| Frequently Asked Questions |  |
What is rakeback?
When you sign up with a poker room through The Poker Pod, you will receive a refund for every $1.00 that you pay in rake. This refund is known as rakeback. No matter what limits you play, whether you are a professional or just play poker for fun, receiving rakeback will greatly increase your win-rate, and allow you to make more money.
What
is "Total Rake" or "Net Revenue"?
Each poker room may have a different term for "Total Rake" or "Net Revenue", but it is essentially the total rake paid by you as calculated by the poker room. When The Poker Pod pays your rakeback, it is always a percentage of your Net Revenue.
What is MGR?
MGR stands for Monthly Gross Revenue. This is the number your rakeback is based on. MGR is your share of the rake generated in pots you play minus any deductions the poker rooms take out. Deductions might include bonuses, deposit fees, store purchases or other in house promotions. Some poker rooms deduct all of those items as fees while others do not deduct any. It is always best to make sure what is deducted from your MGR at the poker room of your choice to make sure you are maximizing your rakeback potential.
What is a Rakeback Provider?
A rakeback provider is a company that advertises for a poker room or a group of poker rooms. Rakeback providers are paid a percentage of Total Rake for each one of their players. The Poker Pod then gives this payment from the poker room, in the form of rakeback, back to you, the poker player.
How can I get rakeback through The Poker Pod?
The first step is creating an account with the Rakeback section of the Pokerpod. This carries absolutely no obligation and will allow you to view our members area as well. Once you have logged into your newly created rakeback account, from the left hand side of any page, select the poker room(s) you are interested in receiving rakeback from and follow the sign up instructions. Within 5 minutes you can begin playing poker and earning rakeback!
How often are my Rakeback stats updated on The Poker Pod?
Almost all of your rakeback stats are updated daily. If a site does not update daily there will be a note of this. There can sometimes be delays with the rakeback stats updating, but these delays are usually out of our control and are usually not more than a couple of days.
What is a Bonus
Bonuses are offered by poker rooms to help encourage people to play at their site. Bonuses can included a deposit bonus, a reload bonus, or even promotional bonuses e.g, accumulating a certain number of "points" in a certain period of time. Almost all poker rooms offer some sort of bonus.
What is a first deposit bonus?
When you start playing at an online poker room they offer incentives to get players to make their first deposit. Some poker rooms require you to deposit a certain amount to receive the bonus while others give a no deposit bonus meaning you simply have to meet the requirements of the bonus to clear it without depositing a certain amount. In almost all cases the bonus must be earned meaning you only receive it after playing a certain number of raked hands or earning a certain number of points.
What is a reload bonus?
From time to time certain poker rooms will offer limited time reload bonuses. These are for existing players and often have the same requirements their deposit bonuses have. Reload bonuses are typically offered for special events to help promote tournaments such as the World Series of Poker while other times they are offered during typically slow times of the year such as holiday weekends. Some poker rooms offer monthly bonuses to their players
What does "Bonuses Deducted" Mean?
Most poker rooms deduct a cleared bonus from your MGR. This means if you cleared a $200 bonus while generating $400 in rake you would only receive rake back from $200 because the other $200 was deducted from your MGR. If you were receiving 30% rakeback this would mean you would only receive $60 in rakeback instead of $120. Some poker rooms do not deduct any bonuses. This includes poker rooms on Boss Media as well as Cryptologic. If you were playing at those poker rooms you would receive $120 in rakeback in the same scenario.
What is "Dealt" Rakeback?
"Dealt" Rakeback is the best MGR calculation method in the Rakeback industry. The following online poker rooms, Full Tilt, Cake Poker, Red Star Poker, Players Only and True Poker all use the "Dealt" Rackback method to calculate MGR.
Just to keep it simple, if you have been dealt cards in a hand, from the poker sites point of view you have paid rake in that hand, even if you didn't see a flop. So, if you are in a 10 handed full ring game and are dealt cards in a hand, and the rake for that hand was $2.00, under the "Dealt" Rakeback method each player is considered to have paid .20 cents in rake.
