Your rakeback is directly dependent on the amount of rake the poker room allots to you.  This is called your MGR and the more you have of it, the more rakeback you’re entitled to.

Different playing styles yield different amounts of MGRs and different poker rooms use different methods to determine individual MGRs.

Some of these methods offer advantages for certain playing styles over the others.  This is why it’s extremely important that you determine which of these rake contribution methods fit your playing style the best.

The dealt rake method takes the resulting rake in a hand and divides it equally between the players who are dealt into the hand.  That’s right, if you’re not in one of the blinds, you do not even have to commit a single cent to the pot in order to earn MGR and thus rakeback too.  This method obviously offers an edge for tight passive players, who will have loose aggressive guys generating rake back for them.

If you’re a loose player who likes to fling his stack around recklessly, signing up for a rakeback deal which uses this calculation method isn’t exactly the best choice.

The contributed rake method is an improvement in terms of fairness over the dealt one.  The software only allots MGR to players who actually put money into the pot.  Those who don’t, do not earn any credit.

The problem with this method is that the resulting rake is still distributed equally among those who do put some money into the pot.  This way, a player who puts a lot of money into the pot will still generate rakeback for the guy who only puts a little.

The weighted contributed rake method is by far the most accurate MGR calculation method there is.  The algorithm that calculates your contribution only considers players who actively contribute to the pot.  Not only that, but the MGR is determined by taking the contributed amount into account as well.  If you contribute more money to the pot, you get more MGR and you’ll be eligible for more rakeback too.

If you’re a loose aggressive player, this is definitely the MGR calculation method you want to play by.

Make sure you know these subtle aspects before you sign up for rakeback.  Rakeback will offer you an edge regardless of the rake contribution method used by the poker room, but how big an edge it gives you should also matter.  As a poker player, you are obliged to make the most out of every opportunity you encounter.

Poker Prop deals offer players rakeback percentages between 80-135%.  That’s right.  I know over 100% rakeback means you’re actually getting paid to play poker there, but these are real deals and they are responsible for turning many a losing online poker player into long-term winners.

There are some rakeback providers out there who have a nice selection of poker prop deals slapped to their offer.

Whenever people hear about such generous rakeback percentages, they immediately become suspicious that there may be a scam in the background.  After all, why would a poker room ever pay someone to play there?  If you know a thing or two about the online poker industry though, you’ll find the answer quite self explanatory:  Poker rooms pay certain players to play there simply because they desperately need to fill up their critical player liquidity.

To have your critical player liquidity in good shape means to have plenty of players on most of the popular limits playing at all times of the day.  It should be quite obvious why a poker room cannot function without its critical player liquidity.

Newly started poker rooms have few means to attain their critical liquidity and one of the most efficient ways is through offering poker prop deals and sometimes even square rakeback.

Now then, if you access a prop deal provider’s site, you’ll see that while regular rakeback deals are listed together with a review of the site that offers them, poker prop deals don’t reveal the name of the site which “hires” the props.

Some find this too suspicious.  Again, I have to tell you there’s nothing shady about it.  Here’s the reason why the provider withholds the data regarding the poker room: most online poker rooms are not exactly proud to resort to seemingly ‘desperate” methods such as prop deals.  Prop players are generally regarded as skillful sharks by the poker community (although that is hardly the case – most props are previously losing players who have found a way to turn the tables on the action through propping).  Nobody wants to play against such “sharks” and therefore the whole setup may end up providing unwanted negative publicity for the outfit.  That’s why you won’t ever get to know the name of the site till you sign up.

All sorts of details regarding the prop deals will be available though, and you will find out about the poker room too just as soon as you sign up. Whether or not such secrecy is efficient is debatable, however the poker rooms insist on it, and therefore the providers cannot disclose these details to the public.