty stupid but that's how marketing works. If a poker room only started taking 2% out of each pot to solve the silly problems rakeback creates, the players with the "I have to have rakeback" mind set would likely just go to another room to get their precious rakeback.

The novices will claim that rakeback is much better than any VIP program offered by a non-rakeback room. Since most have never bothered to play at the rooms that do not offer rakeback, how would they know? Let's take a look at the internet's leading poker room; Pokerstars. More players play at Pokerstars than every other poker room combined, if you exclude Full Tilt. This encompasses thousands of skins and rooms that never got off the ground. So, there are literally hundreds of thousands of players out there who are playing at small time, garbage poker rooms simply because they are getting rakeback.

That's like driving a 1971 Ford Pinto instead of a 2011 Lexus IS because Ford is giving you 10 cents for every gallon of gas you put in the Pinto. Let's not even look at the fact that these "rakeback rooms" cannot even come close to providing the high quality software, promotions, game variety, traffic, bonuses and tournaments that Pokerstars offers. We still have to compare the best rakeback programs with the best VIP programs. I also have a list of the best basketball bookmakers here.

The best VIP / Loyalty program these days can be found at Poker Stars. They offer a 6 tier system that comes loaded with more rewards that I am willing to outline here. I've done some math using the VIP calculator at Pokerstars and the leading rakeback calculator. Here are the results for someone who plays $5/10 NL Hold'em for 20 hours/week:

• 30% rakeback at Poker Heaven - $552 monthly rakeback
• Pokerstars VIP Program - 11,004 FPP's (worth 7¢ each) + $83 In Stellar Rewards - $853.28

So there you have it. The guy playing at a crappy "skin" like Poker Heaven is earning $552/month with rakeback. If he was playing at Pokerstars, he would be earning $853.28 a month through their VIP program. Let's add in the fact that Poker Heaven is lucky to have 2% of the real money traffic found at Pokerstars. Let's add in the fact that Pokerstars has more tournaments in a single day than Poker heaven has in 3 months. Let's add in the fact that Pokerstars has around the clock action at at least 12 (out of 17) different poker games while Poker Heaven is lucky to have an active non-Hold'em real money table going.

Let's add in the fact that you can find low stakes to high stakes action any time of the day at Pokerstars while Poker Heaven is lucky to have more than a couple non-small stakes tables to choose from. If Pokerstars crapped out their oldest, buggiest software and allowed .000001% of their player base to play there, it would still be better than Poker Heaven and their rakeback.

If after all that you still won't play without rakeback then please leave this web site. If I have cleared up some common myths about rakeback that are spewed by morons at places like 2+2 then please stay and learn about my special bonus offer at Pokerstars. Instead of giving you a single deposit bonus which will likely force you to forfeit much of it Pokerstars is giving you THREE chances to get the most out of their 100% match up to $600 bonus. They will match your 1st, 2nd and 3rd deposits at 100%. These three bonuses will combine for a maximum of $600. Here are some of the perks of playing at Pokerstars that I may not have mentioned above:

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