As an upcoming poker player or established professional, it is very important to know where you should play. Considering all the important factors that often get overlooked and end up costing you a bunch of money long term, finding the best environment should be a priority.
In poker, things move often, rake changes, player pool changes, and specifics of the poker site change, and you have to adjust all of the time to have the highest money won/hours.
Factors You Should Consider
Rake
First thing when choosing a site you should check is how high the rake is. This may seem like a small difference, but it is not. We previously explained in our “Why Are Micros Harder to Beat Than High Stakes?” article how high the impact rake can have, and how low the percentage of winners in micros is due to high rake.
There can be a difference of 2-3 big blinds in win rate on different sites, which is such a huge difference, as some of the biggest winners will have a 5bb/100 hands win rate, and if you reduce it by an additional 3 big blinds, it becomes an average win rate.
Rakeback
Once we picked a site with the lowest rake for our stake, we also needed to check the rakeback and the structure of how rakeback is released. Rakeback is essential for high-volume players, and fast poker (zoom, R&C, blitz), as win rates are generally low, and good rakeback can be 50% of the whole win rate.
Sites can offer fixed rakeback programs where rakeback is always the same, which is good for players who won’t rake enough to reach a higher rakeback status in progressive rakeback programs.
Progressive rakeback programs are more suited for players who rake a lot and are aiming to put high volume over the whole year. Progressive rakeback programs will generate significantly more money, but it is only for a small circle of players who play high limits and put in high volume.
These kinds of programs are something like the legendary supernova elite program, which used to be a yearly goal for many grinders, guaranteeing them a certain amount of money if they put enough volume.
High volume players can also get additional “rakeback” through placing high in the leaderboards.
HUDs
If the site allows players to use HUDs is also an important factor, meaning that if you don’t have a HUD, and you are not proficient in using it, you will be playing at a disadvantage and potentially get hard exploited without the ability to notice it or to fight back.
I heard a lot of coaches say that HUDs are not necessary, but in fast poker, high rake environments where win rates are already running low, HUD might be a key factor separating winners from losers.
Player Pool
It is important to know which player pool is the hardest and which one is the softest, and combine it with rake, rakeback, and other factors to make a decision where to play. I think most players should aim to go for the highest win rate by beating players and not volume grinding, as this pushes us forward and makes us better players, making the move up in stakes easier.
The problem with neglecting direct win rate is that volume grinders stay at the same limit without moving up for a longer time, as they are not focused on beating the pool, but getting the most volume/rakeback.
Some player-pools/sites and formats are better for volume grind, and some are better for table selecting and playing/finding recreationals.
Affiliate Deals
This factor could go into the “rakeback tab,” but it is often neglected and overlooked, so I think it is important to emphasize it. Affiliate deals will give you additional rakeback directly or through rake races, private leaderboards, etc.
Same as rakeback, this is really important for players who play high volume and high stakes.
Conclusion
Our main goal should be combining all the factors mentioned and getting the highest $/hour and maintaining it for a long period, moving up in stakes, and repeating the process. Once we move up in stakes, we need to re-evaluate the situation and check if there is a better environment for us to play.
When you are deciding about where to play, you should consider Champion Poker, as it offers nice action for different stakes and game types, and fixed rakeback up to 30%
