Beating the Rake Heads Up

I am very curious to hear if people are beating the rake even if they are excellent players, especially if their opponents are decent as well. I can't figure how both players don't lose a lot to the rake.


If it was 20/40 or 15/30 heads up I'd say the rake is probably not too bad but I did some calculations.


Playing 10/20 at PP you can play about 120 hands that go past the flop(probably 200 hands total). in an hour. Each hand that sees the flop costs a dollar in rake. For a total of $120 or 6BB, how can a player who is clearly better than most opponents overcome that.


At 20/40 given the same rake of 1$ per hand thats only 3BB and is quite manageable. At 5/10 the rake is probably 80$ at least which is 8BB and at 3/6 probabaly 60$ so the rake is 10BB.


I'd be interested to hear some stats for heads up players what limits they play and their win rate and average deviation.


Cheers

I am not going to give my win rate but the games are most definitely beatable. Very few players are good enough to win enough to offset the negative value of the huge variance that is experienced, however.

Basically, you need to be as certain as you can that you are going to dominate the game. Two relatively equal players playing HU with most rake structures is pointless. Also, it's always best to find a place that charges a flat hourly rate.

this is the rake structure for heads up poker on

paradisepoker.com :


hands under $20 : no fees

between 20 & $39: 0.50

over $40 : 1$ (maximum)


The rake is between 0% and 2.5%(max) of the pot

witch is ok...


It's not different then in a normal poker room:

it's just faster on the internet...

Only 10% of the players make $$$$

It's just faster on the internet

I cant comment on the HU games, but can on the 5 max games.


For a 3/6 game I paid about 4BB/hour for play. And that is still very well beatable, although you often should be the only winning player at the table. With another one I think your winrate is greatly reduced and might even not be there. Now consider what a losing player loses on average and you know why you dont see the same faces everytime ;-)


Regards

Other sites dont take as much rake in 1-1. In other sites that I play in the max rake is 50 cents in 1-1. There is a huge difference to paradises 1$. I used to play at paradise regurarly, but not anymore. They should drop their rake at 1-1.

What site only charges a max rake of 50 cents, and at what limit?

poker.com and ultimatebet.com and at all limits. poker.com has tables up to 20/40 and UB up to 50/100. I can recommend both sites.

Hi peasant!


We met at the last Helsinki Freezeout. Skinny german guy, remember?

How was the Midsummer tourney for you?


Greets, Erd.

are you the magician? If you are I do remember. I didnt do well in the Midsummer tourney, but doing very well otherwise in poker. How about you?

yep, that s me.


have not played a lot since then, just a little online. still doing well, slowly building a bankroll...


Otherwise life is just great. Hope to see you again sometimes. Even online would be fun...


CU, Erd

Do you play online with that name and where? I usually play at poker.com or ultimatebet.com and sometimes paradise. I hope I see you in those sites some day!

Yes, I play on PP regularly, NLHE 50 buy-in, PLO 50, 7CS8 2-4, 7CS 4-8, and 3-6 5 max.


Only small limits so far, building a BR, learning some new games and having some fun.


I have never been to Pokerstars, and I just cashed out from UB.


Good luck to you. Hope to see you around.


Erd