This is an archived page. The information is probably out of date, but I've left it here in case you find it useful for something.
Micro Stakes Rakeback
I have had a number of new players at the smaller stakes ask me about rakeback and I always tend to get asked the same questions:
- Is it worth getting rakeback as a small stakes/micro stakes player?
- Should I wait until I play for higher stakes before thinking about rakeback?
- Which rakeback poker room is best for micro stakes poker players?
So, instead of repeating the same answers I thought that I would put my honest and handy advice in to this article for all you players interested in micro stakes rakeback.
Is it worth getting rakeback as a micro stakes player?
Yes, definitely. Put it this way - why wouldn't rakeback be valuable to you as a micro stakes player? You still pay rake at the micro stakes, so why not get rakeback?
If you sign up for 27% rakeback at Full Tilt, that 27% extra in rakeback earning is going to be equally valuable to your bankroll regardless of whether you are playing $10NL or $1000NL.
Sure, the actual amount of money that you get from rakeback payments will be smaller, but that's not an issue. $5 is as valuable to a $200 bankroll as $50 is to a $2,000 bankroll.
The added rakeback will increase your overall earnings and speed up the time it takes to move up to higher limits at any level, so there is absolutely no reason to think that rakeback is not going to prove to be useful as a micro stakes player.
Should I wait until I play for higher stakes before thinking about rakeback?
As I highlighted in the first point, there's really no need to wait to start earning rakeback.
You wouldn't keep all of your money under your bed until you had enough to put one big lump sum of $5,000 in to your savings account to earn interest would you? You would gradually add $100 or however much here and there so that the existing money can earn interest as it goes along.
If you're waiting and holding back when there is no reason to you are just missing out on extra money to add to your rakeback earnings in the meantime. It doesn't make any sense to wait.
One small exception.
The only time I would recommend holding off on signing up to a new room would be if it's worth waiting until you can make a large deposit to get the most from a good new player bonus, like the ones at PokerStars and Full Tilt.
For example, if you have $200 in your bankroll and the bonus is 100% up to $600, it would be wise to wait until you have closer to $600 so that you can really get the most from the one-time bonus. On the other hand, this isn't strictly a rakeback issue, so my advice that you shouldn't wait to start receiving rakeback still stands.
Which rakeback poker room is best for micro stakes players?
Full Tilt has the most micro stakes players and also has the best software out of all the rakeback rooms. Even though the Full Tilt rakeback percentage of 27% is lower than Aced Poker's 35% and Cake's 33%, the soft competition at Full Tilt more than makes up for the slightly lower rakeback deal.
Full Tilt is generally the best rakeback room overall, so I would recommend it as the top room for any stakes player.
There isn't really anything that sets a rakeback room apart from another when it comes to micro stakes players if I'm being honest - a good rakeback room is a good rakeback room for all stakes players. Nonetheless, all in all Full Tilt is still my top recommendation for micro stakes rakeback.
Go back to the rakeback poker rooms.
