Is rake killing online poker?

Aldayr · Mar 14, 2026

Many players complain that poker rooms charge a commission that is too high.
Do you think the current commission makes it difficult to win?
Which room do you think has the most reasonable commission?

schtiuky · Mar 14, 2026

you cant win online. to many games at the same time distract you and make you loose more.

doom · Mar 14, 2026

swc poker have no rake on micro but not so many players

Goggelheimer · Mar 14, 2026

Depending on the regulation you have to obey it is nearly im possible to beat the games.

German regulations kill the game mostly, for cash games you have to have more than 8bb/100 winrate(break even) at PokerStars, and at GG-Poker you have to beat indcredible 12bb/100 to be break even.
For tournaments you have to pay a fee of 3% of any winning above $0.49 at GG-Poker. So also a thing that a non top 2% player can´t afford longterm.
You need there more FT and Top 2 Scores to make it profitable.

Sunz of Beaches · Mar 14, 2026

Goggelheimer said:
and at GG-Poker you have to beat indcredible 12bb/100 to be break even.

Wow thats insane. In addition some unaware people might still decide to use the cashout feature or running it multiple times which adds up even more to the already high rake.

bremp555 · Mar 14, 2026

Rake definitely has an impact, especially at lower stakes where margins are smaller. It can make the games tougher to beat if a player does not have a solid edge.

At the same time, poker is still very beatable in many environments. Good table selection, volume and improving decision making can offset a lot of the pressure that rake creates.

Most major rooms try to balance this with promotions, rewards or softer fields, so profitability usually comes down more to player skill than the commission itself.

finaltable1 · Mar 14, 2026

Subscription poker could be the next big thing because it doesn't really matter to a server whether it's running a $1.10 buy-in tournament or a $550 buy-in tournament, the server will consume the same amount of power and bandwidth in both cases. This is good for regular players, but not for those who play occasionally.

Kerasuss28 · Mar 14, 2026

Aldayr said:
Many players complain that poker rooms charge a commission that is too high.
Do you think the current commission makes it difficult to win?
Which room do you think has the most reasonable commission?

GGPoker gives many jackpots, so I don’t think rake kills something

Luvepoker · Mar 14, 2026

finaltable1 said:
Subscription poker could be the next big thing because it doesn't really matter to a server whether it's running a $1.10 buy-in tournament or a $550 buy-in tournament, the server will consume the same amount of power and bandwidth in both cases. This is good for regular players, but not for those who play occasionally.

Several area have actually banned it in recent months including my retarded state. A year ago i would have 100% agreed with you. Today. No poker.

KrazyKoo · Apr 3, 2026

Rake is way too big yes makes playing unbearable. In near future some sort of peer-to-peer poker site where moderation is done by volunteers will be normal and rake is only bare minimum to hold up the servers.

G0930 · Apr 3, 2026

KrazyKoo said:
Rake is way too big yes makes playing unbearable. In near future some sort of peer-to-peer poker site where moderation is done by volunteers will be normal and rake is only bare minimum to hold up the servers.

and then you woke up from your ridiculous dream xD

rake in cashgames is very high yes.. but both cashgame and Mtts you can be lucrative if the skills are there and committment.
In your case I think you lack the latter

plus- there's also rakeback. At least at GG it is a decent one. Currently I have 30% cashback as a "crab"

KrazyKoo · Apr 3, 2026

G0930 said:
and then you woke up from your ridiculous dream xD

rake in cashgames is very high yes.. but both cashgame and Mtts you can be lucrative if the skills are there and committment.
In your case I think you lack the latter

Imagine it from perspective of comparing to other services, 5€ tourney has rake of 0,50€. Play 10 tourneys = 5€ rake. The amount you pay to poker site quickly reaches to hundreds - I am only expected to pay that much for premium level services that include naughty side

G0930 · Apr 3, 2026

KrazyKoo said:
Imagine it from perspective of comparing to other services, 5€ tourney has rake of 0,50€. Play 10 tourneys = 5€ rake. The amount you pay to poker site quickly reaches to hundreds.

Yes that would be a problem without rakeback and regular wins^^

And you dont pay 10% rake as you described. Its 1-3 %

G0930 · Apr 3, 2026

People who complain about some puny rake are the same people who count every penny for tips after Dinner xD
Maybe don't go dining if you can't afford a tip.
Same goes for rake in poker

KrazyKoo · Apr 3, 2026

G0930 said:
People who complain about some puny rake are the same people who count every penny for tips after Dinner xD
Maybe don't go dining if you can't afford a tip.
Same goes for rake in poker

That's the best way to live

. Every penny matters. That's the best way to save money in this economy!

1-3% rake in more traditional rakeback sites with promotions like leaderboards for sure but global player pool sites especially bigger sites have been going in another direction, getting rid of their traditional rakeback almost completely and promotions like rakeraces and leaderboards are distant dream. Unibet, PokerStars, 888Poker, WPTGlobal I think playing just from time to time you can benefit from promotions the same rate as player with high volume. Poker in general seems to move that way.

There are still lesser known sites I play daily on but on these bigger sites I have fully immersed myself with this lifestyle of only playing bare minimum, selecting only the tourneys with most fun competition while simultaneously collecting every promotional offer they have. That is only way to make rake less than 5%.

RENEY444 · Apr 4, 2026

Too big online . Way too big in real casinos , at least where i live

padman400 · Apr 4, 2026

Rake in small stakes cash games and variance is making it virtually impossible to move forward these days unless you play millions of hands and get rake back/rewards

successlaw · Apr 5, 2026

Sometimes yes when rake is too high or rakeback too low

TeUnit · Apr 5, 2026

A couple of really high rake sites have recently went out of business. When a tourney rake is 25% of the buy-in its a bit silly.

Its strange when a business is not aligned with keeping customers or getting new ones.

skaterick · Apr 5, 2026

most businesses are greedy. the good ones treat clients/customers well .

DarkSage · Apr 6, 2026

I don't know, it's cheated and rigged anyways, so I guess that's just another thing to add on the list...

By the last sequence of games I've been in, poker sites in general are so pathetically rigged, I don't even understand how could anyone just come close to imagine that there's anything near legitimacy on these games.

Furthermore, isn't online poker already dead???

Highfish · Apr 21, 2026

frost234 · Apr 21, 2026

If I win a lot, I don't pay attention to Rake.

Is rake killing online poker?

Aldayr

Rising Star

schtiuky

Visionary

doom

Visionary

Goggelheimer

Legend

Sunz of Beaches

Sunz Tzu

bremp555

Rock Star

finaltable1

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Kerasuss28

Rock Star

Luvepoker

Lost in the twilight zone

KrazyKoo

Legend

G0930

Captain Fathermucker, Satty Aficionado

KrazyKoo

Legend

G0930

Captain Fathermucker, Satty Aficionado

G0930

Captain Fathermucker, Satty Aficionado

KrazyKoo

Legend

RENEY444

Legend

padman400

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successlaw

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TeUnit

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skaterick

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DarkSage

Rock Star

Highfish

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frost234

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