The house’ refers to the establishment in which a casino game is being played. This is usually a brick-and-mortar casino or card room, or an online poker site.
When we say the house, however, it’s usually in reference to who you’re playing against.
It’s important that we distinguish between two different types of:
There’s three-card poker – a casino game played heads-up between the player’s hand and the dealer’s hand.
The cash games – poker games played only between the players.
Three-card poker is similar to blackjack. The player places their bet and hopes that at the end of the hand, their cards beat the dealer’s cards. If they do, the casino pays the player. If they don’t, the casino takes the player’s money. This game is designed to give the house an edge, meaning they will win over the long term.
Poker tournaments and cash games involve players playing against other players, not against the house. Therefore, it’s only players who can win, not the house.
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What does it mean to ‘play against the house’?
You’re only playing against the house when you play a game in which it’s the casino (the house) that pays you if you win, not another player. Conversely, if you lose, your money goes directly to the casino.
Games in which you play directly against the house include table poker, roulette, blackjack, craps, slots, and baccarat (the house is more likely to win in all of these games).
You don’t play against the house in a regular poker game. You play against the other people sitting around the table, pitting your skills and strategies against one another.
Sure, when you play a tournament or cash game in a casino you’ll have a professional dealer who shuffles and deals the cards while monitoring the action. But you’re not playing against them in any way.
Does the house take rake in poker?
Yes, the house will almost always take a rake in poker.
A rake is a fee that a casino or card room charges to run a game.
In a tournament, the rake is a fee added to the tournament buy-in. For example, in a European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event, the buy-in is €5,300. €4,800 of that goes directly into the prize pool, while €300 is a house fee and €200 covers staff costs. Therefore, players pay €500 in rake.
In a cash game, the rake is usually a percentage of the pot. In EPT no limit hold’em cash games, the rake is 4%. So, if a player wins a €100 pot, ‘the house’ will take €4 from it before awarding €96 to the player.
However, in bigger buy-in games, there’s a €100 cap on every pot, ensuring the house takes no more than €100 from a pot regardless of its size.
Is ‘The House’ and ‘Full House’ the same thing?
While you’ll often hear poker players refer to a full house as simply a “house”, the two are very different.
The house, as we’ve explained, refers to the establishment in which a casino game is being played.
A full house, however, is a five-card poker hand consisting of a pair plus three of a kind. For example, K♣ K♥ K♠ 10♣ 10♠ . This example is a full house – kings full of tens.
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