Why 'house edge' doesn't apply to player-vs-player poker
Every other game category covered on this site — slots, blackjack, roulette, baccarat, video poker — is a house-banked game: you bet against the casino's own money on outcomes generated by an RNG or a fixed drawing/dealing procedure, and the casino's statistical edge over the long run is a direct, calculable consequence of the payout table versus the true odds. Poker (Texas Hold'em, Omaha and similar variants dealt at a cash-game or tournament table) inverts this entirely: the pot is made up of other players' money, the house does not play a hand, and the outcome of any given hand is determined by the relative skill, information and luck of the players at the table, not by a fixed mathematical structure the house controls.
This is why you cannot meaningfully ask 'what is the house edge on poker' the way you can for roulette — the honest answer is that there isn't one, in the sense the term is normally used. A skilled player can have a positive long-run expected return against weaker opponents even after the rake; a weak player can lose money faster than any house-banked game's edge would predict, purely from being outplayed. The only guaranteed, fixed cost in the game — the one number that functions similarly to a house edge — is the rake itself.
How the rake actually works
The standard online cash-game rake structure charges a percentage of the pot — commonly around 5%, though the exact figure and cap vary by operator and stake level — taken out at showdown or when the pot is awarded, up to a fixed maximum amount (a 'rake cap') regardless of how large the pot grows beyond that point. Tournament poker instead charges an upfront fee added to the buy-in (commonly written as '$10+$1', where $1 is the rake on a $10 buy-in) rather than raking individual pots during play. Some operators also apply a 'no flop, no drop' rule, waiving the rake entirely on hands that end before the flop is dealt, since those pots are typically small and raking them disproportionately burdens low-stakes, fast-folding play.
Because the rake is a fixed percentage-with-cap rather than a probability-weighted payout adjustment, it behaves differently from a house edge in one important way: it scales with the number of hands played and the pot sizes involved, not with any specific bet or outcome. A player grinding a high volume of hands pays proportionally more in total rake than an infrequent player, independent of how skilled either one is — which is why serious poker players track rake paid as a direct, quantifiable cost of play, the closest poker equivalent to the house-edge figures quoted throughout the rest of this site.
Frequently asked questions
What is the house edge on poker?
There isn't one in the usual sense — poker is played against other players, not the house, so your return depends on relative skill rather than a fixed statistical edge. The one guaranteed, fixed cost is the rake, the operator's service fee for hosting the game.
How does poker rake typically work?
Cash games commonly charge around 5% of each pot at showdown, up to a fixed cap, sometimes waived on hands that end before the flop ('no flop, no drop'). Tournaments instead charge an upfront fee added to the buy-in (e.g. '$10+$1').
Can you have a positive expected return playing poker?
Yes, in principle — unlike house-banked games with a fixed mathematical edge against every player, a sufficiently skilled poker player can have a positive long-run expected return against weaker opponents, even after paying the rake. This is not guaranteed and depends entirely on the specific game and opponents.