Rake races in poker: Best strategies
A poker rake race is a competition organised by a poker room, over a predefined period of time where a prize pool is given to the players who generate the more rake. The more a player rakes, the more he gets from the prizepool.
As a rake race is all about playing as much as possible to get more money, a lot of considerations need to be taken into account in order to optimize the value you get from a rake race.
Choosing a rake race
This article is about giving you strategies to play rake races. Before starting a rake race, you’ll obviously have to start one. In order to be informed about the current and future rake race, check regularly www.rakeracepoker.com and/or subscribe to the newsletter. Rake races can be announced from 1 month to only 1 day in advance, so stay tuned !
Timing consideratons
When you decide to participate in a rake race, you’ll very likely have to play a lot to finish in the prize pool. That’s why it is important to choose a period of time where you know you will be available to play poker as much as you want. Of course, the availability you need depends on the length of the rake race. If the rake race is over one day, you might need to play 12 hours in that day to get a good prize. If the rake race is over 6 months, you might not need to play everyday. The most important thing here is to plan carefully your poker rake race.
Money considerations
The main motivation to participate in a rake race is to win more money. Before starting a rake race, it is important to consider not only the prize pool and its distribution but also you objectives and your plans: how much you want to win, which rank you can target, how large is the competition, results of past rake races,… You have to choose a rake race that matches your objectives.
Some rake races give a lot to the first few ones who will heavily multi-table during 16 hours a day, some other rake races will have smoother distribution of the prize pool.
Also, it is important to consider the money you’d make with the other promotions offered by the poker room organising the rake race (bonuses, rakeback, VIP,…).
Terms and conditions
To ensure that you will play the rake race that corresponds to your profile and you get the most of it, read carefully the terms and conditions of the rake race you plan to play. There are many different rake races with a lot of different conditions.
Game considerations
Rake races must be seen as additional money you’d not make otherwise. It means that you have to avoid loosing money by trying to get more from the rake race: don’t play higher limits, don’t play more than you can. You’ll have to multitable, but don’t play more tables than you can handle,…
In general, it is easier to play a TAG style (Tight Aggressive). You’ll play less hands, you’ll make less mistakes and will have less difficult decisions.
Starting a rake race
Try to start the rake race as from the 1st hour it begins and play multi-tabling hard (within your comfort zone and your limits). In this way, you’ll very likely be among the 1st ones or maybe the first one on the first update of the leaderboard to be published and it gives you two advantages: it might discourage some competitors and you have some control on the race as you had a better start than your competitors.
