Poker Data, Rake Tables and Room Analysis

Rakewise exists for one reason: rake quietly decides whether a winning player stays a winning player. Two rooms can advertise the same 100% match bonus and still send you home with wildly different results, because one caps the pot at $2 and the other skims every flop at 5%. We publish the structure, not the slogan.

How we measure every room

Each operator in our tables is checked against the same checklist. We photograph the rake schedule at every stake from the smallest micro tables up to high-stakes, then convert it into effective rake per 100 hands so the numbers can be compared directly. Bonus and rakeback terms are read line by line, including the expiry rules that turn a generous-looking offer into a treadmill.

We also record what happens after the money moves: processing times for deposits and withdrawals, which payment rails are actually open to players in each region, and whether support answers a straight question with a straight answer. When a room changes its structure, the table is updated rather than quietly left to rot.

Bankroll maths, not vibes

Variance is the reason good players go broke. A 5bb/100 winner can slide through a 30 buy-in downswing without doing a single thing wrong, and knowing the shape of that curve is the difference between patience and panic. Our bankroll guides work through the survival maths with concrete buy-in benchmarks for cash games and tournaments, including how much traffic a schedule needs before the softer fields justify the higher variance of tournaments.

What we will never do

We do not publish a review that a room's marketing department would recognise. We do not hide the penalty clauses, we do not bury the rakeback cap, and we do not pretend a bonus is free money when it is really a volume commitment. Australian players get the same tables as everyone else, with the local licensing and deposit rules stated plainly.

Read the tables before you deposit

Start with the rake comparison if you already have a room in mind and want to know what you are paying. Start with the room reviews if you are choosing a new site, and read the bonus section twice. If a number here looks wrong, tell us where and we will re-check it: the whole point of an independent reference is that it can be audited.