Why do people fret over the rake?

It's not going anywhere. It'll be there no matter what. So why fret?

I get that the house takes a cut. What I don't get is when people obsess over it. They're not even joking a little bit.

I was at a table with this person who kept obsessing over the house getting 10% at the penny table. The penny table! She was freaking out over that and a zillion woulda-coulda-shouldas. I just don't get it.

So I said something about "Why worry about that 10% if the idea's to pull in the remaining 90%?". She just freaked out about how bad all the players are before rattling off about 5 different statistics. I'm all "Calm down. Getting upset won't make any of it okay. I know they're bad but I've been assured that you'll win in the end if you keep playing your best."

She just kept complaining that it would never happen in a real game and the house never takes nearly that much in a real game!

I don't know if I should laugh or cry. I know you get screwed on the rake but she's building up from a freeroll! Heck I'm playing with the house's money considering it's a bonus. It's not like it's coming out of our pockets(other people who deposit have real gripes I suppose).

Sorry, I just don't get it and thought maybe someone would understand why people fret over the rake.

P.S. Won't the medical bills from a heart attack over the rake actually cost more than 10% of your penny stakes buy-ins?

i agree completely. i go to a weekly 2-4 house game and when i invite my friends they complain about the rake the house pulls. it's just the nature of the beast if you want to drink and eat for free there's going to be a rake.

This is true. Most private games that take a rake have some sort of drink/food available, so unless you don't want soda or pizza, the money for this is coming from the rake as well.

Just think of it as the house's commision for hooking you up with fish.

I bet the person OP referred to is a nit who plays like 5% of hands.

Next time just tell her, "If you don't like the rake here... don't play here, otherwise deal with it."

Of course rake will always exist, but I do understand why some people go on about it. If you play 1000's of sng's or 100k's of cash game hands, rake has a huge impact. So if you can, I would seriously recommend you get rakeback as this limits the loss.

As an example, this month alone I will have paid over $1500 in rake, and thats just at 50nl. If I played at this level till the end of the year, your looking at over $20k, as I expect to playing more hands in the forthcoming months.

So yes, I can see why some ppl complain.

And remember -> if there was no rake, then no casino would host the games.

I think you should only obsess over the rake if your a break even player, because that might be the reason why you're not finishing ahead in the long run.
If you are losing player, then the rake doesn't matter because you'd lose all your money eventually anyway.
If you're a winner, then look at the rake as a business fee you have to pay to stay in business and make money.

Well the rake at online 2 cent tables can make a winning player become a brake even player. At higher levels, if the player is a winner, I dont think that it is as much of a problem.

Well, you guys pretty much guessed her personality from one little post. It wouldn't be sad if she didn't have the math down pat. Heck she's even pretty good at reading the table.

I'll just keep trying to get her to relax at the table(when I see her of course). She keeps commenting on hands she's not even in. Not the usual "gh" or "gb" and so forth. Full on commentary. It's like having a penny stakes, female, Phil Gordon at the table. That's when she's not freaking out about the rake.

Oh and I'll remind her that if it weren't for the rake there wouldn't be freerolls 24/7 to play in and there wouldn't be any rewards or those cheap chances at $10k seats. Even online there are good things about the rake.

Left out my fave part. Last night she said something like "keep chasing" so I said something along the lines of "only if they keep making it cheap". I hope she got the hint. When I have good pot odds(remember, I'm forced to visualize), and that next card only costs 2 cents into a 10c or better, pot, yeah I'm gonna call. I try to keep up with my outs and odds. Odds(good ones mind you) + outs = call right? Or did I learn it wrong again?