For those of you who might not have noticed (is it possible to not have noticed?), we're now offering rakeback... do you see those promotions in the left column? We've partnered with the folks at Raketracker who we chose because of their experience, integrity and their ability to cut the best possible deals with poker rooms. Please head on over to our rakeback page to learn what rooms we work with and the deals you can receive if you sign up (you can always choose a link in the left sidebar or follow the rakeback tab on the top of each page).

What is rake?
The 'rake' is the amount the poker room removes from each pot, as a fee, for hosting/offering the poker game. The amount taken from each pot varies by limits, but is generally anywhere from $1-$3 on average per hand.

What is rakeback?
When you sign up with a poker room through Tworags, you will receive a refund for every $1.00 that you pay in rake. This refund is known as rakeback. No matter what limits you play, whether you are a professional or just play poker for fun, receiving rakeback will greatly increase your win-rate, and allow you to make more money.

What is MGR?
MGR stands for Monthly Gross Revenue. This is the number your rakeback is based on. MGR is your share of the rake generated in pots you play minus any deductions the poker rooms take out. Deductions might include bonuses, deposit fees, store purchases or other in house promotions. Some poker rooms deduct all of those items as fees while others do not deduct any. It is always best to make sure what is deducted from your MGR at the poker room of your choice to make sure you are maximizing your rakeback potential.

What is "Total Rake" or "Net Revenue"?
Each poker room may have a different term for "Total Rake" or "Net Revenue", but it is essentially the total rake paid by you as calculated by the poker room. When you receive your rakeback, it is always a percentage of your Net Revenue.

What is a Rakeback Provider?
A rakeback provider is a company that advertises for a poker room or a group of poker rooms. Rakeback providers are paid a percentage of Total Rake for each one of their players. We then give this payment from the poker room, in the form of rakeback, back to you, the poker player.

How can I get rakeback through TwoRags?
The first step is creating an account with TwoRags. This carries absolutely no obligation and will allow you to view our members area as well. Once you have logged into your newly created account with TwoRags, from the Rakeback tab, select the poker room(s) you are interested in receiving rakeback from and follow the sign up instructions. Within 5 minutes you can begin playing poker and earning rakeback!

How often are my Rakeback stats updated on TwoRags?
Almost all of your rakeback stats are updated daily. If a site does not update daily there will be a note of this. There can sometimes be delays with the rakeback stats updating, but these delays are usually out of our control and are usually not more than a couple of days.

Can I Still Get Bonuses at a Poker Room if I Receive Rakeback?
Yes! You will still be able to receive bonuses offered by the poker room and any other promotions offered by the poker room or TwoRags if you receive rakeback from TwoRags. Most online poker rooms deduct bonuses from your MGR but there are some that do not. This makes those rooms even more attractive to rakeback players. Even if bonuses are deducted it is much better to receive both bonuses and rakeback than either by themselves.

When are Rake Back Payments Made to Me?
The payments are made once a month, generally during the second week, for the previous month's rake back that is currently due to you. For example, if you have accumulated $400 in rake back in December, this will be paid to you in January. Though we strive to make the rake back payments to you by the 15th of each month, certain poker rooms automatically make the rake back payment to your poker account. There are times when the rake back payment will be made even later than the 15th due to their poker rake back payment schedule.

Note: You must have a rake back balance of $20 or more from the previous month in order to receive your rake back payment. If you are owed less than that, it will be carried over to the following month and will paid once your total has reached $20. This does not apply to accounts where you are paid automatically by the poker room.

At what Poker Rooms can I get Rakeback?
We offer rakeback at many different rooms. Go to the Rakeback homepage to see all of the offers. You can also see our featured offers by clicking below.
Full Tilt Rakeback
Cake Poker Rakeback

What is a first deposit bonus?
When you start playing at an online poker room they offer incentives to get players to make their first deposit. Some poker rooms require you to deposit a certain amount to receive the bonus while others give a no deposit bonus meaning you simply have to meet the requirements of the bonus to clear it without depositing a certain amount. In almost all cases the bonus must be earned meaning you only receive it after playing a certain number of raked hands or earning a certain number of points.

What is a reload bonus?
From time to time certain poker rooms will offer limited time reload bonuses. These are for existing players and often have the same requirements their deposit bonuses have. Reload bonuses are typically offered for special events to help promote tournaments such as the World Series of Poker while other times they are offered during typically slow times of the year such as holiday weekends. Some poker rooms offer monthly bonuses to their players.

What does "Bonuses Deducted" Mean?
Most poker rooms deduct a cleared bonus from your MGR. This means if you cleared a $200 bonus while generating $400 in rake you would only receive rake back from $200 because the other $200 was deducted from your MGR. If you were receiving 30% rakeback this would mean you would only receive $60 in rakeback instead of $120. Some poker rooms do not deduct any bonuses. This includes poker rooms on Boss Media as well as Cryptologic. If you were playing at those poker rooms you would receive $120 in rakeback in the same scenario.

