Rakeback has quickly become the online comp of choice for high volume players who put in thousands of hands per month. Even for more casual players, rakeback will often add up to a much better bonus than the standard deposit bonuses. High stakes players and even middle stakes players who put in lots of hands each month will earn thousands each month in rakeback bonus, so it's easy to see why this form of comp has become a industry to itself in the past several years.

So where did it rakeback begin? In early 2004, when the online poker boom was still somewhat in it's infancy, the founders of Poker-Strategy.Org hit upon the idea of giving a portion of their affiliate commissions back to the individual players who generated them. As an affiliate, they already earned a monthly commission of rake generated by players they referred to the poker sites, and in many cases they could actually view individual player statistics, hands played and rake amounts generated. They originally called their idea a "rake rebate". After pitching the idea to several poker sites, Absolute Poker, barely a year old itself at the time, agreed to give the idea a go, and the Absolute Poker Rake Rebate program was born, April of 2004. The program was immediately successful, and by the end of that year had spawned programs at other poker rooms with many other affiliates jumping on board. A rakeback comparison industry even sprung up towards the end of the year with sites launching that allowed players to compare offers between affiliates, much like a LendingTree or Progressive compares benefits in other genres.

Over the years, the idea of a rake rebate or getting rake back has created a new word in the online poker vocabulary, and is what we know today as 'rakeback'. It was an idea that was hatched simply because, as players themselves, the owners of Poker Strategy felt it would be a great reward to give fellow players and friends some of their own rake back. That small idea has had a fundamental impact on the online gambling industry, poker affiliate world, and site ran VIP clubs, and even continues to effect other non-gambling industries as affiliates see the benefit of rewarding their members and follow this example and business model.

What's became of the original Absolute Poker Rakeback program? It's still going strong at www.poker-strategy.org. They have expanded quite a bit, with Full Tilt Rakeback, which has become the most popular online poker site with a rake rebate program. Another very popular deal they offer is the Ultimate Bet Rakeback program. Rakeback continues to grow, and even small start-up rooms have launched with rakeback in mind. Cake Poker Rakeback is a good example of a newer site that launched and started rakeback early. Their rakeback program is automated by the poker site itself, after the player signs up through the rakeback affiliate.

Whether you are a texas holdem poker pro, or just someone having fun experimenting with the crazy game of razz, rakeback can add a lot to your win rate each month. If you're considering signing up for rakeback deals, you might want to swing by Poker-Strategy.Org's poker forum, and get to know the people who started the whole ball rolling in the first place!

Update! Poker-Strategy.Org has just added a very hard to find pacific poker rakeback offer to their list. For those of you in the know, rakeback at pacific poker was not allowed in the past, so this is a rare chance for non-USA players to jump in at one of the fishiest poker rooms online.