I recently started playing at a new casino. The $2-2 NL holdem games are a bit nitty but very soft. However the rake is uncapped at 10%. Is this even beatable in the long run?

In theory yes. But tough.

Yeah, but I wouldn't bother unless it's the only game in town. I should say it also depends on the buy-in. If they only allow a $40 buy-in or something it might not be beatable, if the max buy-in is $300, then it's much more beatable.

(You should be playing much tighter with such a large rake.)

I think the buy in is uncapped, but it may be $400 on some of the tables, and most people buy in for min $200.

The other game in town is ultra ultra nitty and not so donkish, with a 5% rake. It feels less beatable than the 10% game but I'm not sure.

Why even bother? You are basically being robbed and losing much of the edge you have in the game. Home games with large rakes are fraudulent unless it has a crazy kickass buffet and free handjobs.

I doubt it. Where is this?

I would try to find poker elsewhere because uncapped seems to go along with unbeatable as "words that go together."

if you describe the players as nitty i don't like your odds

is the 5% game capped or uncapped as well?

Yeah, this.

Your edge has to be pretty big to make up for the rake on large pots. On the other hand, it is wrong to play this game nitty. Since the rake on 10 $10 pots is the same as the rake on 1 $100 rather than costing $5 more, there's no reason to not try to take down a lot of small pots.

In fact if they don't rake pf, you want to try to win as many pf hands as possible.

It's not a home game???

It's in London, the rake is 5% max at levels above $2-2 (or £1-1 in our money). I might need to get a bigger bankroll and move up.

the 5% game is capped, but its full of solid grinders and you get 15 hands per hour if you're lucky.

I would never play in this game if I lived in London, there's too many other choices.

15 hands per hour and solid doesn't really compute.. How are you only getting this many hands per hour? Also a 5% rake that is CAPPED is such a huge difference from a 10% uncapped rake.. How many euros do they cap the rake at?

I would almost certainly play at the 5% game.

wow, that is a rough rake, I'm a winning player, but that rake would cut into my profit signifigantly.....seems like you'd have to play higher

i just moved here, any recommendations?

In the game I play, if there is a flop the rake is 60% of the BB including a drop for the bad beat jack pot. I figure that on average, they take down about 14 to 16 BB for rake an hour.

In that same game (5/10 NL w/$1500 cap) pot sizes vary from $15 (chopped) to $3000 (sometimes more of course, but not common). If I'm in an 8 hour session, I expect the house to earn about $1,200 over that 8 hours.

Suppose we play 25 hands an hour on average and that there are an average of 4 hands an hour that are at least $1000. 4 hands that are at least $500, and let's suppose that the average for the rest of the hands it's $60 pots. The house at 10% would be taking down an average of $1620 dollars an hour, or $12,960 per session.

There are 9 players each buying in from between $500 and $1500, but suppose they all buy in for the max that's a total of $13,500 in play.

The game would be hard to beat and hard to keep feed, no?

guvnor not at all beatable get out of ther, do the math

crazy rake you'll just sit there and watch your money evaporate. and all the stacks around you too.

The Vic is probably the best place to play, it's a 2 minute walk from Edgware Road tube. Empire at Leicester Square is also good for low limit cash. Those are the only two I've played at but there are probably half a dozen others; off the top of my head, The International, The Western, Gala Russell Square, Palm Beach. See the The London Poker thread for more details.

BTW are you sure it's not capped. It seems odd to be running an uncapped 10% game next to a capped 5% game.

I've never had the pleasure of meeting an uncapped rake game. Are river bets raked also? For the sake of keeping it simple if you bet 2k on the river and get called do they cut $400 from the pot just like that? A 4k pot is probably exaggerating but it still just seems insane to me.

There are 10% uncapped rake 1-1 games in London?!?

Seriously, 10% capped at 5 at the 1-1 in the Vic is enough to make small pots unprofitable. I can only imagine how brutal 10% uncapped must be.

yeah this is pretty much it...i played a 5% uncapped game in Deauville last year which was bad enough, i didnt realise when i sat down, won a pot quite early of about 600 and watched them take 30 euros out of it! Now imagine winning a 300 pot and seeing 30 go to the house.

going to follow the advice and find a better game.