Played at the Hustler again last night. As always, I started in the nightly tournament which was a $100 buy-in event. They started us with 10k in chips at 25/50 blinds so we had a lot of play. Couldn't get anything going and lost a major pot when I went all-in with 9k in chips at 300-600 blinds with AJ and got beat by a call from KQ. I was now really short and busted a few hands later.

As always, I headed over to the $300-500 5/5 cash game. A friend was seated at one of the 3 tables and I was given a seat across from him. I bought in for $500 and quickly got involved with TT. I raised to $25 from MP, had two callers to my left and one of the blinds. The flop comes 9TQr. I raised to $70. I suppose I could have slowplayed it, but I didn't want to give a free card on this board. Everyone folded.

I won a few more hands after that to bring my stack up to $800ish. Then things really slowed down. I went orbit after orbit looking at nothing but K3 type hands. When I did hit a hand I would almost always get rivered -- e..g, medium flush on turn, bet the pot, one caller, 4 card flush on river, lose to A. Or I have QQ, flop AK, have to fold to re-raise. Or A9, 99 on board, but four flush by river, etc. In my last two sessions I got a little too bored or pissed and tried to press with borderline hands that put me in the position of making difficult decisions on later streets. This time I just tried to sit back and play my game. I brought my headphones and I really think that it helped pass the time and get into a better rhythm.

During my down times I really focused on getting a read on the table. There were three players who I felt I could read very well and I tried to play pots with them. Especially when I was in position. My stack never went much below the starting $500. My key hand happened when I raised from MP to $20 with 88 and was RR from the button to $80. I called for set-value and the flop came a beautiful 58J. I checked, he bet $200, I pushed and doubled up against his KK.

It was now approaching 1am, and I really wanted to play tennis early on Sat am, but I was feeling good and my friend was staying so I played on. A few hands later I pick up JJ in the BB. There are 5 limpers to me and I make it $45. The KK player makes the call. The flop comes Axx with two spades. I lead for $75 and he mini-raises. I call. This is one of the players who I felt I had a good read on. The turn pairs the A. I decide to check and he makes it $150. My plan when I checked was to check-call if he bet (I could have led out, but would have been forced to fold to a RR). I spent some time on the call but picked up some weakness. I had noticed a few hands where he was strong, and it was very obvious to me that there was a difference in his manner here. His bet was also very weak. This guy tended to raise much more with big hands. I called. Blank on the river. It goes check-check and he mucked when I showed.

I won a few pots with raises and continuation bets. Then this hand happens. I'm UTG+1 and there's a $10 straddle to my right. I have only T7h, but decide to limp. Not great, but I was just stacking my chips from a nice pot, so decided to play. There's a bunch of limpers and the straddler makes it $60 more. Normally I throw this hand away without hesitation, but this guy had lost some brutal hands and I feel he is steaming a bit. I also felt that he played very straightforward, respected my game (didn't think I would do anything out of line) and of course I had position. My biggest gamble was that it would be only the two of us. Luckily everyone folded. The flop comes Axx with two hearts. Pretty good flop for me. He makes it $100 and I call. A T hits on the turn. He now bets $100 again. It felt to me that he was not crazy about his hand and this was a blocking bet. He might have had a weak A, but it felt more like air or a pocket pair. It might have been as good as JJ-KK, but no way to be sure. What I did know was that I had outs, second pair and an opponent who was uncomfortable and respected my bets so I raised $150 more (he had about $350 left). He folded and asked if I had the A. Of course I told him yes.

I won a few more pots after that, some with good hands, some using my position. By 2:30am and with 1600 in chips behind I decided it was time to get some sleep.

I just read a really interesting article from a parent's point of view of what it's like to have a child choose a career of professional internet poker player vs. continuing with college. The article can be found here:

My Son's Gamble

I was able to read it on my iPhone without registering for the NYT site, but I would suggest you register because the article is definitely worth reading. The mom initially goes through complete panic as she sees here son neglect his studies and his tennis (he's a division I tennis player) and stays up all night playing poker online. The kid, Dan (anyone know him?), alienates himself from the family and stays in his room sleeping all day -- sound familiar? He tells his mom that he no longer plays poker.

The mom eventually figures out how to break in to his Full Tilt account and change the password, locking Dan out of the $12k balance. It's only then that Dan talks to her and admits that he is still playing. He convinces FT to let him back in and his mom soon realizes that it's pointless to fight Dan on this since she'll never win. Instead, she educates herself on the game and eventually learns to support him.

