Rakeback is a way of getting back a percentage of the rake fees you pay to the poker site in most hands you play.

The rake is the charge that is taken from pots once they go over a certain amount, upto a total of $3. For example, if you're sitting in a 6 handed poker game and the rake fee taken for a particular hand is $3, that means you've each contributed 50 cents.  Over many hundreds or thousands of hands this can add up to quite a substancial amount of money and in some cases cause you to have a losing month.

Poker rakeback is a scheme which poker affiliates have agreed with the poker room and it allows them to pay back a pre-agreed percentage of the rake you have paid during each month when you join the poker room via their links.  It is usually paid once a month into your player account and can add up to several thousand dollars. Rakeback is an incentive and comes with no terms and conditions attached, any money you are owed is paid to you without question and you are free to do what you like with the money.

Most players simply use it to increase their bankroll and move up stakes much faster than they would ordinarily be able to, you pay rake in any real money cash game as well as any tournament fees which means you add to your rakeback every time you take part in a real money poker game.

Over the course of the last year there have been many rake back deals come and go, a very popular choice currently is the 33% Cake Poker rakeback deal which allows US players and have a strong, growing playerbase.