With the increase in online poker play, and perhaps more importantly, the increase in the number of places where we can all play, various elements of a service from a poker site have come under scrutiny and become far more important.
No flop no drop is one of these, it was probably something that players never thought of a decade or so ago, but now it is something that some players will check when they are choosing where to play. The competitive nature of the industry has forced most sites to now offer no flop no drop, though not all do.
What is No Flop No Drop?
Essentially, no flop no drop is a policy, or a rule, that a poker site has in place for the games that are played on their tables. If you look at the rules or the terms and conditions of the site, you will see this listed here so that you can check if the site offers this or not.
With this in place on a site, if there is no flop in a game on the table, there will also not be any drop on that hand. To understand how this can affect you as a player, you need to know what the flop part of the game is, and also what a drop is.
The flop part of a game is when the three cards are turned in the middle of the table. This is known as the flop, and if there is no flop, this means the game has ended before we even get to this stage. This happens when all players fold before the flop, or just one player calls and wants to get involved, but has no one to play against.
The drop is the rake or commission that the casino takes from each poker game, essentially, this is how a casino makes money from the games that take place. When you are playing a cash game on any poker site, they will take a percentage of the pot as commission for the game taking place on their site and their servers.
With the no flop no drop police in place, if a game does not reach the flop stage, no commission is taken by the poker site. There could be instances when a big pot is built preflop, but the game still ends before we see the flop, and in this case, the winner of the pot will take even more, as there is no commission taken off them.
Should You Play with No Flop No Drop?
The simple fact is that there is no disadvantage of playing with no flop no drop, so you should certainly be seeking it out, and getting to play with it if you can. While big wins before the flop stage of the game are not too common, and of course, you need to be the one winning to see a benefit, this can happen, and when you play with it, you are going to win more in this instance.
With so much choice on offer from the casino industry, there is no reason to play with a bad deal. There are many things that make up this, including no flop no drop, so look out for this being part of the casino policy, and being to your advantage. Poker gaming is hard enough without the rules of the room not being in your favour, so look to try and get everything you possibly can on your side, which will help you in the long run.