So you have decided to take up the game of poker. Alternatively, maybe you have decided to look for a new poker room at which to play. Before you jump in and just pick the first room you come across, you should look to determine what the best way is to profit from the potential poker room. The simple answer is making sure you pick a poker room that offers rakeback. Some players see rakeback as free poker money; others see it as extra income. Either way, it will greatly benefit the player.

Firstly, you have to consider the room, which you signed up. For example, if you signed up to Full Tilt Poker without rakeback, where the average Full Tilt Poker Rakeback player gets 27% rakeback, you would miss 27% of the rake that you generate for the rest of your playing career at that room. That can add up to a lot of poker money that you could have had in your poker account, and help increase your bankroll. As we know in poker, lost opportunity is lost money.

You also have to consider what level you play, as well as what stakes you usually play. If you are a mid stakes poker player or even just hope to be a mid stakes player, you would really be losing out on a lot of money without a rakeback plan. The average mid stakes player will be involved in many pots averaging $60 or above. So say you play 10 hands averaging $60 in the prize pool in an hour, at a six seater. You would have raked $5 in that hour. So if you where playing with rakeback you would have got about $1.30 back. I know that does not sound like much. However if you where to play say 5 hours that day you would have raked $25 and got over $6.50 back in rakeback.

So now to look at the bigger picture where you play poker 5 days a week for a year at Full Tilt Poker without rakeback you would have lost $6500 to rake, which is a huge opportunity loss!

As you can see, playing without full tilt poker rakeback can be very expensive. Nevertheless, you have to remember this is merely an example. You could actually be losing a lot more money if you play without rakeback at a higher stakes for longer times and over multiple tables at once. Your bottom line is everything. Make sure you have rakeback to pad it.