The "Dealt" Rakeback method is the best method for poker players who play a very tight aggressive game style in a full ring game. Any player who plays tight will see fewer flops, but with "Dealt" Rakeback they still earn rakeback for every hand.
What is "Contributed" Rakeback?
The "Contributed" Rakeback method is the most commonly used method to calculate MGR. It is used by the following poker sites, Ultimate Bet, Absolute Poker, Fortune Poker, Poker Heaven.com, Fat Bet, Poker Nordica, Paradise Poker, Poker Kings, PKR Poker, Action Poker, Carbon Poker, Betfair Poker, Virgin Poker, Aced, NoiQ Poker, Cellsino Poker and Minted Poker.
In order to recieve Rakeback you have to have contributed money to the pot. You are payed Rackback according to your contributed share to the pot. Blinds and limps are considered contribution to the pot. If you have not contributed to the pot, from the poker sites point of view you have not paid rake under this formula.
Here is an example: If in a full ring game 10 people are dealt cards in a hand, but only the two blinds contribute money into the pot, then in the "Contributed Rakeback method, they are the only two paying rake. So if the rake for the hand is $2.00, each person will be paid only according to the amount they each contribute to the pot. In this case they would be paid according to each of their $1.00 contributions. If the small blind folds their hand pre-flop and only the big blind is left in the hand, then the small blind still gets paid a % of the rake but only according to the amount they contribute to the pot, which would be 1/2 of the big blind
The "Contributed" Rakeback method gives the poker players who play more aggressively the edge, especially in short handed games.
Can I Still Get Bonuses at a Poker Room if I Receive Rakeback?
Yes! You will still be able to receive bonuses offered by the poker room and any other promotions offered by the poker room or The Poker Pod if you receive rakeback from The Poker Pod. Bonuses are deducted from your Total Rake, but it is much better to receive both bonuses and rakeback than either by themselves.
When are Rake Back Payments Made to Me?
The payments are made once a month, generally during the second week, for the previous month's rake back that is currently due to you. For example, if you have accumulated $400 in rake back in December, this will be paid to you in January. Though we strive to make the rake back payments to you by the 15th of each month, certain poker rooms automatically make the rake back payment to your poker account. There are times when the rake back payment will be made even later than the 15th due to their poker rake back payment schedule. Note this only applies to sites covered by rakeback manager. Other sites will pay directly into your poker room account. See details on the Pokerpod poker room pages to find the dates or times for the relevant room.
You can cash out rakeback that is paid directly into your Pokerpod rakeback account at anytime. To cash out simply visit your account page and select "My Payments".
Note: You must have a rake back balance of $20 or more from the previous month in order to receive your rake back payment. If you are owed less than that, it will be carried over to the following month and will be paid once your total has reached $20.
At what Poker Rooms can I get Rakeback?
We offer rakeback at many different rooms. Go to the poker room index to see all of the offers. You can also see our featured offers by clicking a link below.
How do i choose which site?
before you jump right in when you see a good deal, ALWAYS check out the site first! There have been plenty of sites in the last year or so that have closed. Although 99% of the time, the funds are transfered to another site (usually a large network such as Cake, or almagated into a site like Pokerstars, as happened with both Chan Poker and Full Contact Poker). Read a few reviews, check out the sites website to see if it suits your needs first. There is a comprehensive review section on thepokerpod, where you can check out the review, see the ratings and read the comments other members have made about the site. Click HERE to check out the review section.
What If I Still Have Other Questions
We suggest looking over the contents of thepokerpod.com, particularly if you are new to rakeback or our site. We think it will not only answer your questions, but could possibly provide you with a deeper understanding of rakeback and the effect the rake has on poker. Our prompt customer service can answer almost all your questions as well. Click here to contact us!
