I'm seeing rakes between 10%-50% for live tournaments... what's typical?

PurgatoryD

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As I've been researching poker rooms in the Vegas area, I'm noticing a massive difference in rake fees. Anywhere from 10%-50%. The "typical" seems to be about 20% with a lot of small stakes games at 30%.

Obviously, at a certain point, too much rake means -EV. What do you guys use as a rule of thumb for playing vs not playing? If someone is looking to practice as much as anything, can a 50% game be OK for that? Or is it just throwing money away?

Thanks for any advice on this.
 
duggs

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usually 10% for 1-3k tournaments, goes up as the buy in goes down obviously. it really depends how important winning is to you,
 
hobonc

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50% sounds way too high. At the Station casinos it is $1 when the pot is over $8 and a $5 cap per hand. There is also $1 raked from $10 pots for the bad beat jackpot kept in a different box. This is on a $2-$4 limit table.
 
duggs

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tournament rake not cash.
 
PurgatoryD

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Thanks for the input guys. Yeah, this is tournament rake I'm talking about. And yes, 50% seems way too high.

Aria is 25%, Rio is about 22%, Binions is 20%. Those seem pretty reasonable. I just learned one of my local rooms is only charging 14%. Maybe I'll just stay in town that week. LOL. No way. :)
 
trekmaster

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I would think 10% is more than plenty for them to make money.Been a long time since I went to vegas but that was the standard when I last did. I know the economy has tanked since that time and things have changed but I damn sure would absolutly refuse to pay more than 20% rake on any tour and I would feel raped even then.
 
Bowman26

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Why would anyone pay 30% much less 50%!! I know the casino is always the winner but damn 50% just to play a tourney? 10-15% seems like a fair enough amount. It is all relative to the buy in I guess. Are these games really small buy ins or something that the only way the casino will bother to run it is with a 50% rake fee?
 
PurgatoryD

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I would think 10% is more than plenty for them to make money.Been a long time since I went to vegas but that was the standard when I last did.

Wow, I sure wish that was still the standard! When I used to play the dollar tourneys online, I believe they were taking around 10%. So I would expect a brick and mortar to take more than that 10% to cover higher costs. Still, I would have thought 20% would have been more normal.

I know the economy has tanked since that time and things have changed but I damn sure would absolutly refuse to pay more than 20% rake on any tour and I would feel raped even then.

LOL! Yeah, I'm going to try to come to terms with it before I leave for Vegas, otherwise it will bother me the whole time. "I just paid how much?!" :)

It is all relative to the buy in I guess. Are these games really small buy ins or something that the only way the casino will bother to run it is with a 50% rake fee?

Bingo. It seems mostly tied to the buy in. (Although there is a huge variance between card rooms even at the same buy in level).

For instance, the most expensive rake I have found so far is at Sam's Town. $14 goes to the prize pool and $9 goes to the rake. That's a 64% take! But it's also a $23 buy-in which is ridiculously low. Still, I don't know how you could make any money on this. Even if it's very fishy, you're only going to get top tier money so many times.
 
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