Article: TAG & LAG - Which sites to play (rake)

As I've gotten a whole lot from FTR for the past 2 years, I felt that for my 1k post in FTR I needed to contribute something more then some
comments on hands.

Again, a big thanks to the FTR Community!!

So here we go! (This is my first article ever, so be kind!)
Maybe this is not hugely interesting for everyone, but it's something I realized lately.

If you search or post concerning which kind of rake contribution site you should play if you're a TAG or a LAG would often find that people say:
- TAG should play on dealt rake site
- LAG should play on contributed rake site

However, this half of the truth. Actually, a TAG style can be more interesting for a contributed rake site and a LAG on a dealt rake site.
It all depends on the rake you pay and of course the bonus/rakeback you can have!

Theory:

Forgetting temporarly about the bonus/rakeback, the best sites to play LAG are PRIMA, Pokerstars and Fulltilt where the rake you pay is the
smallest (for a rake / site see here: http://www.nsidestrate.com/images/rake.jpg for an example, this table is 4 years old but I'm giving it here for an example!!), notice that the last 2 sites are dealt rake. Why are they the best?
Simply because by playing LAG you'll be involved in more pots, so you would be paying more rake, so you want to pay the less possible. Notice also
that Prima has a small rake even if they are contributed. This is actually, the best combination to play LAG: contributed rake & low rake,
however, notice that I'm not talking about the softness of the games which would also be a decision when you choose a site to play.

On the other site, if you play TAG you can play on both of course, but the sites where you pay the less rake are the best of course! Now as a TAG
you have more of a choice where there is more fish. As the common wisdow is that LAGs should play on [u[contributed rake[/u] sites, if you are a TAG
you should play there! Even if you pay more rake it would be compensated by the bad LAGs there.

Let's now consider also the bonus aspect.


Practise:

The below example applies only for an average TAG. For a LAG I need the figures.

Let's compare 200NL FR on Ongame and FullTilt.
For at Ongame, my rakeback equivalent (standard TAG) with bonus is 45% (10k baseline) and my rake paid per 100 hands = $8.8
For at FullTilt the standard rakeback is 27% and the rake (I take the following figures as a baseline http://www.nsidestrate.com/images/rake.jpg) is $4.3
Note: for FullTilt, if someone has more accurate stats for a TAG please tell me so that the calculations can be more accurate.

Ongame:
If we play 20k hands we will pay $1,760 and we would get $792 in "rakeback". That means we would pay an overall $1,760 - $792 = $968

FullTilt:
If we play 20k hands we will pay $860 and we would get $232 in rakeback. That's an overall $860 - $232 = $628

Conclusion:
With this example you can really see why it's better, in terms of rake paid, of playing in FullTilt compared to Ongame. As TAG you pay 33% less in FullTilt! Note: This is with the 4 year rake table for FullTilt!!
If we use the same calculations for a LAG, the difference would be even higher!
If you want to figure which site you should play, you will need also to "test the waters", because the quality of the games are so that it plays a very
important role in the decision making and it's very difficult to quantify it. However, if you are a very good LAG player you know where you should play ;-) Plus FullTilt (as Pokerstars) have the best game selection for midstakes and higher.

I hope that some of you found this usefull!