Rake Racers.com

What is the difference between a rake race and a rake chase?  Endurance, mostly.

A rake race is a timed event.  Contestants all start and stop racing at the same time.  Typically, but not always, poker rake races are a month long.  Racers start on the first of the month andstop on the last day of the month.  The objective is to accumulate as much paid rake as possible at the poker room where the event is being held.  At the end of the fixed time period the racer who has accumulated the most paid rake - and therefore acquired the most rakeback - wins the top prize.  

A few rake races are based on a point system.  Many poker rooms have some type of VIP or loyalty points system.  Instead of accumulating rake, a race may have the players competing on the basis of accumulated player points during the racing period.

Rake chases, are a different animal altogether.  While a rake chase may be bounded by a specific time period,  typically a month, the objective is to be the first racer to get to certain checkpoints or markers.  These checkpoints are defined as accumulated rake totals or VIP/loyalty points totals.  For example, the player that is first to get to $500 accumulated rake (or 500 VIP points) is awarded a $25 prize. 

The strength of a chase is that there are typically numerous prizes for reaching checkpoints, with the value of the prizes growing larger and the number of prizes growing smaller with each checkpoint.  For example, the first 100 racers to reach the $500 checkpoint may get $25 and the first 50 racers to reach the $1,000 checkpoint may get $50, and so on up to whatever the maximum prize level is.  The rake chase gives poker players a fixed goal to reach, with certain knowledge of the prize awaiting them if they get there.