Understanding Poker Rake

The Rake is a service fee that's collected by the house from the hands played during any real money cash game and is calculated as per the table below.

A Raked hand is a hand that you participate in - this means that you have been dealt hole cards and the hand has generated at least £0.01 in rake for the player.

Sky Poker operates a no-flop no-drop policy. If a hand is completed without a flop being dealt then no Rake is taken. All hands that see a flop will be subject to the appropriate deduction of Rake, this includes split pots.

All transactions including Rake are in GBP.

Sky Poker reserve the right to amend the rake levels at any given time, any such changes will be published here.

Rake Levels: 5p/10p and below

N.B. Whilst current rake due is updated on every street after betting actions are completed, rake is not actually deducted until the hand is completed,here's an example to show you how this will be calculated:

• We are playing on a cash table where the blinds are £0.02/£0.04
• The flop is seen by 2 players with 20p put into the pot pre-flop, rake at this stage is 7.5% * £0.20 = 1.5p (rounded up to 2p) therefore 18p in the player pot
• At the turn another 80p is bet in total making a £1 pot, rake at this stage is 7.5% * £1 = 7.5p (rounded up to 8p) therefore 92p in the player the pot
• At showdown, another £1 is bet making a total pot of £2, rake is now 7.5% * £2 = 15p (no rounding required) therefore £1.85 in the player pot goes to the winner

Rake Levels: Above 5p/10p

Hand History

Each game and hand at Sky Poker is recorded. When seated at a table, you will see the current hand number as well as the previous hand number. If you ever have questions pertaining to a particular game or you want to know what happened then remember to make a note of this.

If you select the 'Game Info' tab you will see a brief overview of your play. From here you can select the 'Show Stats' button to preview more information. Also on this tab you will find a 'Hand History' button - when selected a window will pop up with your five most recent hands. Just make sure that you have allowed pop ups from www.skypoker.com in order to fully utilise this feature.

For a more in depth look at your hand history, you can use the Hand History tool, located under the 'My Sky Poker' tab on the homepage. With this feature you can select specific date and time ranges and look at the hands you were dealt more closely.

Table Etiquette

Keep the Action Moving

Keep your eye on the game and be aware of when it is your turn. The table does give you an audio reminder when the action is on you but from time to time you may not hear it. If you are consistently taking a long time to make your decisions you may make the game less enjoyable for others. If you are playing more than one table, please ensure you try and keep up with the play on each table to ensure smooth running of the game for all players in attendance. We offer an 'Autopost Blinds' option to keep the game ticking over nicely which is a good feature to use.

Be Patient & Polite

On the flip side, if a player at your table is using all of their time bank when in a hand every time, please address the issue in a polite way. Most of the time a short string of 'zzzz' in the chat box will work. Sometimes the delay is not under the player's control, but they may appreciate you letting them know as often a lagging player will actually think it's the whole game, not realising it's their fault.

Player chat

Sky Poker is renowned for having a pleasant and encouraging community. Please do introduce yourself on the table and use the chat box to make friends! You can also talk and chat to others on the community link -https://www.skypoker.com/secure/poker/sky_lobby/community/forums. However we want the tables you play at to be positive for all, so we ask you not to swear or use any inappropriate wording in the chat box. Do not berate other players or make others feel uncomfortable. Sky Poker retain the right to ban a player from using the chat box should we discover any improper use. Any chat within the poker room should be in English only.

Please let us know if you've been a victim of chat abuse on Sky Poker and we'll deal with the player(s) involved. This will be kept confidential and we'll investigate every claim seriously. We reserve the right to ban players from chat as we don't tolerate offensive or abusive behaviour in any way.

Consideration for the game

Poker is an individual game, although we love to share our experiences with others - which is great! Just make sure you don't disrupt a hand with any information regarding the cards you hold. Do not announce your cards whilst action is in play. Whether you have folded or not, it can affect the game dynamic, which may offend others. For example if you chose to fold 92 and the flop comes 227, it would not be good etiquette to tell everyone that you folded a 2. This makes other players in the hand aware of the location of one of the deuces, therefore affecting game play.

Please note: If you feel in any game that players may be colluding or sharing information via the chat box, do not hesitate to contact a member of the Customer Care team. They will review game play and chat and take appropriate action where necessary. Should you wish to report a player for chat abuse you can reach the Customer Care team by selecting Contact Us at the bottom of this article and raising a Live Chat.

Reducing policy

(Also known as Ratholing, Going South & Banking)

• If a player stands up from a cash table and attempts to return to the same table within 30 minutes, then they will be forced to bring at least the full amount with which they left.
• In some cases this will exceed the maximum buy-in for the table which will be allowed.
• The player may also return to the table with more funds than with which they left, providing this does not exceed the maximum buy-in for the cash table.
• If all players stand up, leaving the table empty, then that session of poker is considered closed and Reducingrules will not be applied to any players returning to the table in the future.
• If a player attempts to return to a table and their current balance is less than the minimum amount that they are required to bring due to the Reducing rule (I.E. They have withdrawn the funds or placed a sports bet etc), then they will be prompted to make a deposit before being allowed to sit down at that table.

