Tournament Rakeback
Online poker rakeback is typically associated with cash games that are raked by an online poker room. There is one other rakeback deal, however, that has nothing to do with ring games or raked hands. It is known as “Tournament Rakeback”.
There are two key points that make tournament rakeback entirely different from any other rakeback program. First of all, as the name implies, this rakeback is paid only for playing in tournaments. Secondly, you can’t specifically sign up for tournament rakeback. It is a rakeback deal that comes in addition to a standard rakeback deal.
When you sign up for online poker rakeback, you are either getting a Contributed Rakeback deal, a Shared Rakeback deal, or a Dealt Rakeback deal. These all apply to your real-money poker play at cash game tables. Most online poker rooms, however, throw in tournament rakeback on top of the standard rakeback deal.
How Tournament Rakeback Works
Tournament Rakeback is paid to a player each time they pay to enter a tournament where there is a buy-in and a fee. This excludes all freerolls (free entry), points tournaments, ticket entry and tournaments where the player won a seat via satellite or some other method. If you are not paying to play in the tournament, you will not earn rakeback.
Your tournament rakeback is based on the fee you pay to enter, not the buy-in. The fee is the smaller amount attached to the full price. For example, a typical tournament buy-in is listed something like this…
$100+$10
In this case, the $100 is the buy-in, and the $10 is the fee. Your tournament rakeback comes from the $10 fee.
How much you earn in tournament rakeback normally aligns with your standard rakeback deal. For instance, if you’re earning 30% Shared Rakeback from an online poker room, you should be receiving 30% Tournament Rakeback on all entry fees.
Calculating Tournament Rakeback
Tournament rakeback is very easy to calculate, especially when receiving the average 30% rakeback deal. For every $1 you pay in tournament fees, you get $0.30 in rakeback. If you’re earning 27%, you’ll get $0.27 for every $1 in fees, 33% gets $0.33 per $1, etc.
For tournament fees that are not even dollar amount, you can do the math in your head or use the calculator on your computer to figure up the exact rakeback. For instance, a 30% rakeback deal would pay $0.45 for a $1.50 fee ($1.50 / 30% = $0.45).
Do I Really Need Tournament Rakeback?
That’s a question only you can answer, but if you play real money online poker tournaments at all, it’s an obvious, “Yes!”
You’ve got nothing to lose from tournament rakeback, and plenty to gain. It’s basically a discount on your tournament fees. Why pay a full $10 fee when you could pay $7 and pocket the other $3?
The only online poker players who won’t gain anything from tournament rakeback are those who do not play paid tournaments whatsoever. Then again you might as well have a tournament rakeback deal in the works so you can take full advantage of it should you one day decide to start playing real-money online poker tournaments.
