How much rake charge PokerStars, Full Tilt, PartyPoker and TitanPoker? We analyzed the rake for each site as part of our rakeback comparison.
Results first:
Absolute rake per site and limit for 6 max cash games
Rake per 100 hands
| Limit Site | PokerStars | Full Tilt | PartyPoker | Titan Poker |
| NL5 | $0,33 | $0,51 | $0,38 | $0,51 |
| NL10 | $0,71 | $1,04 | $0,76 | $1,04 |
| NL25 | $1,72 | $1,95 | $1,95 | $1,95 |
| NL50 | $3,16 | $3,50 | $3,56 | $3,56 |
| NL100 | $5,32 | $5,83 | $5,94 | $5,83 |
| NL200 | $8,03 | $8,77 | $8,86 | $8,77 |
Relative rake per site and limit for 6 max cash games
Rake per 100 hands in big blinds
| Limit Site | PokerStars | Full Tilt | PartyPoker | Titan Poker |
| NL5 | 6,58 | 10,22 | 7,50 | 10,22 |
| NL10 | 7,13 | 10,38 | 7,64 | 10,38 |
| NL25 | 6,88 | 7,80 | 7,80 | 7,80 |
| NL50 | 6,32 | 7,01 | 7,11 | 7,11 |
| NL100 | 5,32 | 5,83 | 5,94 | 5,83 |
| NL200 | 4,02 | 4,39 | 4,43 | 4,39 |
The comparison shows that PokerStars charges less than all competitors on all limits. For the micro limits PokerStars is more than 40% cheaper than Full Tilt and Titan Poker. Up to NL50 it is more than 10% cheaper. For NL100 PokerStars charges 9,6% less, for NL200 9,2%.
In our rakeback comparison we calculated with 10 percent less rake on PokerStars. The numbers derived in this article correspond roughly to those 10 percent.
Rake calculations for each site
The sites use the following way to calculate the rake for a pot:
PokerStars: PokerStars continuously deducts a certain percentage from each pot.
Full Tilt, PartyPoker, Titan Poker: Those sites rake incremental. For each 15 or 20 cents in the pot 1 cent rake is deducted (or 5 cent for each dollar on higher limits).
Cap: The rake is capped on each site and limit at a certain value.
No flop, no drop: If there is no flop, none of the sites charge any rake.
Rake for no limit chash games with 5+ players (percentage and cap)
| Site | NL5 | NL10 | NL25 | NL50 | NL100 | NL200 |
| PokerStars | 4,2% $1,00 | 4,5% $1,50 | 4,5% $2,00 | 4,5% $2,50 | 4,5% $2,80 | 4,5% $2,80 |
| Full Tilt | 1c / 15c $2,00 | 1c / 15c $2,00 | 1c / 20c $3,00 | 5c / 1$ $3,00 | 5c / 1$ $3,00 | 5c / 1$ $3,00 |
| Titan Poker | 1c / 15c $2,00 | 1c / 15c $2,00 | 1c / 20c $3,00 | 1c / 20c $3,00 | 5c / 1$ $3,00 | 5c / 1$ $3,00 |
| PartyPoker | 1c / 20c $1,00 | 1c / 20c $1,00 | 1c / 20c $3,00 | 1c / 20c $3,00 | 1c / 20c $3,00 | 1c / 20c $3,00 |
Is incremental rake better than continuous rake? An example: On NL50 a pot reaches $5,80. PokerStars rakes 4,5% – $0,261 rake (26 cents). Full Tilt takes 5 cent for each full dollar in the pot – $0,25 rake. In this case Full Tilt is cheaper than PokerStars.
But the higher the limit is and the pots are the lower the value of the incremental method for the player is. As soon as a pot reaches $11 the 4,5% percent rake on PokerStars is always less than the 5c/$1 rake on Full Tilt. As soon as the pot reaches $2 the 4,5% percent rake on PokerStars is always less than the 1c/20c rake on Full Tilt, PartyPoker and Titan Poker.
Method used to calculate the rake tables
One vital remark: The rake heavily depends on the play style of the player. This is not considered in the tables above. An aggressive player generates much more rake than a nut peddler. The tables apply to shorthanded play. Full ring the rake is about 30 percent lower per player.
We took 10.000 random hands for each limit where exactly 6 players were dealt into the hand. By using the rake calculation method for each site and limit we calculated how much rake is charged for each hand. With those values we calculated how much rake is charged for the whole table over those 10.000 hands for each site and limit. This number divided by the number of players (6) gives the average rake per player. Those numbers result in the tables above.
The general game conditions differ for each site (e.g. play is generally more aggressive on Full Tilt and tighter on Titan Poker). We did not take those conditions into consideration1. We used solely hands from PokerStars Zoom tables to calculate the rake tables.
»» Our rakeback comparison shows how much rake you can expect get back from each each site.
1 To compare the different sites it is crucial to use the same set of hands for each site. Otherwise the different game conditions would distort the comparison.
Dieser Artikel erschien auf PokerOlymp am 12.11.2012.
