What exactly do we mean when we say that Online Texas Holdem poker is not a zero sum game? Well firstly a zero sum game is one where the sum total of all of the people who win or gain is equalled by the sum total of all of the losers. Hence this is where the name comes from as the total winners minus the total losers equals zero. If we played in a home poker game that didn’t take any expenses or rake then this would be a zero sum game. If we had six players and two players won $1400 and $710 respectively then the four remaining players must have lost a total of $2110.
However with online poker and casino poker then this is not the case. This is to do with the rake which means that when you play online that the game is actually a negative sum game and not a zero sum one. In the previous example then the two winning players would still have won $2110 between them. But over the space of several hours the card room may have taken $200 in rake or more. So the sum total of the losers is not $2110 but $2310.
So when players lose money then not all of this money goes to the winners and money is slowly drained out of the game and goes to the poker site and the network. In fact if the game went on long enough with no new players then one of two things would happen. One player would end up winning all of the available money on the table minus whatever the casino took in rake or the casino would take everything if the game went on for long enough.
This negative sum effect is seen in other areas like buying stocks and shares and also buying property. The costs involved in both of these areas means that the sum total of the winners or the people who make money is not offset by the people who have lost or spent money. These are negative sum environments and they have a huge effect on the ability to be able to make money. To make money in any negative sum game then you need to be mindful of your overheads. But the effect of money being dragged out of the game in this way never to be replaced has a profound effect on everyone who plays poker.
However it has the biggest effect on the losing players and the average players. These are the players who are most vulnerable to rake because losing players in zero sum games will lose more and average players who may be slight winners in zero sum home games could be breaking even or losing money long term. In fact even slight winners can be reduced to break even or losing players because of the negative sum nature of the game. So the bottom line here is that you need to be a better poker player on average than you need to be if the game were a zero sum game. This is not always the case of course because a zero sum home game against very good players would not be a good game to sit in while a negative sum game could in fact be very good if the players were weak enough.