Effective Rake, Explained — The Only Rakeback Number That Matters

Headline rakeback percentages are marketing. Effective rake is the post-rebate house take per hand — the one number that actually decides whether a room is beating you.

We use one definition across every review:

effective_rake = gross_rake_per_hand × (1 − r_total)

r_total = rakeback% + cashback% + (bonus_value / expected_rake) + leaderboard_EV%

Gross rake per hand is the dollars the house pulls from the pot at your stake — typically $0.05–$0.15 at micro-stakes NLHE, scaling linearly with the cap. r_total is everything the room gives back, expressed as a fraction of that rake. Bonus value is amortised across the volume needed to clear it, not the headline sticker price.

A "50% rakeback" room can be worse than a "20% rakeback" room. Three reasons: the 50% is on a smaller VIP pool that resets monthly, the 20% comes from a network with materially lower gross rake to start with, and the 20% room layers a quiet 8% cashback the marketing page never mentions. Effective rake collapses all three into one comparable number.

The "50% rakeback" room is the worst of the three. The headline number was real; the relevant number is on the right.

• Gross rake: measured from live hand histories at every stake we audit (full method in our methodology).
• Rakeback / cashback: scheme average over the last 90 days, not the marketing maximum.
• Bonus value: dollars actually cleared, divided by rake generated to clear them.
• Leaderboard EV: median per-player payout share, not the top prize.