Hi guys, I did a study on Rake at Pokerstars Sit & Go Tournaments (Full Ring). I'm just sharing what I found. You will hear many Cash regs talk about Rake and game selection. SNG players need to be similarly careful, as fees erode prize pools and your ROI (Return on Investment).
So let's get into it!
Ok. Let's say you play $3.50 SNGs. On Stars, $3.16 goes into the Prize pool and $0.34 is retained by the site as their fee. Nine players pay in a total of (9 x $3.50) = $31.50. So a total of (9 x $3.16) = $28.44 goes into the prize pool. At the same time (9 x $0.34) = $3.04 is retained by stars. This is the rent (if you like) for them to host the game. If we quickly work out a percentage (Entry Fees / Total Buyins), we find that Pokerstars keeps ($3.04/$31.50) = 9.7%. We will call this the 'Rake' of the tournament.
Briefly checking the lowest buyin of $0.50, we find that stars retains $0.06 of this and adds $0.44 from each player to the prize pool. Which means the rake is ($0.06 / $0.50) = 12%, which is a good bit higher than 9.7% on the 3-fiddys. I don't want this post to be unnecessarily long so I worked it all out. Here's what I found:
So what does this mean?
For me personally, it means that I avoid playing $0.50 and $1.50 SNGs like the plague. 12% disappearing from the total prize pool is not something I enjoy. Obviously we don't all have the bankroll for $7 and $15 SNGs. I'd recommend rolls of $300 and $600 for these respectively (At a minimum). But for most of us I think $3.50 is a nice compromise at only 9.7% rake and needs only about a $140 bankroll (40 x $3.50)*.
In Conclusion
If you you want to be a serious regular SNG grinder, and maximise your long term ROI, then I would not recommend playing SNGs below $7. You could throw in some $3.50 without worrying too much. But there's a huge difference between the 12% rake at $1.50 and 7.4% rake at $15. That's nearly 5%, which for some players is whole winrate. So whatever site you play on, make sure you know the rake. Some sites (Particularly the Sports betting ones) anything on the iPoker network should be checked carefully. I was playing on a similar site and found they were raking 15% of the buyin which is obscene. So choose your site carefully.
One disclaimer: Just because the rake is lower at the higher levels, doesn't mean you are ready to play there. You can't just move up to $15 SNG from $1.50 because you're getting a better Rake deal. Both YOU And your Bankroll must be ready. Opponents will be tougher, and therefore your winrate will go down. So what you save in Rake you might lose in winrate. For beginners playing at $0.50/$1.50, you can give $3.50 a try, save some Rake without worrying too much. Good experience. But maybe avoid $7.00 and higher until you are ready for tough competition. But if you are an experienced player then I encourage you to get a bigger bankroll, move up and save yourself some money.
Hope you enjoyed the article and got something out of it. Please feel free to ask anything in the comments below.
Give em hell out there,
Rage
So let's get into it!
Ok. Let's say you play $3.50 SNGs. On Stars, $3.16 goes into the Prize pool and $0.34 is retained by the site as their fee. Nine players pay in a total of (9 x $3.50) = $31.50. So a total of (9 x $3.16) = $28.44 goes into the prize pool. At the same time (9 x $0.34) = $3.04 is retained by stars. This is the rent (if you like) for them to host the game. If we quickly work out a percentage (Entry Fees / Total Buyins), we find that Pokerstars keeps ($3.04/$31.50) = 9.7%. We will call this the 'Rake' of the tournament.
Briefly checking the lowest buyin of $0.50, we find that stars retains $0.06 of this and adds $0.44 from each player to the prize pool. Which means the rake is ($0.06 / $0.50) = 12%, which is a good bit higher than 9.7% on the 3-fiddys. I don't want this post to be unnecessarily long so I worked it all out. Here's what I found:
So what does this mean?
For me personally, it means that I avoid playing $0.50 and $1.50 SNGs like the plague. 12% disappearing from the total prize pool is not something I enjoy. Obviously we don't all have the bankroll for $7 and $15 SNGs. I'd recommend rolls of $300 and $600 for these respectively (At a minimum). But for most of us I think $3.50 is a nice compromise at only 9.7% rake and needs only about a $140 bankroll (40 x $3.50)*.
In Conclusion
If you you want to be a serious regular SNG grinder, and maximise your long term ROI, then I would not recommend playing SNGs below $7. You could throw in some $3.50 without worrying too much. But there's a huge difference between the 12% rake at $1.50 and 7.4% rake at $15. That's nearly 5%, which for some players is whole winrate. So whatever site you play on, make sure you know the rake. Some sites (Particularly the Sports betting ones) anything on the iPoker network should be checked carefully. I was playing on a similar site and found they were raking 15% of the buyin which is obscene. So choose your site carefully.
One disclaimer: Just because the rake is lower at the higher levels, doesn't mean you are ready to play there. You can't just move up to $15 SNG from $1.50 because you're getting a better Rake deal. Both YOU And your Bankroll must be ready. Opponents will be tougher, and therefore your winrate will go down. So what you save in Rake you might lose in winrate. For beginners playing at $0.50/$1.50, you can give $3.50 a try, save some Rake without worrying too much. Good experience. But maybe avoid $7.00 and higher until you are ready for tough competition. But if you are an experienced player then I encourage you to get a bigger bankroll, move up and save yourself some money.
Hope you enjoyed the article and got something out of it. Please feel free to ask anything in the comments below.
Give em hell out there,
Rage
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