Why is it, that rakeback is beneficial for all players, not just for those who win? After all, it’s the winner who takes the pot and the rake comes off the pot right? Well, the winner does take the pot, but the rake comes off it before it is awarded to the winner. At the moment when it’s raked, the pot does not yet belong to the winner, it is a standalone entity at the table in which all those who wagered money have equity.

In conclusion, the pot belongs to all those who put money into it either via the rake (or some other type of compulsory bet) or via a voluntary bet.

All this means is that if you play, you will pay rake, regardless of what you do. You will be forced to pay antes or blinds and thus you will end up generating rake. So much for the myth of the winner paying the rake…

Now then, poker rooms use various ways to determine players’ individual rake contributions. Take Full Tilt Poker for instance. Full Tilt uses the dealt rake method. What this means is that if you’re dealt into a hand, you’ll be allotted rake contribution, whether or not you contribute any money tot the pot. The resulting rake is simply divided with the number of players who are dealt into the hand and thus the rake contributions are determined.

This is why there’s so much value in the Full Tilt rakeback.

Other poker rooms use the contributed rake method. They only allocate rake contribution to players who contribute money to the pot, and only these players will be eligible to receive rakeback. This rake calculation method is obviously much fairer than the dealt one towards aggressive players who won’t end up generating rakeback money for tight players. They will still end up generating rakeback for those who are active but are stingy with the amount of money they put into the pot.

The most accurate rake calculation method is the weighted contributed method. This method takes individual contribution amounts into account. If you shove a lot of money into the pot, you’ll be officially responsible for a larger amount of rake. That means you’ll also be entitled for more rakeback.

As you can see, rake contribution is a tad more complicated than the winner paying it all. In theory, a player who doesn’t win a single hand can actually actively influence the amount of resulting rake.