Rake

Rake is the amount of money taken by the poker room as a commission for running the game. The concept of rake applies to cash games and tournaments alike, although it is much more important in cash games.

At a ring game table, a rake is taken out of every pot, usually as a fixed percentage that can be anywhere from 2% to 10%. In most games, there is also the rake cap, which is the maximum amount of money that can be taken out of the pot regardless of its size.

For example, in a $1/$2 game with a 5% rake and $20 cap, 5% is taken out of every pot, but never more than $20. So, if a pot is $100, the dealer will take out $5. If a pot is $2,000, the dealer will take $20 since this is the cap, even though 5% would be $100.

In tournaments, the rake is taken beforehand, and it is added to the buy-in. So, in a $120 tournament, $100 will usually go to the prize pool, while $20 will be kept by the casino or the poker room as the rake. These buy-ins are usually written in a format to separate rake from the prize money, and in this case, would be displayed as $100+$20.