Many people are leaving online poker tables these days with fatter bankrolls than they had when they started without having won a single hand. How's that? By profiting from the rakeback schemes their online poker rooms of choice offer. It's easy to do, and a money wise way to wait out the deal for the nuts.
If you are part of poker room's rakeback program and you were dealt cards in a hand, even if you never toss a single chip into the pot, you get a portion of the rake taken by the house at the end of the hand credited back to your account. So how do you use this information to profit?
Simply put: play tight - that's the key to making money with rakeback programs, the closest to a sure thing you'll get at the felt.
Fold more often than not, and in particular pre-flop. Understand that you aren't playing to win here. You're playing to not lose, in other words - to break even. As long as you walk away from the online poker table with close to the same amount of chips you sat down with (even a little less is okay), then you still win, by simple virtue of the rakeback.
It's rule number 1, 2 and 3. If you fold pre-flop, without having contributed a single chip to the pot, it's not your money being taken out of the pot by the house as rake. It's that of those players who stayed in.
But as part of a rakeback program, your account will be credited for a portion of the rake equal to that of each of the other players dealt cards in that hand, regardless of how much (or little) each contributed to the overall pot. That's right - equal. You will make the same in rakeback folding pre-flop as the poor sap who sufferred the bad beat on 4th street.
Remember, however, that some of poker's most basic tenets still apply, even when you're not exactly "playing poker". For example, when you're already in the blinds, don't just automatically fold pre-flop. That's a sheer waste of money. You'll fritter away all your rakeback earnings that way.
If you're in the blinds anyway, especially the big blind, then for heaven's sake, check first. Maybe you'll get off easy - maybe you'll get to see the flop without having to put up any more chips. Maybe you'll even get a real hand out of it. And if someone raises, and your risk assessment of the current situation at thet able (ie. your cards vs. the number and manner of players staying in) determines that your staying in is not worth chancing, then fold then. But don't jump the gun.
Another piece of basic strategy not to be ignored is that if you're in last position, you already have so many other advantages at the poker table that you'd be foolish to waste the opportunity on mere rakeback skimming, unless you get a really lousy hand and don't read the table as good to bluff at that moment, in which case - go for it.
And, of course, you're probably not going to want to restrict your online poker experience to solely rakeback skimming. That would get boring fast. Hopefully you'll play those pocket Kings when they come around and, hopefully, when you've got the Nuts you'll still have the smarts to go All-In. And if your opponents start to get wise to that, then the time is ripe for you to start bluffing.
Understand, you won't make a killing making all your poker money from the rakeback. But what you give up in potential winnings, you gain back in increased odds. You just minimized the effect luck will have on your game. Playing online poker just got a lot less risky and a little more profitable.
More great Rakeback Resources from Treasure Hunter Poker:
