PPPoker rake explained
The club owner sets the rake, and the only rate we found in print is 5% with a cap of 3 big blinds. Rakeback is negotiated per club and per agent, and what you get back depends on what is deducted before the percentage is applied.
Updated 9 October 2026
Who sets the rake
In PPPoker the owner of a club sets rake table by table. Our club architecture page puts the typical range at 0–10%, with 4–6% and a cap as the common setting. Union rules govern club rake structures. One outside explainer says "Clubs take rake from each pot, and unions set the structure that member clubs use" (pppoker-ai.com, undated). There is no platform rate card. The numbers below come from a club, an agent or a third-party guide.
The platform takes a separate fee. The owner pays PPPoker a per-hand license fee in club chips, whatever rake the table charges. Players never see that line, so it does not enter the examples here.
What outside sources publish
We opened five pages on 9 October 2026 and checked each quote below against the live text.
| Claim | Source | Dated | How much weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| "The rake in PPPoker is set by the host and is usually 5% capped at 3bb." Also: "A no-flop/no-drop system applies to charge rake. Thus, no fee is charged preflop." Rakeback "ranges from 10% to 50%". | WorldPokerDeals, PPPoker review (worldpokerdeals.com/rakeback-deals/pppoker-review) | 5 Jan 2023 | The only page with a rate and a cap. The site is an agent paid on referred players, and the page is more than three years old. |
| "The club takes a small percentage of each pot — typically around 5%." Rakeback tiers "up to 30%", "up to 45%", "up to 60%". | pppokerclubs.net, PPPoker rakeback | 15 Jun 2026 | Agrees with the 5% figure but gives no cap. The "up to 60%" figure does not indicate the median deal. |
| "The rake is always calculated taking into account the total pot in each hand." Describes a "Weighted Rake Contribution System" that splits rake by each player's share of the pot, and an "Automatic Rakeback System" that assigns a fixed percentage by volume. | easypppoker.com blog | 23 Aug 2023 | Explains mechanics but prints no numbers. We could not match the two system names to anything in the app. |
| "Rakeback is negotiated, not listed, so ask the agent for the exact percentage before the first deposit." | pppoker-ai.com, how PPPoker works | No date shown | The page sells an assistant tool. |
| "Suppose an offer states 50% rakeback, but the calculation starts with 100 units of recorded rake and applies 20 units of stated deductions. If the percentage applies to the remaining 80 units, the result is 40 units." | pppoker-catalog.com, rakeback guide | 9 Jun 2026 | The only source that discusses deductions. Its examples are labelled illustrative, and the page also lists clubs "up to 50%" and "up to 65%". |
Most sources quote a 5% figure, but only one ties it to a cap. Nothing we found is an official PPPoker statement.
What a 5% cap at 3bb does to a pot
If that one published setting holds, rake scales with the pot and stops growing at 3 big blinds. The table below is our arithmetic for a $1/$2 game (big blind $2, cap $6), assuming a flop was seen so rake applies.
| Final pot | 5% of pot | Rake charged | Share of pot |
|---|---|---|---|
| $20 (10bb) | $1.00 | $1.00 | 5.0% |
| $60 (30bb) | $3.00 | $3.00 | 5.0% |
| $120 (60bb) | $6.00 | $6.00 | 5.0% |
| $200 (100bb) | $10.00 | $6.00 (capped) | 3.0% |
| $400 (200bb) | $20.00 | $6.00 (capped) | 1.5% |
The cap is why small pots are the expensive ones in relative terms and why short-stack grinders who win many $20–$60 pots pay the full 5%. Ask your club whether it uses 5% and 3bb. This table does not confirm its settings.
How a pot's rake is split between players
The easypppoker page says rake is allocated "based on their contribution to the pot". In a $60 pot with $3 of rake where three players put in $30, $20 and $10, the shares would be $1.50, $1.00 and $0.50. A player who folded preflop contributed little or nothing and would carry no rake. The rakeback percentage is applied to the rake you were assigned, not to the rake of every pot you sat in. We have not confirmed in the app that the platform splits rake this way.
Rakeback arithmetic
A 50% rakeback deal requires agreement on what the 50% applies to. The catalog guide uses an example of 100 units of rake and 20 units of deductions. Below, the same formula for a stated 50% deal at different deduction levels.
| Deductions from recorded rake | Base the 50% applies to | Paid back (per 100 rake) | Effective rakeback |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0% | 100 | 50 | 50% |
| 10% | 90 | 45 | 45% |
| 20% | 80 | 40 | 40% |
| 30% | 70 | 35 | 35% |
The effective rate is the stated rate times (1 minus deductions). A "50%" deal with 30% deducted pays the same as a straight 35% deal. A straight 40% offer from another agent beats it by five points.
The catalog guide contrasts a club that returns 50% with a higher effective cap against one that returns 40% with a lower cap. We cannot say which wins without your volume, and neither can the guide.
Questions to ask the agent before depositing
- What is the table rake and the cap, in big blinds, for the stakes you play?
- Is the rakeback percentage applied to full recorded rake or to rake after deductions, and what are the deductions?
- Is it paid weekly, in club chips or in cash, and who holds the balance in between? The agent carries the counterparty risk described on the club architecture page, and the cost of the chip leg is worked through on where chips come from.
- Does the union charge anything on top of the club's rake?
- Can the deal change after the first week, and in whose favour?
A soft game with a 5% rake and a thin rakeback deal can return less than a harder game with a better one; the soft games page covers what the sources say about where the weaker players are.
Where automated play touches rake
Volume drives rakeback, so any tool that raises hands per hour raises both the rake you pay and the rakeback you receive. It also raises the hand count that PPPoker's detection signals work on; those layers are described on bot detection layers. This page does not recommend running anything on a club. Rake savings from automation require hand-level data to verify.
Frequently asked
What is the rake in PPPoker?
It is set by each club. The one published setting we found is 5% capped at 3 big blinds (WorldPokerDeals, 2023), and a 2026 page quotes "around 5%" without a cap.
Is rake charged preflop?
One source says no flop, no rake. It is a single agent's statement, so confirm the rule with your club.
How much rakeback can I expect?
Sources print ceilings between 50% and 65% and one range of 10–50%. No source publishes an average. Ask for the effective rate after deductions.
Does PPPoker take the rake?
The club owner receives the rake. The platform is paid a separate per-hand license fee by the owner, as described in our club architecture notes.