The Rake at the Poker Tables is the Silent Winner... (a perspective)

Everyone says it's not the same as the Slot Machine, Black Jack, Roulette, Craps, or any other Casino game when you play Poker at the Casino. With all those other games, you are playing against the House. Whereas in poker, you play against other Players.

But I disagree, you are playing against the House, the Players are just a side pot.

Let's look at this closely.

If ten Players start a new $4-8 limit game at the Casino and they each sit down with $100, that is $1000 at the table before the game even begins. During a four hour time frame, if all the Players stay and play and don't leave the table and don't re-buy in, the House can very easily take the $1000 by the end of that four hours.

While sitting at a poker table, a Player can see 200 flops in four hours; about an average of 50 flops an hour. In a low limit game, the House can take a maximum rake of $3 per hand, which in a $4-8 limit game the maximum is basically taken in every hand. So after seeing 200 flops with a $3 rake taken at every flop, the House would have collected $600.

As well, every time a Player wins a hand, the winning Player typically tips $1 to the Dealer. So after 200 flops and $600 in rakes, another $200 is going to tips and not going to other Players.

Now take away all that money which goes to the House and the Houses' Dealer for a total amount of $800, and that leaves $200 of the original $1000 for the Players to play for.

What happens to that last $200 if the Casino also has a Bad Beat Jack Pot?

Well, for each flop the Casino will take an additional $1 to add to the Bad Beat Jack Pot. With 200 flops that's another $200 the Players can not win.

When you add it all up, the original 10 Players at $100 each for a total $1000 at the table playing 200 flops, lose all their money to the House.

$600 to the House rake, $200 to the Dealer's tips, $200 to the Bad Beat Jack Pot for a total of $1000.

The only way a Player can win at the poker table is when other Players re-buy in after losing their original $100, or if a Player who has lost all their money leaves the table and a new Player sits down.

Poker Players play against the House just as much as playing against other Players, and in the long run the House always wins.

Allen Silvester is a Canadian Poker Player who is one of the Managing Editors of Poker Reviews Vegas