pokalab.com- Two charges on top of the rake. GGPoker takes 1 big blind for its Bad Beat Jackpot from pots of 30 big blinds or more, and it rakes a pot that ends before the flop once it holds more than 2.5 big blinds — almost always a 3-bet pot.
- About one hand in ten pays the jackpot fee. That is 1.5 to 1.7 bb/100 for a regular, at every stake from NL25 to NL1000: the fee is a flat big blind, so unlike the rake it does not shrink as the stakes rise.
- The preflop rake is smaller: 0.6 to 0.9 bb/100 for a regular. About half of all 3-bet pots end before the flop, and each pays about 0.4 big blinds. It is the one charge regulars pay more of than recreational players.
- Together, a fifth to a third of the bill. For a regular, the two charges add up to 2.1 to 2.6 bb/100: 21% of everything GGPoker takes from him at NL25, 37% at NL1000.
- Less than a solver model says, and missing from Holdem Manager’s rake stats. A solver-based calculator puts the preflop rule at about 25% more rake than standard 6-max; in real games it adds 6% at NL25 and 17% at NL1000. Holdem Manager’s support said in 2021 that HM3 counts the jackpot fee in your winnings, not in your rake.
What GGPoker takes, exactly
Most online rooms follow “no flop, no drop”: a hand that ends before the flop pays nothing, and the room’s only cut is the rake, a percentage of the pot up to a cap. “In 2026, all major rooms apply NFND except one: GGPoker,” as Grindlab’s rake comparison puts it. GGPoker takes two more things, and its hand histories write each one apart on every hand, like this line from an NL50 pot of 35 big blinds: Total pot $17.61 | Rake $0.85 | Jackpot $0.5.
- The Bad Beat Jackpot fee. In GGPoker’s words, “the amount equivalent to 1 big blind (0.8 big blind for 9-max games) will be contributed to the jackpot fund” when the pot is 30 big blinds or more (GGPoker, Bad Beat Jackpot). In our 6-max hands it is exactly 1 big blind every time, taken on 99.8% to 100% of the pots of 30 big blinds or more depending on the stake, and on no smaller pot. It does not need a flop: a pot that ends before the flop pays it too once it reaches 30 big blinds.
- Preflop rake. “Did you make a 3-bet preflop? You will pay rake too. The commission is taken preflop from all pots more than 2.5BB” (WorldPokerDeals). The hands agree, to the hand: every pot that ended before the flop with more than 2.5 big blinds in it was raked, and none with 2.5 or less. So the trigger is the size of the pot, not the 3-bet itself. An open raise that only wins the blinds makes a pot of 2.5 big blinds, so it is not raked; 86% to 96% of the pots raked before the flop are 3-bet pots, and the rest crossed 2.5 big blinds another way — a limper raised out of the pot, for example.
Everything below is measured on real-money GGPoker 6-max cash games (four to six players dealt, no ante), from Pokalab’s database of ~300M real hands. A cost “per 100 hands at the table” is what GGPoker took per 100 hands dealt; a cost in bb/100 is per player, per 100 of his own hands. Regulars and recreational players (“fish”) are the two families of Player Types, Measured; the “average player” is every seat at the table, classified or not.
One hand in ten pays the jackpot fee
From NL25 to NL1000, GGPoker took the jackpot fee on 9.6 to 10.7 hands in every 100. Each time it is one big blind, so the table pays about 10 big blinds per 100 hands to the fund — and since the fee does not scale with a percentage or a cap, it costs about the same in big blinds at every stake. Split by who put the chips in the pot, the average player pays 1.7 to 1.9 bb/100, a regular 1.5 to 1.7, a fish 2.5 to 2.8: fish put more chips into the big pots.
The rake itself falls as the stakes rise: the average player pays about 10 bb/100 of it on pots that saw a flop at NL25 and NL50, and 4.9 at NL1000. So the fixed fee weighs more and more: it is 15% of everything GGPoker takes from the average player at NL25 and NL50, and 25% at NL1000.
