Juice
Juice is the name given to the commissioned fee that is taken by a card room or casino as a fee for running that table. In each hand of poker that is being played on a table, around 5 – 10% of the pot is kept aside as the juice that goes into the casino. However, there is always an upper limit to this amount. For e.g. if the upper limit for the juice in a hand of poker is $20 (@ 10%), then even if the pot goes to $300, then at the rate of 10%, the value of the juice will not be $30 and will remain at $20.
There are different ways for the casino or the card room to take the juice. While percentage is one of the formats, non-percentage based formats include the likes of dead drop, time collection, tournament fees and subscription fees along with the percentage format.
In dead drop, the person sitting on the dealer button has to put in a fixed amount, pre-decided, before each hand is dealt. This amount is taken away by the dealer before the hand is dealt out. In time collection, a fixed amount of money is collected at a specific time limit throughout the game. A feature normally applicable in higher limit games, the time collection can either be taken from a player wherein at a particular time period, say ever half hour, a certain amount has to be given by the player, to the house.
The other format for time collection is the time pot format wherein the juice is collected by the house after the pot reaches a particular amount or crosses over it. This format is applicable in most card houses as well as casinos and is usually reserved for higher limit games again. These formats are mostly applicable in cash games or ring games.
Juice is also collected as the tournament fee. In poker tournaments, each player needs to enter a particular amount as the fee to become part of the tournament. This fee goes to the house and is not part of the prize money that is being offered to the winner of the tournament. Therefore, the buy in for a tournament may be represented as $1000 + $20 wherein $20 becomes the juice for the house and is not included in the winner’s pot.
Subscription fees are charged when he poker players shift to an online mode. Each player is expected to pay a subscription fee that is charged monthly, bi-annually or annually depending on the website. This fee does not reflect anywhere on the player’s stack, when s/he goes into a particular table. Without the subscription fee, the player will not be allowed to become a part of the games.
Today, most online poker rooms do not charge juice as they depend on advertising for their revenues. This allows them to offer poker games absolutely free.
Taking juice from a poker table is considered illegal until and unless the party taking the juice does not have official gaming licenses and permits. This usually means that even at private dwellings, poker may be played with real money at stake although it is not allowed for anybody to take the juice or demand it.
Previous Term: Joker, Next Term: Kicker
