Two Bovada questions
The rake at the low-limit fixed-limit games seems too high. Is it? And there are too few games.
Are there any other alternatives for US players? I know fixed limit is not as popular as before, but any site with a steady game or two would be better than Bovada at present.
Thank you kindly.
2 Replies
I'm not familiar with the Bovada rake structure. do you have it? Americas Cardroom has a small amount of LHE. LHE barely runs on Kingsclub. You might check out Phenom Poker, which is new but I hear good things about.
Also, unless they've changed things, Bovada used to hide full tables. So you have to check the lobby to see if a seat has opened up and the table is now showing.
Short answer - there are no good options.
Bovada has the same rake for all games 2/4 and up, which is 5% of the pot up to a cap of $1, $2, or $3 depending on whether it is 2-3 handed, 4-5 handed, or 6 handed, respectively. At 1/2, and below, it's a sliding rake that caps at anywhere from 1 big bet to .5 big bets.
I think yes, the rake is very high for the low stakes games. But as a point of reference, the rake is much lower at 3/6 than it would be at in a live 3/6 game, where you're probably paying $5-$6 plus tip, sometimes almost regardless of pot size.
The rake is lower on ACR and Phenom, when games are going, but still quite high. FWIW, the rake structure on ACR at 2/4 is much better than the rake structure at 3/6.
I don't think anyone should treat low stakes LHE online as a profit-making endeavor. It should more be just for killing time at home or practicing against what is frequently pretty tough competition.