Everything GGPoker takes from the average player
6-max, no ante, all stack depths · bb per 100 hands of each player, in three parts
| Stake | Total | Flop rake | Preflop rake | Jackpot fee | Extras |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL25 | 12.41 | 9.99 | 0.57 | 1.85 | 19.5% |
| NL50 | 12.93 | 10.35 | 0.65 | 1.93 | 20.0% |
| NL100 | 12.02 | 9.40 | 0.72 | 1.90 | 21.9% |
| NL200 | 10.83 | 8.18 | 0.79 | 1.87 | 24.5% |
| NL500 | 8.61 | 6.07 | 0.79 | 1.74 | 29.5% |
| NL1000 | 7.63 | 4.93 | 0.82 | 1.88 | 35.4% |
pokalab.comAbout half of all 3-bet pots never see a flop
The preflop rule bites on a common event. From NL25 to NL1000, 46% to 53% of 3-bet pots end before the flop — the 3-bet, or a 4-bet after it, takes the pot — and every one of them is raked. With the few other pots over 2.5 big blinds, that makes 8.4 raked pots per 100 hands at NL25 and 11.8 at NL1000, each paying about 0.4 big blinds.
A solver-based calculator, Mobius’s rake calculator, estimates the rule for its GGPoker 6-max game: “the house also rakes 3-bet-or-larger pots that end before the flop. At a 5% rake that comes to about 25% more than standard 6-max.” In real games it is less. Against the rake of the pots that saw a flop — what a no-flop-no-drop room would take — the preflop rake adds 5.7% at NL25 and grows with the stakes, to 16.6% at NL1000, where the capped postflop rake is smaller and 3-bet pots are more common.
How often the two charges are taken
GGPoker 6-max, no ante · per 100 hands dealt at the table
| Stake | Jackpot fees | Pots raked preflop | of which 3-bet pots | 3-bet pots ending preflop | Rake per such pot | Adds to the postflop rake |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL25 | 10.3 | 8.4 | 87.2% | 46.4% | 0.37 bb | +5.7% |
| NL50 | 10.7 | 9.3 | 86.5% | 48.0% | 0.38 bb | +6.3% |
| NL100 | 10.5 | 10.1 | 88.7% | 49.6% | 0.39 bb | +7.7% |
| NL200 | 10.3 | 10.9 | 90.9% | 51.5% | 0.40 bb | +9.7% |
| NL500 | 9.6 | 11.1 | 94.4% | 52.8% | 0.39 bb | +13.0% |
| NL1000 | 10.4 | 11.8 | 96.2% | 52.6% | 0.38 bb | +16.6% |
pokalab.comFish pay more jackpot fee, regulars more preflop rake
Split by who put the chips in each pot, the two charges do not fall on the same players. Fish pay more in all, and much more of the jackpot fee: 2.5 to 2.8 bb/100 against 1.5 to 1.7 for regulars. The preflop rake goes the other way: regulars pay 0.64 to 0.87 bb/100 of it against 0.46 to 0.66 for fish — more at every stake. For a regular, the two charges together are 2.1 to 2.6 bb/100, a larger share of his bill than of a fish’s at every stake.
What regulars and fish pay
GGPoker 6-max, no ante · bb per 100 of the player’s own hands · each pot’s cost split by the players’ contributions to it
| Stake | Regulars: all | jackpot | preflop | extras | Fish: all | jackpot | preflop | extras |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL25 | 10.29 | 1.50 | 0.64 | 20.8% | 17.60 | 2.69 | 0.46 | 17.9% |
| NL50 | 10.60 | 1.54 | 0.73 | 21.5% | 18.05 | 2.76 | 0.52 | 18.2% |
| NL100 | 10.07 | 1.57 | 0.81 | 23.6% | 16.48 | 2.64 | 0.57 | 19.5% |
| NL200 | 9.20 | 1.57 | 0.87 | 26.5% | 15.15 | 2.64 | 0.61 | 21.5% |
| NL500 | 7.71 | 1.56 | 0.84 | 31.1% | 12.12 | 2.46 | 0.62 | 25.4% |
| NL1000 | 6.96 | 1.70 | 0.85 | 36.7% | 11.13 | 2.80 | 0.66 | 31.1% |
pokalab.comSo what do they really cost you?
