Sorry guys I know this has probably been discussed a million times but I wasnt able to find something that talks specifically how to set up an account eligible for rakeback. I currently have accounts on fulltilt, 888, and pokerstars so I'm assuming i'm not eligible for rakeback anymore? What sites besides those have good traffic and offer good rakeback?

How does one get a rakeback account? I did some googling and found a site called rakeback.com and it says if i download and make an account with one of the sites they list I will have a rakeback account. Is this true? Are the better ways of setting this up. I can't believe this is a real thing. Sounds almost too good to be true.

Thanks for any help I greatly appreciate it.

There are no rakeback deals which require external signups for Stars or Tilt, and I don't think there are for 888.

Fill up a request form in the Affiliate/Rakeback subforum, you will be then contacted by affiliates with VIP/RB offers.

I wish I'd been around in the boom years, where there was so much competition for new customers that rakeback and bonuses were paid out at ridiculous/unsustainable rates.
During the boom, sites were desperate to get new players to sign with them instead of rivals, so affiliates could make a ton of money by promoting various sites. Players could make money by "bonus-whoring", effectively depositing on one site, clearing the bonus (and doubling or tripling their bankroll while playing in fishy pools), then moving their newer/larger bankroll to another site (there was a new site starting up every month) and repeating the bonus process. Loads of "bonus whores" ultimately went broke because they couldn't actually beat the game. They were living on rakeback. (Not that I blame them for doing so. Free money is still free money.)

The boom years are over and plenty of sites went busto, because they overspent their budgets by basically handing out too much free money to players that quit the sites as soon as they cleared the bonus. (If the software was crappy, you wouldn't stick around once the bonus was cleared). Nowadays, the rakeback/bonuses are at lower rates, and it's more aimed at retaining current customers, but there are still some decent sign-up deals to be had if you shop around and can be bothered to go through the process of changing networks every now and again.

Unfortunately, you can't get "retroactive rakeback" on most sites if you signed up/deposited before hearing about the affiliate deal.

I'd still recommend shopping around though. Some affiliates will give you a decent permanent rakeback rate. Others offer exclusive freerolls, subscriptions to training sites or some sort of goody bag, so take some time to look around before just signing up.

Thanks ArtySmokes.

I have a couple more questions. If I can play on a site with less traffic like the ipoker network with 50% rakeback should I do this opposed to playing on pokerstars with 30%? Stars has an insane amount of traffic. I'm sure a lot of it is regs but will I find more profitable games?

I currently play micro stakes so I dont need to find lots of low and mid stakes tables or anything so I suppose this doesnt matter quite as much. Probably go with 50% rakeback at ipoker? Also 200% on deposit is pretty nice.

One more thing. It says that the 200% bonus "clears at 20%" can someone explain what this means?

Thanks again for your help!

iPoker is arguably just as tough as Stars is - if not tougher - primarily because of the grinder-friendly rakeback scheme and the close links with the PokerStrategy.com forum.

There's plenty of traffic during European hours.
50% rakeback is pretty sweet, but you might get offered even better. If the bonus clears at 20%, that means you'll unlock $1 for every $5 of rake that you pay, but this will be on top of the 50% that you're already getting. In a game where the rake can be anything up to 10bb/100, you're basically adding the equivalent of about 7bb/100 to your winrate for a couple of months. That said, you might find the games are so tough that your graph might be horrendous even while you're making money on the side.
FWIW, my own iPoker graph is like an inverted V. I had a sick heater for a while, and then an elongated downswing. I kind of hate that network now, (it's just not much "fun" to play on, for me) but they keep tempting me back with short-term 100% rakeback offers. It's kind of weird, but I still prefer playing on 888 (disconnection problems notwithstanding) even though the "rewards" clear at a lousy 2%.

If you go with Will Hill or something, make sure you opt in to all the different rake races and promos on the site's website, and get ready to do some serious grinding. With a change in iPoker's rake/reward strategy next year, it's likely the deals will be less generous in future.

Thanks. The deal sounds pretty great. Tougher tables arent the best but I do want to improve my game anyway so as long as I focus.. I have been playing 888 and I currently just the the 10 dollars after so many points they offer and zero deposit bonus. I also have found the tables quite tight. Almost all below and around 20% in before the flop. Even with slightly better competition on ipoker it sounds like I would be doing better there as I am currently getting almost nothing as far as rakeback and bonuses from 888.

What stakes were you playing at ArtySmokes? I am currently playing nl10.

Nice thread was wanting to know the same as others. I'm on 888 and as far as I can tell the rewards scheme is nothing, you need to build up to 10 dollars , no rakeback , no real bonuses.

I guess I'll dip into the rakeback forum next week. I intend to play alot more volume, and I dont think its worth staying at 888, the site servers are disgraceful and I really dont think its as soft as people say it is. SNGs are not too bad if thats your game, I've moved to cash and I'm at the bottom now at NL4 starting out. Off the topic but out of interest did you start out at NL10 or work your way up, if so how long did it take you?

Hopefully you don't regret asking me this question but here is a wall of text for you.