There's much more to the article and I would like to hear your thoughts. I assume many of you have similar stories. Let's face it, most parents' dreams of what their children will do for a career do not usually include Professional Poker Player! I have a 14 year-old son who loves games, is extremely competitive and is obsessed with making lots of money one day soon. I've introduced him to poker and he loves it. I'm obviously much more experience with poker than the average parent, but do I want my son playing professional poker in his teens? Hmmm... that's a tough one.

Today I officially launched my first iPhone App. It was a bit longer in the works than planned but I'm really happy with Nag-O-Meter Deluxe. You can read about it here:

http://www.theappcompany.com/nag-o-meter

and watch the video we put together:



It's a fun, 99 cent App that comes with over 600 high quality recordings of various people saying Nagging things. We allow you to email the Nags, set any of the Nags as custom ringtones, etc. So far, the feedback has been really good. We had a lot of fun making it. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch please download it and give it a try. I would appreciate some reviews and if you can spread the word to your friends via your email lists and social network followers that would be fantastic!

I'm happy to offer promotional codes to any review sites.

POKER

I played a bit of live cash poker on Saturday at the Hustler here in LA. I had only 3 hours to kill and my best hands were 66 and AQ the entire session. However, it was a really weak $300-500 game and I came away up $150 for the session. I had it up to $900, but played one horrible hand that cost me $150+, made a semi-bluff that didn't pan out for $200 and didn't get value out of some of my hands. Basically, I suck.

My horrible hand went something like... on button, folds to me and make it $20 without looking. Had a reasonably tight image at this point. Get called by BB who checks the 4 6 8 rainbow flop. I make it $50 without looking and he raises an additional $50. I now look down at 3 7. I probably need to fold or raise but I just call with the plan of trying to take it away on turn. Turn Q and and he makes it $50 again. Hmmm, we're both fairly deep here, but at this point with only a gut-shot I need to raise or fold, but of course I call hoping to get really lucky or if a great scare card comes I might raise if he bets small again or bet if he checks no matter what. River pairs the board and he bets $150 and I fold. HORRIBLE.

I did have one hand which seemed weak but I think was right. I find myself in a hand with position and a flush draw to the T and an A and Q of the suit on the flop against one player who is fairly good. He bets the flop and I just call (I also have middle pair). Turn is a blank and he bets $80 and I call. On the river I make my flush (3rd nuts) and he bets $140. We both have about $250 more behind. I took a while to decide between calling and raising. I felt that he likely had top pair only and any raise by me would so obviously look like a flush that I only get called by a better flush. I decided to just call and he did have an AT. He might have called a mini-raise but who knows. Any thoughts on this one?

I was invited to a home game up in the Valley last night. The lineup was made up of some great guys, all of whom are highly successful internet founders. One guy founded pricegrabber, another ifilm. Great group. The quality of the poker was typical for a home game. The bet sizing was all over the place. Sometimes guys would be $20 into a $150 pot and other times go all in for $2000 into a $200 pot! Some of the players were fairly competent, but the drugs and drinks brought the quality of play down a few notches.

The game was NL, $2/4 with a $300 buy-in. You could buy back in for any amount, so after a few hours most stacks were in the $1000+ range. We also had a $20 per man 2-7 prop bet going on -- if you win with 2-7 you win $20 from each player.

I was up a few hundred from the game and won't go into many hands, but three were worth noting.

Hand 1:

I have AQ on button -- effective stacks about $800. $20 raise from mid-position player, I make it $75 and BB calls. Flop comes 88Tr. Checked to me, I make it $150, both call. 5 on turn, check all around. T on river, so board is now 88TT5. BB makes it $150. Second player takes a bit of time and calls. I contemplate fold or call. Ending up calling and everyone was pretty impressed when I split the pot with the 2nd player who also had AQ. First guy had 77. I think I really missed an opportunity to push the river. The 2nd player was very, very likely to have an A and almost certainly didn't have me beat. If he has an 8 he definitely leads flop or turn or perhaps check raises. If he has a T he certainly raises river. The blind could have had a T, but likely bets the turn or bets much more on river.

Hand 2:

Mid position player opens for $50 late in night. I tell him that he 100% has 72 and he starts laughing and it's clear I'm right. I call with 8To. Button calls too. Flop comes QT5 all spades, I do not have a spade.

72 guy plays with chips and contemplates bet. I tell him that I'll call anything. He says 'what if I push?' and I tell him I'm not sure, but maybe I don't call a push. He checks, I check, button makes it $100, we both call.

Turn offsuit 3. 72 guy pushes, he has me covered, I have $1200. Hmmm. I really don't feel I can even consider calling with the button still in the hand so I fold. Button folds two red kinds. 72 guy turns over his 72. Interesting. Not sure what I do if I was the only one left in the hand. I would have hoped I could call it.

Hand 3:

Just to show you the kind of game this was... MP makes it $20, I make it $75 with QQ. LP makes it $200. Folded to me and I go all-in for $300 more. LP calls with AT! My hand holds.