Card Player has published a decade-long comparison of live tournament rake, examining how much operators withhold from prize pools at events ranging from $500 to $10,000 buy-ins. The study compared editions of the same tournaments in 2015, 2019 and 2025-26, and was prompted by a question posed on social media by British professional Patrick Leonard, who asked whether rake had been steadily climbing over the past five, ten and twenty years.
Across the twelve tournaments examined, the general trend was upward, though the report stresses the size of the increases has typically been small, often around 1% or less. The World Poker Tour was highlighted as a notable exception, with its $3,700/$3,800 event falling from 8.62% in 2015 to 7.89% in 2025-26, and its $10,400 Five Diamond/World Championship Main Event dropping from 6.73% to 5.77% over the same span.
At the top end, the WSOP $10,000 Main Event rose from 5.99% in 2015 to 7% now, while the L.A. Poker Classic $10,000 Main Event climbed from 4% to 7%. EPT Prague’s €5,300 Main Event has stayed flat at 8.49% throughout. The WSOP $5,000 event increased from 6% to 8%, and the PokerStars $1,100 rose from 11.81% to 12.73%.
The sharpest movements were found at the lowest buy-in levels. The WSOP $500 Colossus rake jumped from 11.50% in 2015 to 17.00% in 2025-26, while the roughly $400 multi-flight event at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood climbed from 14.29% to 18.00%. The WSOPC $400 multi-flight, by contrast, eased slightly from 18.08% to 17.50%.
Card Player argues this pattern squeezes recreational and marginal players hardest. It cites Jeremy Ausmus, who has reported a career return on investment north of 40% in live no-limit hold’em tournaments, as an example of an elite player who would barely notice a small rake rise. A player operating closer to breakeven, however, loses a much larger share of their edge when rake climbs by a couple of percentage points, a dynamic compounded by tournament structures that increasingly allow reentries and extended late registration.
The report also notes that WSOP Main Event entries have fallen for two consecutive years, suggesting rising costs and format changes may be affecting participation at the game’s most famous event. Card Player’s broader conclusion is that rake as a whole is not rising alarmingly, but that players at lower stakes should scrutinise rake structures carefully, since the widening gap between small and large buy-in rake percentages can sometimes make higher-stakes tournaments the better value proposition, even for otherwise similarly skilled player pools.
