A core group of five of us started playing poker together in high school and we didn't stop until their babies started. We played at my place because among us, I had the best stereo, the best album collection, and the only official octagonal brown-vinyl-topped poker table with the wooden perimeter specially designed to hold coins and cash and spilled beer.
There was no rake when we played, and none of us had even heard of such a thing. If we ordered pizza, we paid for it when it got there.