Normally there’s an equilibrium everywhere. There’s no only one single direction. And the economy is no exception for that. China can’t grow that fast for centuries and players can’t receive more and more rakeback each month. In fact poker rooms can’t give any more than they are giving away right now. But that’s a situation that can’t last forever. If poker rooms can’t make any money any more they won’t exist any longer and the competition will decrease. And if the competition decreases the few poker rooms that survive have enough power to increase their margins. There’s no need to give away 60 % rakeback and 10 % for the affiliate. That’s insane and can’t last forever.

If you’re a poker player you profit from this situation right now. There’s no doubt about that. So if you want to profit long term from it I suggest that you’re looking for a long term deal that is negotiated with a poker room (and no under the table deal with an affiliate). Then you will be able to use it for a long time while others jump from room to room to exploit the best deal even though there’s only a small difference. That’s – EV as you would say as a poker player.

At iPoker skins there are different VIP levels and rankings. The VIP Boost is part of it but can’t be compared to rakeback. It only helps to collect FPPs more quickly and this equals about 2 – 4 % more rakeback at some ipoker skins. So if you get an ipoker rakeback offer you should ask whether VIP Boost is included or not because it can make a difference although it’s a tiny one.

You can spot under the table deals when the affiliate asks for certain data like a username or the email you registred with. He needs this data to track you write and that he’s able to pay the rakeback (under the table).

But it can’t be an under the table deal if the affiliate doesn’t ask for a username or has no interest in receiving it. Then the rakeback will be paid by the room itself and not by the affiliate.

So you have to be careful if an affiliate asks for your username when offering rakeback. Then it seems that it’s an under the rakeback deal and you shouldn’t go with it.

There’s no doubt that 2+2 is the biggest and probably best poker forum out there. But ist size is not only a bless because there are a lot of crooks out there trying to make some money. A very new wave are unserious rakeback offers especially for ipoker and ongame.

You have to take a look at the Affiliates/Rakeback section at 2+2. There you can ask for offers (through PM) and will receive a lot of offers. But lots of these offers will be from unserious affiliates that offer under the table deals. Under the table deals are very risky because only the affiliate is responsible for that and if the affiliate is not serious you have a problem. He may be on vacation, can’t pay or whatever he claims when the money is not coming. These are all signs that he’s a crook and wants to make some quick cash.

Of course there are also serious affiliates that pay you on a regular basis. But in general you have to be cautious with such deals. The best case if the deal was initiated through the skin itself. That means that you will receive your rakeback in your player account on a regular basis and the affiliate only receives his commission and not your rakeback!

Sure, the skin might get problems with ipoker and has to pay a penalty. But this won’t be the end of the skin. An affiliate relationship is terminated quickly though and there’s an additional risk with such under the table deals.

Nowadays it’s not easy to be an iPoker skin. The rakeback situation is tough but you have to give away rakeback unless you’re not competitive. Legal loyality programs are nice but you will only get 40 % + if you rake a few thousands each month. Then it’s easier to pay flat rakeback where also small players profit.

So what is iPoker doing with skins that pay rakeback or exagerate any VIP programs. Ipoker is googeling for websites where the words „ipoker“ and „rakeback“ appear. If a domain doesn’t include the word rakeback chances are that ipoker doesn’t care about that. However, if they find any offer that looks like an ipoker rakeback offer they contact them pretending to be a player looking for a deal. Then they receive any details and find out which skin and if that happens several times and is proven the ipoker skin gets a penalty.

And with those penalties ipoker makes a lot of money right now. That’s the ugly situation right now.

It’s pretty surprising. If you ask 10 good players where they prefer to play. 7 of them say iPoker, 2 ongame and the other one Entraction, Boss, Cereus or something else. I guess there’s a reason for that and indeed there are many reasons why iPoker is prefered by many players. One good reason is the tremendous traffic especially at shorthanded games with a lot of action at higher stakes. Sure, Stars and Full Tilt are bigger but the offer ain’t that good. Stars sucks at Bonus and rakeback (indeed there’s no chance to get some) and Full Tilts 27 % rakeback is pretty standard and not very lucrative in combination with the tight tables there.

Ipoker is different and it’s pretty easy to get rakeback there. But you have to pay attention. Not every rakeback offer is serious and trustworthy. That’s one of the reasons why I started this blog. You can find a lot of information here about the iPoker rakeback situation.

And why am I focusing on iPoker rather than Ongame or any other network?

I’m playing at ipoker myself and there’s no thought about changing. Especially because I’ve got a great rakeback deal there. If Stars had ten times more traffic I wouldn’t change that.

And the iPoker rakeback situation is very unique and fast changing. In fact there is no official rakeback at ipoker but that’s why it is so exciting.