Dear All,

IÂ’ve heard great things about this forum over the years but never got around to singing up and posting, but decided to post after my experience at an online private game Â…

IÂ’ve recently been playing an online game where the rake is 5% capped at 6bb, the blinds are 1GBP/3GB optional 6 straddle. The game is played on PPPoker application and also interestingly kicks you out unless you manage a 30% VPIP.

The game is extremely soft (no 3betting, VPIPs average at 40-50%, with everyone buying in super deep (on average the stacks lie between 300-400bb) and big pots all the time, straddles on about 30-50% of the time.

I have around 35hours in this game already but comes the question of whether this game has rake that is beatable and whether its worth putting more time into trying to find out?

Recently there was a crazy session where they played for almost 26 hrs straight - and because of the nature the app PPpoker, you can actually add up the PNLs and find out how much rake is being taken - Averaged out over those 26 hrs the organisers made 100bb per hour. Bear in mind the straddles are on frequently, there are always big pots and super deep stacks and the game played short handed (less than 7ppl) for much of the time. But comes the question, is this game possible to beat? The orgs take 100bb off the table every hour, and so does that mean I have to win more than 100bb per hour in order to beat the rake? How does a theoretically winning player go about calculating how much they need to win in order to beat the rake, assuming a 100bb per hour rake.

Would appreciate any feedback and thoughts!

Thanks for you time.

Don't forget the hidden rake when playing in this sort of game, i.e. the non-zero chance someone decides they don't want your play any more and steals your funds

Thanks for your concern but I’m trusted by the organisers so I’m the one who plays on credit, not them.

If they take off 100 BB per hour, you need to beat the game by more than 100/6 per hour to be profitable since the rake is split between the players at the table.

Since you say everyone is extremely deep it's probably possible for a good player. But maybe not if the site enforces a 30% VPIP or you get booted from the game.

Rake matters. A lot. But it is only one half of the calculation. Expected win rate in the game matters as well.

There are games that are outrageously raked, but are so soft/deep that the win rate outstrips the rake. There are also games where the rake is so high and the game is tough enough (even if relatively soft) that they cannot be beat by the best poker player in the world.

When evaluating a game, you need to look at rake plus the win rate.