Avoid Huge Rake Situations
Let say you sit down at $3-$6 Limit Texas Holdem table in your local casino, which rakes $5 from each pot in a full 9-handed table. This is often the lowest stakes game you find in US casinos. The table is generally loose with 5+ people seeing the flop. However, in this particular hand nobody wants to play. You are first to call on the button with 9♠7♣, small blind folds and big blind checks. It is heads up to the flop. Dealer reveals the flop, big blind checks, you bet and BB folds. You take your flop bet back. A pretty small, boring hand. How much do you think dealer pushes back to you (the winner)? It is only $2 left in the pot after deducting $5 rake. Remember that you paid $3 to see the flop. Net result is you are out $1 for the privilege of winning this hand. Ouch. I do not need to rub it in. Basically rake makes a loser out of a nominal winner.Here is a problem with your call: You took a weak hand and made a loose call without implied odds. A speculative move in a situation, which affords you absolutely no margin of error. In a small stakes poker with high rake structure and facing only 1 player you must be pretty sure you have the best hand. Odds are against you because you can lose in two ways. First, big blind actually gets decent cards and wins the hand. Second, big blind got nothing but rake ate up all your winnings, so you ended up losing money anyways. You need to be alert to situations like this when you are in late position and tighten up your opening range significantly. Better to come into such small pot as a solid favorite or fold. Otherwise it is a total loss. Raising preflop to steal the blinds is an option in tournament poker. In cash games with small blinds raise is probably not profitable.
Beating The Rake
The recommended way is to own a casino, so you are always on the winning side of the rake. For the rest of us what can we do, if anything, to mitigate the impact of rake? Some suggest to move up to $20-$40 range where rake becomes insignificant. While math is pretty convincing, this advice ignores some practical considerations. For example, can you stomach losing $1500 a night? Not to mention that you might be a complete fish at high stakes poker.There are two things you can do. First, be aware of what I call huge rake situations. Play tightly when pot is small and rake is relatively large. This adjustment alone could save you $10-20 a session, which is not insignificant. I assumed you play low stakes similar to the example above. Second adjustment might be unexpected. - You may want to play more in Vegas vs your local card room. It is true that most casinos on the Strip still rake 10% of the pot capped at $4 or $5. However Vegas casinos are friendlier in that they take the money gradually as pot progressively grows larger. Whereas in the California, typically, the house takes full amount of rake at once on the flop. Seems like a minor detail, but it does make a difference for a dedicated gambler. There is a reason most poker pros move to Vegas.
Also note that taking rake gradually requires tracking the pot, which is additional work for the dealer. Vegas dealers are better trained and are capable of doing that.
Rake should be considered in other situations as well. For instance, if there is substantial possibility of splitting the pot between the only two players left in the hand. Under those conditions do not put more money in the pot unless you must. Because in the best case you split the pot and just get your money back minus half the rake . Worst case you lose the whole pot. I assume a progressive rake here. Alternatively, if a third player is still in the hand, then you have a great situation. Think of it as if someone is subsidizing your building the pot. Feel free to bet and raise even if you are pretty sure you are going to split the pot. Such situations occurs when you have made a strong hand but only one of your hole cards plays. For example: On the river the board is 7♣8♦5♥6♠A♣ and you hold 9 for a 9-high straight. Your opponent made a large bet on the turn and is betting again now. It is likely that she holds a 9 as well. If she holds T9, well that is poker. If it is heads up, than no point in raising, as you are just feeding the rake. However if there is a third player with A8, that lucky fella effectively “pays” the rake. So it is all clear to put in a raise. Sometimes poker is delight.
