Rakeback is one of the fastest-growing parts of the online poker world. Sites typically make money by charging a rake, or juice, in order to play. Money taken out of the pot in a ring game and entry fees paid to play in a tournament are two of the main ways that online poker rooms generate revenue. A newcomer to the marketplace is PayNoRake.com, which rewards its players with up to 100% rakeback for playing on its virtual felts.
The site gives its players rakeback incrementally on the basis of how much total rake is generated. The graduated scale is as follows. All dollar amounts given are in terms of rake accrued:
50% Rakeback – Under $25.00
55% Rakeback – $25.01 – $50.00
60% Rakeback – $50.01 – $75.00
65% Rakeback – $75.01 – $100.00
70% Rakeback – $100.01 – $125.00
75% Rakeback – $125.01 – $150.00
80% Rakeback – $150.01 – $175.00
85% Rakeback – $175.01 – $200.00
90% Rakeback – $200.01 – $210.00
95% Rakeback – $210.01 – $220.00
100% Rakeback – $220.01 and up
PayNoRake.com calculates a player’s rakeback on a daily basis and then pays them accordingly. As such, players do not have to wait until the end of a calendar month to reap the benefits of rakeback. Payments are made every day at 12:00 Midnight ET and are based only on the rake received from real money games; tournaments do not count towards a player’s rake total. A Rake-O-Meter allows PayNoRake.com customers to see how much rakeback they’ll be receiving.
Rake is paid on a contributed basis, which the site explains as follows: “If for example, a pot reaches $25 and you put in $5 of that money, then $5 divided by $25, i.e. 20% of the rake which the room took from that pot ‘belongs’ to you.” Another basis of calculating rake is called “shared basis,” whereby a player receives credit for rake regardless of whether or not they were involved in a hand.
The new online poker room is owned by Playsafe Holding, which also runs popular sites Action Poker, Tiger Gaming, and Poker in Canada. PayNoRake’s software is similar in look and feel to these three sites. The site runs a bi-weekly $10,000 guaranteed prize pool tournament with a $33 buy-in. Satellites are available and begin at $1. The next installment is scheduled to run on Sunday, November 23rd at 6:00pm ET.
Playsafe also owns and operates six branded online casinos with nearly one million registered members. They include Grand Bank Casino, Sterling House Casino, Black Widow Casino, SciFi Casino, Breakaway Casino, and Connect 2 Casino. Like its partner online poker rooms, PayNoRake does not accept real money customers from the United States. A customer service representative responded, “Due to the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act, we no longer take real money action from U.S. customers. You can only enjoy our play money games. We apologize for the inconvenience.” Its parent company is traded on the OTC list in Norway under the symbol “PLAY.”
Its vast offering of games includes Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Seven Card Stud, Guts Poker, Chinese Poker, Big 2 Poker, and Pan.
