888poker Brings Back Rake-Free $100K Mystery Main Event for Select Sundays in March

Online poker room 888poker has once again introduced its popular RakeLESS promotion, offering players the chance to compete in one of its flagship Sunday tournaments without paying tournament fees. During four Sundays in March, the site’s $100,000 Mystery Main Event will run without rake, meaning the entire buy-in goes directly into the prize pool.

The initiative is designed to increase the value of tournament participation while maintaining the same entry fee players are used to.

The $100K Mystery Main Event normally carries a $109 buy-in, where $100 contributes to the prize pool and $9 is taken as rake by the operator.

For the RakeLESS editions this month, however, the full $109 entry fee is added to the prize pool. As a result, players effectively compete for the entire value of their buy-in rather than having part of it deducted as a fee.

This format applies to four Sundays in March, with the tournament returning to its standard structure only on March 22, when the usual $9 fee will again be included.

Two of the special editions have already taken place.

The March 1 event attracted 935 entries. Under the standard structure, such participation would likely have resulted in the prize pool staying at the guaranteed $100,000, creating an overlay. Instead, because every dollar of the buy-in was directed into the prize pool, the total climbed to $101,915.

Participation was slightly lower the following week, when 904 players joined the tournament. In a regular format this turnout would have produced a significant overlay. With the RakeLESS model in place, however, the shortfall against the guarantee was reduced dramatically, leaving only a small difference compared to the guaranteed amount.

The promotion continues later this month with two additional rake-free editions:

• March 15 – RakeLESS $100K Mystery Main Event
• March 22 – Standard format returns
• March 29 – Final RakeLESS edition of the month

This structure allows players to take advantage of improved value on most Sundays in March while keeping the familiar weekly tournament schedule intact.

The RakeLESS concept is not new for 888poker. The operator first experimented with the idea in 2019, when rake was removed from several tournaments across the schedule. Those events exceeded expectations in terms of participation, leading the site to repeat the promotion later the same year.

In April 2025, the company revived the concept on a much larger scale by removing rake from dozens of tournaments scheduled on a single day. Buy-ins ranged from very small stakes to mid- and high-stakes events, but the principle remained the same: the entry fee stayed unchanged while the entire amount went into the prize pool.

The format has since become a recurring promotion and has occasionally been integrated into larger tournament series on the platform.

Although rake-free events are relatively uncommon in online poker, they do occasionally appear across the industry. Satellite tournaments without fees are regularly offered on several platforms, including 888poker itself.

Other operators have also experimented with similar ideas in the past. Some poker rooms have temporarily removed rake from their tournament schedules or introduced promotions where collected fees are later returned to players in the form of rakeback.

However, the RakeLESS model used by 888poker is slightly different, as the fee is removed entirely before the tournament begins rather than refunded afterward.

The rake-free initiative is just one of several ways 888poker aims to boost participation in its weekly Sunday schedule. The operator frequently runs special promotions on high-traffic days, including discounted buy-in events where entry fees are reduced while guarantees remain unchanged.

These campaigns are designed to increase the value offered to players and encourage larger tournament fields.

With two RakeLESS editions still scheduled this month, players on 888poker will have additional opportunities to enter the $100K Mystery Main Event with the full value of their buy-in going toward the prize pool.