- As a regular on GGPoker 6-max: about 1.5 to 1.7 bb/100 of jackpot fee and 0.6 to 0.9 bb/100 of preflop rake, on top of 4.4 to 8.3 bb/100 of ordinary rake. In all, 10.6 bb/100 at NL50 and 7.7 at NL500.
- The higher you play, the more they matter. The ordinary rake a regular pays falls from 8.3 bb/100 at NL50 to 4.4 at NL1000; the two extras stay between 2.1 and 2.6. They are a fifth of a regular’s bill at NL25 and NL50, nearly a third at NL500 and more than a third at NL1000.
- Read your tracker with care. Asked in October 2021, Holdem Manager’s support answered that in HM3 the jackpot fee “is accounted for in the ‘Net Won’ stat/results but it is not accounted for in the ‘Rake Taken Game’ stat or other various ‘Rake’ related stats” (Holdem Manager forum). If your tracker works that way, your results already pay the fee and your rake stat does not show it.
- Compare rooms on everything they take, not on the posted percentage. Mobius’s rake calculator leaves the jackpot out, and says why: these deductions “cannot be estimated from the published rake percentage and cap”.
- Every 3-bet that takes the pot down before the flop leaves about 0.4 big blinds with GGPoker. That is the price of each 3-bet that works; whether it should change your 3-betting is a solver question this article does not answer.
Questions
Is the GGPoker Bad Beat Jackpot fee rake?
Not in name. GGPoker writes it apart from the rake in every hand history and pays the fund back as jackpot prizes: 10% of the jackpot to the player who loses the bad beat, 3% to the winner of the hand, 0.8% to each other player at the table. But it comes out of the pot like rake, and it is 15% (NL25, NL50) to 25% (NL1000) of everything GGPoker takes from the average player.
How much is the GGPoker jackpot fee?
One big blind from pots of 30 big blinds or more at 6-max (GGPoker states 0.8 big blinds at 9-max). About one hand in ten pays it, which comes to 1.7 to 1.9 bb/100 for the average player and 1.5 to 1.7 bb/100 for a regular.
Does GGPoker take rake if the hand ends preflop?
Yes, when the pot holds more than 2.5 big blinds — nearly always a 3-bet pot. An open raise that only wins the blinds is not raked. Between 8 and 12 pots per 100 hands are raked this way, about 0.4 big blinds each.
How much does GGPoker’s preflop 3-bet rake cost?
0.6 to 0.9 bb/100 for a regular and 0.6 to 0.8 bb/100 for the average player, from NL25 to NL1000. It adds 6% to 17% to the rake of the pots that see a flop.
How much rake do you pay on GGPoker in total?
Counting the rake and the jackpot fee, the average 6-max player pays 12.4 bb/100 at NL25, 12.9 at NL50, 12.0 at NL100, 10.8 at NL200, 8.6 at NL500 and 7.6 at NL1000. A regular pays less, from 10.3 bb/100 at NL25 to 7.0 at NL1000; a fish more, from 17.6 to 11.1.
Does Holdem Manager count GGPoker’s jackpot fee as rake?
Not in its rake stats, according to Holdem Manager’s support in 2021: HM3 counts the fee in Net Won and not in Rake Taken, and it needs a separate jackpot fee stat. For a regular, that missing part is about 1.5 to 1.7 bb/100.
What this does not say
- What comes back. We measure what is taken from the pots, not what the jackpot pays out. The fund goes back to players, but only to those at the table when a qualifying bad beat happens.
- Before rakeback. GGPoker’s rewards are not counted here; every figure is what the hands paid.
- Per-player figures depend on how a pot’s cost is split. We split it by each player’s contribution to the pot, the way rooms attribute rake. The average-player figures do not depend on that choice; the regular and fish figures do, slightly: counting split pots and side pots another way moved them by at most 0.06 bb/100.
- 6-max only. Four to six players dealt, no ante, regular tables. GGPoker’s 9-max tables take 0.8 big blinds for the jackpot; ante and straddle tables and Rush & Cash are not measured.
- Different periods by stake. NL25 and NL1000 are July to December 2023; NL500 runs from late 2021 and NL50, NL100 and NL200 from mid-2023, all to early 2026, with some months missing. Each stake is its own measurement.
- Strategy. Whether the preflop rule should change how often you 3-bet is a solver question; this article measures the cost, not the best response.