I graduated with an engineering degree last winter and the job market is aweful where I live so I bummed twenty bucks off my mom (lolzz) and started playing on fulltilt with all my free time. I didnt make much progress at first. My dad ordered me three phil gordon books which are absolute gold and I started playing cash games. Before this I had no idea how to approach cash games. Sit n gos were not working out, I was losing and the variance was putting me on tilt quickly. It drove me nuts to get it all in w/ KK to some fish w/ air and lose out of the tourney.

Anyyyways with a solid cash game strat down from the phil gordon books I realised that cash games were much more profitable for me and I enjoyed them a great deal. I started playing nl2 on fulltilt and there were lots of fish. I started recording my hours/ hands and winrate and was beating nl2 very easily. I tried to take shots at nl5 and nl10 too early however and lost my roll from 60 down to about 20 again, sometimes lower. I basically lost my focus and interest in nl2. I wanted to keep taking shots so I could play more "interesting" games. I was in a fustrated place in my life with not being able to find a job with the degree I busted my butt for and having to ask my parents or girlfriend for anything I wanted so grinding penny games sometimes just added to the frustration.

After about 6 months I found a job near home and I make decent money so I can play slightly higher stakes. I'm very analytical by nature so although I was crushing nl2 pretty easily I didnt want to make a big jump. I put a few hundred on 888 a few weeks back and am trying to establish a win rate for that before I deposit any more money. I had a nasty downswing to start. Down about 10 BI. I was rusty since I started work as I hadnt played for several months. Basically my preflop strategy had gone out the window. I realised this and recouped about half my losses in the past couple days. Getting myself in a lot less speculative situations by not playing weak hands out of position and calling too much. I was doing this a lot and they are both huge leaks....

Note: a lot of this is over fairly small sample sizes. I am not trying to claim I am an expert micro player. Just describing my experiences.

Technically I didnt build up to nl 10 but nl2 was very beatable I found. Solid preflop strat/ hand selection and finding tables with lots of action and you are pretty well set to be a winner with even basic postflop knowledge.

Sorry for the long story but it's also helpful for me to reflect on where I'm at so I like to explain it as best as I can.

No probs, nice post. It's quiet ironic because right now I'm reading the Phil Gordon books! I've read through the cash and satellite sections of the Blue Book taking some notes, I've skipped the other sections though because I want to concentrate on those formats atm. I'm starting the Green Book now, which of his books did you find best, do you have the Gold one??

Do you multitable much ? I'm doing it at present 4 tabling at NL4, I'm finding it harder obviously and it affects my profit, but I'd rather get it out of the way now and improve at this level, then try it at NL10 or higher. I'm actually in awe of how people play 10 tables + . Heard of some people 24 tabling? They must have lots of helpful software its insane, theres very little time to think at 4 tables for me, I'd imagine I will stay at 4 maximum for a long time I dont have the brain capacity to do more than that.

I have green black and blue. I forget which one comes first but black and green were both very helpful and easy to read. I play 3-4 tables. sometimes with one or two of the being rush/zoom or whatever. As long as I am taking my time to consider hand ranges, betting lines etc I am happy. But if I am a bit slow on a particular day because I am tired or something I will play less tables. Since we are still beginners its much more important to undertand defining hand ranges/ percieving other hand ranges etc if we are going to be good enough to make money (which ultimately I want to do). Understanding basic odds and out rule of 4 and 2 and all that first, then I think starting to really delve into ranges and understanding opponent are the logical steps to take.

I am currently just working on understanding ranges and how to actual size my bets so that they always mean something. I do this by apporaching each hand strategically and deciding what my goal is for a particular situation (do I want to build a pot against a passive calling station, lead my maniac opponent into a bluff etc.) by doing this and evaluating your opponent you can make many more profitable decisions and I imagine after a long while of practice it becomes somewhat second nature. It is at this point and not before that you start to multi table 6+ tables IMO. at nl2 you can profit by simply playing strong preflop and betting for value and folding when you are beat. I think to beat nl10 at the same rate as nl2 I need to step up my game as far as understanding ranges and betting lines.

I'm not certain its about brain capacity. I'm a smart guy and I easily get flustered playing more than four tables atm also. I think with practice you start to see so many situations and understand them to the point that it becomes automatic. You can make mostly profitable decisions much faster without much hesitation and thus can play more tables. So learn to understand the game first then move toward your next goal. Again I'm a noob too but I'm pretty sure this is the right way to go about it.

You also want to make you practice as meaningful as possible. Spendign hours playing wont improve your skills if you arent actually focussing on what you are doing. Yes you could argue that playing more tables is a greater challenge and thus is better practice as some studies might suggest. However especially in this game that may not be true as you very easily could get flustered lose a big pot and then go on tilt making you quality of practice even lower.

Compare this to a sport you might have played. I play baseball so lets try that. You are trying to become a better pitcher. Pithing against very good hitters may be more useful as far learning to overcome strong adversaries. So if you have the roll moving up in stakes could be good for improving your poker game as its no longer "throw the ball, watch them swing and miss" (whether it is a ball or strike) and then feel good about yourself. You have to really focus and work on yur game to beat the good hitters.

Now if we scale it like playing muliple tables it wuld be like pitching in stations. Throw a ball move to the next station throw a ball all in quick succession. You are getting more pitching volume in but you dont have the time to analyse what you are doing and how the hitter is countering it. Thus the practice becomes almost meaningless.