Rakeback / Rake-Adjusted ROI Calculator

The part of your win rate you're ignoring

For many small-stakes grinders, rakeback is not supplementary income. It is the difference between being a winning and losing player. A player running -1bb/100 in raw game results but receiving 40% rakeback on 4.5bb/100 gross rake is actually a 0.8bb/100 winner overall. The calculator exists to make that arithmetic visible, because most players never run it and some lose money at sites where they'd be profitable elsewhere due to the rake structure alone.

The model

The fundamental calculations:

gross_rake_bb100 = rake_percentage * average_pot_in_bb * hands_per_pot / 100

For NL6max at NL100 on most sites, this works out to approximately 4-5bb/100 gross rake paid. Net rake after rakeback:

net_rake = gross_rake * (1 - rakeback_percentage)

And the effective win rate including rakeback:

total_win_rate = raw_win_rate + gross_rake * rakeback_percentage

A player running 2bb/100 raw win rate at 30% rakeback on 4.5bb/100 gross rake is earning 2 + 4.5 * 0.30 = 2 + 1.35 = 3.35bb/100 effective. Change the site to 50% rakeback and they earn 4.25bb/100. That 0.9bb/100 difference is worth hundreds of dollars per 100,000 hands.

Worked example: site comparison

Player puts in 100,000 hands per month across two hypothetical sites. Both sites charge 5% rake, both cap at 3bb at NL100 (6-max), generating approximately 4.5bb/100 gross rake. Site A offers 25% rakeback; Site B offers 40% rakeback.

• Site A: rakeback = 4,500 bb * 0.25 = 1,125 bb per 100k hands = $1,125 at NL100
• Site B: rakeback = 4,500 bb * 0.40 = 1,800 bb per 100k hands = $1,800 at NL100
• Difference: $675/month from rakeback alone, with identical play

Run those numbers over 12 months and site selection has generated or destroyed $8,100 in income without touching a single strategic decision.

Break-even win rate calculation

The calculator's most practically useful output: given a site's rake and rakeback structure, what raw in-game win rate do you need to actually profit?

break_even_wr = gross_rake * (1 - rakeback_percentage)

On a site charging 5bb/100 gross rake at 0% rakeback, you need to beat the other players by 5bb/100 just to break even. On a site charging 4bb/100 at 35% rakeback, break-even drops to 4 * 0.65 = 2.6bb/100. The game difficulty is the same; the bar is 2.4bb/100 lower. That gap is the entire skill advantage for many mid-stakes regulars.

What each output means

Annual rakeback earnings converts your volume and rakeback percentage into a dollar number that sits outside your game results. Effective win rate adds rakeback to raw win rate so you see your total hourly/bb/100 rate on one line. Break-even raw win rate tells you what you actually need to beat the table, after accounting for the site's rake bite. Site comparison mode puts two sites' rake and rakeback parameters side-by-side and calculates which one pays you more per hour at your volume.

Where the model breaks

Rakeback percentages published by sites are frequently nominal, not effective. Volume requirements, tiered structures, and (at some sites) undisclosed player-value adjustments mean the published number overstates what most players actually receive. Enter the rakeback percentage you've actually observed in your account, not the promotional headline figure.

Bonus clearing is a separate value stream that the basic model doesn't capture. Some sites offer first-deposit bonuses that clear at $1 per $X in rake generated. Combined with rakeback, this can make a site more valuable than its rakeback percentage alone suggests, but only during the clearing period. The bonus clearing mode in the calculator models this explicitly.

For the relationship between rake, rakeback, and bankroll requirements, see the bankroll calculator. For understanding how your win rate interacts with variance over a real-volume session, the variance calculator shows you the distribution around the expected outcome at your combined (game + rakeback) win rate.