Taxe

A percentage rake takes a slice of every pot up to a cap. A Taxe takes nothing at all below a threshold and then a flat amount, which changes which pots are expensive. Spielbank Saarbruecken's published 2/4 structure is a clean example: nothing until the pot reaches 50 euro, then 4 euro, then another 4 euro once the pot passes 200. At its 5/10 game the figure is 10 euro from a pot of 100.

The practical consequence is that a Taxe is proportionally hardest on pots sitting just above a threshold. A pot of 55 euro pays the same 4 euro as a pot of 195, so the small-but-raked pot is the worst value on the table, while a very large pot is comparatively cheap. That cuts against the usual rake intuition, where limping into small pots is the cheap option.

Structures vary by house and are published rather than negotiated. Spielbank Wiesbaden is the notable German outlier in keeping the amount flat - 2 euro per pot at 2/4 and 5 euro at 5/10, on a no flop, no drop basis - which is close to the cheapest published cash-game fee in the country.

Anyone moving between German houses should read the Taxe table before sitting down: it is a bigger difference between two rooms at the same blinds than anything else on offer.