The recent explosion of online poker has seen poker companies go public and everyone is trying to get a piece of the action. There are now hundreds of poker sites on the web to choose from, but at the end of the day they all offer exactly the same thing: the opportunity to wager some of our hard-earned money against anonymous opponents, sitting miles away in some other part of the world. . In underwear if we wish.

The adrenaline rush of working up a sweat while turning a card with a small fortune on the line is now possible without ever leaving your home. We don’t have to travel, go out in the cold, worry about the dress code or a taxi home. We can play at any time of the day or night, there is no closing time. We don’t have to miss Corry or Enders. As long as there is money in our poker account, we can play until our hearts are satisfied.

But that’s the problem, right? How do we keep the money in our account? The first few times we play we are feeling our way around, learning the rules. But it seems so fast and furious. The computer is always telling us to hurry up: “Wait, I’m thinking! I probably have an ace, but I’m not sure. Give me a second to think! Oh, I’ll fold then.”

But as time goes on, and we start to worry about how many Neteller transfers we seem to be making, we gradually get used to it. We won some hands; we start working with our opponents; we really did walk away from a table with a profit!

We are hooked.

We increased our bets, we started playing at the biggest tables, even with no limit. We entered one or two tournaments, we even made it to the final table. I can’t win though. But we are no longer feeding the sharks. We haven’t made a deposit in days and we’re still playing!

But all this depends on winning, at least from time to time. Poker is great when we win, but when we have to keep clicking the ‘Deposit Funds’ button it becomes quite tedious. If only there was some way to ensure that the funds are deposited into our account without the credit card taking the hit.

Well actually there is and it’s amazing how many people are playing poker today (even this very second) who don’t know about Rakeback. It seems to be a little known fact that many of the poker companies, which are desperately competing for our business, actually offer cash back just for playing.

Well, it’s time to spread the good news.

The profit that poker companies make is called ‘The Rake’. They take a percentage of the pot from each game that is played. We don’t even realize it’s gone. But it adds up to a small amount of profit for said company. The term Rakeback actually comes from the method used in casinos where the dealer would use his rake chips to drag some chips into a bucket… just to cover his costs. And make the odd millions.

Online poker companies do the same thing, albeit electronically. And as an incentive for us to sign up for their site, they offer referral incentives, in the form of Rakeback, through various online Rakeback sites. This is exactly what it says on the tin: We’re getting some ‘The Rake’ back. So for every hand we play, the poker site takes their cut and gives us a little back through the affiliated Rakeback site. If you play enough poker, this can add up to a tidy little sum, and at the end of the month, our poker account gets a nice cash injection.

It doesn’t matter if we have won or lost, we have played. And that’s all we need to do to get our Rakeback. If we play enough, it can bankroll our poker for the entire month. We can even lose and still not be out of pocket. Imagine that.

All we have to do is ask Uncle Google to find us some “Rakeback deals”, sign up for our new poker site through the Rakeback affiliate site, and hit the tables. Now all of our earnings are inflated by the Rakeback we generate while playing. Lovely Jubbly!

My friends and I use Rakeback affiliate sites like http://www.rakebackdeals.co.uk and http://www.paidpoker.co.uk which offer Rakeback deals with many of the most popular poker sites but one A quick Google search for “Rakeback Offers” will return many options.

Now get out there and spread the word…