Full Tilt Poker gives in and offers Rakeback.

[Marty Smith]

I heard of some players getting rakeback recently from another poker webmaster, and decided to send another email plea to FT asking them for rakeback - once again. Been there, done this several times in the past. As usual I send them the story of me always promoting their site, and w/o having rakeback, my playing time at FT would never be more than it is - 2 or 3 low buy-in tournaments daily.

Obviously, recently something has changed, because their first response again was not at this time, but today... I get this email and am now on the weekly cashback bonus offer. Now at least, the issue of rakeback won't determine where I play (between Stars and FT at least).

Click for large view - Uploaded with Skitch

Thanks be to God and Full Tilt Poker for correcting my horrid mistake of not using Rakeback to sign up all those years ago.

[Quimp]

Woah, really? I'm probably very lucky because I signed up without it and they accepted me pretty quickly, about 1 year later after asking twice. I rake in only a few dollars every week. Maybe they got scared after I withdrew 95% of my roll in one time.

It's normal that they only let a few get RB afterwards, it's what makes sense from a business stand point. Glad they gave it to you!

[JSquared]

Did you sign up to full tilt using an affiliate Marty? Or unlock a product?
I had the same thing as quimp, I signed up straight through full tilt, just without rakeback. I then sent a few emails and within a few months they gave me rb. This seems a little different to what they have offered you?

[Marty Smith]

Yeah I think it was because I was under an affiliate before, who is unknown to me - as there was no product associated with my sign-up.

[sun137]

N1 Marty! They do issue a certain number of players each month with rebates from their marketing budget but obviously have their own internal guidelines and respond to market forces from the level of competition by other sites (especially Stars). The motto "never give up, be patient, repeat....." definitely applies when asking for RB from FTP.

[mattywein]

I emailed FT to find out who my affilate was. They are not allowed to tell me but gave me the code of Usher. I found a long lost program called pokerusher. I emailed them to try and get them to agree a rake back deal. I'm still waiting, but don't hold out much hope

[Phaedrus75]

They knocked me back repeatedly. I told them no rakeback and i will switch to Stars. They still declined (somewhat rudely I might add). I have since paid about $70K in rake at other sites.

I did tell them I would be a high volume player, but I guess they weren't to know. Their loss though, and even if they did give me 27%, it still wouldn't compare to the 40% equivalent I get at Stars

[Marty Smith]

I did tell them I would be a high volume player, but I guess they weren't to know. Their loss though, and even if they did give me 27%, it still wouldn't compare to the 40% equivalent I get at Stars

Phad can you explain this to wankers like us, who don't know how to get rakeback (equivalent) at PokerStars. What would be the best return for a casual tournament player like myself?

[JSquared]

For casual low volume players, Rakeback sites are way better. For rewards based VIP programs like Stars' You have to get enough volume for it to be worth playing.

The is a site called "fpppro" or something like that, that measures the different levels of the Stars VIP system related to how much volume you put in. It then shows you the equivalent rakeback %.

For a casual tournament player, the volume is just not there to be worth playing at a VIP site.

Their loss though, and even if they did give me 27%, it still wouldn't compare to the 40% equivalent I get at Stars

While the flat 27% is for rakeback, Full Tilt do still have the IRon Man medals that can be traded for cash bonuses, and also the new Black Card rewards that gives you FTP multipliers and a store to buy cash bonuses with your FTPs. So I wouldn't be surprised if the total rakeback plus rewards is close to the SN level on stars, it all depends on how much volume you put in.

[Marty Smith]

I see now. Thanks.

[Phaedrus75]

One other factor JJ didn't mention is rake races. Any earnings in those are additional to your 27%. For my volume / stakes that would be about another $200 or so a month. I haven't done the maths on exactly how much this improves rakeback percentage, but at JJ said, it does all add up to compete with Super Nova on Stars.

It's also worth noting that the 40% equivalent I mentioned is based on my Level 2 SN, which is basically hitting SN twice.

If you only make the first SN mile stone it's worth between 36 and 38% rakeback

One last thing to further complicate comparisons, Stars SNs get free entry into 4 x $1M GTD tourneys and 12 x $100K GTD tourneys. That's the equivalent of about $2K in tourney entries.

[sun137]

Marty,

JJ and Phae are correct, the basic rebate for low volume players is very low, for example the maximum possible rebate on Stars for a Platinum player is 27% (20% standard and 7% Stellar bonus), Gold player 17% (10% standard and 7% Stellar Bonus) and Silver 12% (5% standard and 7% Stellar Bonus).

Full Tilt total rebate is close to the SN rebate figure but volume is required to achieve it a few % points above the standard 27% is more normal for low volume players on FTP.

The Stars site is excellent and number 1 in the world for a huge number of reasons but low volume players who are interested in their bottom line should be playing on a site with rakeback, races and bonuses where the lowest total rebate is 50% without a volume requirement and can rise to 80%+ for the top players.

The majority of players settle on a site and play without looking at the world around them where there may be better opportunities. It is always better to look, even if you decide not to move, because if you don't look you never know.

[JSquared]

Funny you mention the rake races, the other week I received $10 from my rb site and I was really confused, turned out I was in the top 1000 players or something and earned $10 in the race.

That was only a 20hour week of poker at $50nl, so or a fulltimer at a decent stake like 200nl, I guess you could earn a fair bit at the rake races.

[sun137]

You are right, the winner of one of the $60K races in December took home $5K for example. The races are worth between 10% and 27% rebate depending on where you finish. If you play 200nl with an average volume the overall rebate you will earn is close to 80% and neither Stars nor Full Tilt can touch it. It depends on timing and your planned goals.

You should be earning 50%+ JJ as that is the minimum outside of the big two without volume requirements. I will have advice and packages for the 4 different types of player available at the end of January but the short summary is people should always look for options outside their normal Stars/FTP comfort site if they want to grow a bankroll and improve win rate. The big 2 offer excellent facilities for play but planning is always about the bottom line for casual or part time players or full time professionals.

[sexpistoldaz]

Are there currently any rake back deals on pstars? Do you guys get rakeback or whats the story?