Example 1

Players A & B both buy-in to a £5 /£10 NL cash table with the maximum £1000. Player A wins all of player B's chips and has a new balance of £2000, at which point player B tops up their balance with another £1000. If Player A chooses to leave the table and attempts to return within 30 minutes then they will be forced to bring exactly £2000 to the table. (The maximum buy-in for the table would be overridden in this case)

Example 2

Players A & B both buy-in to a £5 /£10 NL cash table with £300. Player A wins all of player B's chips and has a new balance of £600, at which point player B tops up their balance to £1000. If Player A chooses to leave the table then they will not be allowed to return with less than £600 for a total of 30 minutes, however Player A can bring up to £1000 if they wish.

Example 3

Players A & B both buy-in to a £5 /£10 NL cash table with the maximum £1000. Player A wins all of player B's chips and has a new balance of £2000, at which point player B chooses not to re-buy and leaves the table. Player A can sit at the table indefinitely with the £2000 chip stack and await a game, however, if Player A also chooses to leave the table, before any new players join, then that game is considered to be closed. Therefore, if Player A then chooses to sit back at the same table they will not be forced (or allowed) to bring back £2000, Player A will be able to bring anywhere between £100 & £1000.

Hole cards, bad beats & burning cards

Hole Cards

The only player who can ever see your hole cards at the tables in a live hand is you and there is no one at Sky Poker who has the ability to view any player's hole cards in any live hand. In certain circumstances, once a hand has finished, certain employees are able to review hands in order to carry out standard customer care duties.

Bad Beats

Whether playing online or in a live environment, 'bad beats' are unfortunately a common part of poker. In an average online poker session, you will generally play 5 or 6 times more hands than a live session. Therefore, inevitably bad beats will be more frequent. Whether it's pocket aces beaten by 78 off suit, or trip Kings cracked by runner-runner-straight, over time these instances statistically balance themselves out for every player. This is known as 'variance'.

Burning Cards

The act of 'burning' cards is not something carried out at Sky Poker. This doesn't affect the randomness of the next card dealt in any way. Burning cards is fairly standard in the live form of the game to avoid cheating through card marking, but is rarely found in the online version as marking isn't relevant.

Bots and other automation

The integrity and respect of Sky Poker is of paramount importance to us, and the use of poker (ro)bots or tracking software is strictly prohibited. Bots or tracking software may offer players an unfair advantage by giving information or statistical advice to guide their game play. It is for this reason that they are strictly prohibited by Sky Poker. Please note that the participation of an automated device (i.e. a poker bot) at a Sky Poker table has no impact on game conditions such as cards dealt to the players or to the community.

On a daily basis, 'Fraud Analysts' thoroughly investigate various poker accounts using a number of tools and skills to protect the integrity of Sky Poker, ensuring that all of our players can play poker in a fun, fair and safe environment. Our Fraud Analysts are trained to pick up on any evidence which may suggest a poker bot is being used, in which case they will open a detailed investigation. Appropriate action will then be taken based on the results of the investigation. If, in our reasonable determination, any Accounts are believed to be operated by poker bots, we reserve the right to permanently close the Account and ban the user responsible for such activity from our website.

If you believe that a poker bot is being used on Sky Poker then you should report the player's Alias immediately to our Customer Care Team by clicking on the 'Contact us' tab on our website. Any such complaints are treated with the utmost importance and will prompt a complete and in-depth review of that Account and any other Accounts deemed to be linked to such activity.

Heads Up Displays (HUDs)

Sky Poker do not permit the use of Heads Up Displays, more commonly known as HUD's. If you believe a player is using a HUD, please contact us.

Sky Poker's Random Number Generator

Here at Sky Poker we understand the importance of the fairness of our Random Number Generator (RNG), which is used to shuffle up and deal the hole cards and the community cards.

Sky Poker is provided by Bonne Terre Gaming Limited. Bonne Terre Gaming Limited is licensed and regulated by the UK Gambling Commission of Great Britain (licence number 065519) in respect of customers located in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man, the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (licence number 207C1A) in respect of customers located in the Republic of Ireland and the Channel Islands, and is licensed by HM Government of Gibraltar (Remote Gambling Licence No. 156) and regulated by the Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner.

Sky Poker's RNG has been certified by the 3rd party company Technical Systems Testing (TST), who are global experts in the analysis of RNG's used for online gaming purposes.

For more information on TST and their credentials please click here.

TST certified Sky Poker's RNG in September 2009. Their results confirmed that our RNG is completely fair, random and unpredictable, within the degrees of freedom used for statistical analysis.