PokerStars offers a new player bonus of a 100% match up to $600, which means if you deposit $600, PokerStars will match that deposit 100% with a bonus of $600!
But unlike most other online poker rooms, you do not have to make a single deposit of $600 to max out the $600 bonus. The PokerStars download allows the new player to make up to 3 deposits within a 90 day period that will count towards the 100% match bonus! So, for example, you can make an initial deposit of $200 and then the following week deposit another $150. Then, two weeks after that when you get another paycheck, deposit the remaining $250. Being as these three deposits were made within a 90 day period they will all count towards a $600 deposit for the maximum 100% up to $600 PokerStars Bonus!
You must use the PokerStars Bonus Code of “STARS600″ when making all 3 of these deposits (or however many) to apply these to your new player welcome bonus. In addition, by registering your account with the PokerStars Marketing Code of “PSA7201” you qualify to enter in $1,000 worth of freerolls and money added tournaments every month!
Once you’ve made the eligible deposit for the PokerStars bonus, you will then begin earning VIP Player Points (VPPs) to liberate the bonus into your account. By playing tournaments and cash games you cam earn VPPs. The amount of VPPs awarded in cash games depends on the game type and the rake for the hand. Tournaments are simpler. For every $1 that is paid toward tournament fees you earn 5.5 VPPs. No matter what, VPPs collect quickly and it won’t be long until you will release your entire bonus. For every 170 VPPs that you acquire, $10 of your bonus money will be deposited into your account.
For the tournament player, this equates to 17 VPP’s to $1, so 17/5.5 = $3.09 in rake for every $1 in bonus. The ratio of 3:1 is pretty typical for an online poker room welcome bonus. But in addition to the $600 welcome bonus, PokerStars offers much more in terms of promotions and great value to new players.
PokerStars.com offers regular reload bonuses, freerolls and big guaranteed tournaments, but perhaps the greatest player incentive is the PokerStars VIP Program.
The PokerStars VIP program is regarded as one of the best loyalty programs in all of online poker! The VIP program is so good that it can work very much like a poker rakeback site – allowing players to purchases bonuses (among many other perks) with player points!
Every player on PokerStars starts at BronzeStar, which is the first VIP level (more on that later). Earning VIP Player Points can promote you to the next VIP level. Some VIP levels are monthly, meaning that they will have to be renewed each month for an additional month of membership. Others are yearly, meaning that it will be valid until at least the next February, and to extend them beyond that you need to accumulate a certain amount of VPP each month thereafter. The higher your VIP level, the faster you can collect FPP’s and it’s the FPP’s that you spend in the PokerStars store to buy gear, tournament entries, gadgets, or bonuses.
First of all, whenever you sit down on a table to wager real money on PS, both in cash games and tournaments, will net you VIP Player Points. Your success in climbing the VIP ladder on PokerStars depends on how many VPPs you earn over either a calendar month or a calendar year. Earning VPPs will grant you FPPs as quickly as your current multiplier dictates, which changes depending on your current VIP level. FPP’s are the cornerstone of the PokerStars.com VIP Store, and you can use them to purchase a variety of stuff ranging from Teddy Bears to cookie baskets to replenishable bonuses and even the car of your dreams. It is also possible to purchase buy-ins for land based events such as the WSOP directly from the store and even some online events using Frequent Player points.
VPP earning rates are as follows: In tournaments you will be earning 5.5 VPPs for every $1 and 8VPPs for every 1EUR paid in tourney fees, while for cash games it depends how many people were dealt in for the hand. With 8 or more seats, you would collect 6 VPPs per dollar raked, while 8.5VPPs will be awarded for every 1EUR raked, with the ceiling being USD3 or 3 Euro. In cash games with an amount of seats that is under 7 or exactly 8, the numbers are 5.5VPP/USD and 85VPP for every Euro raked. The VPP given will then be evenly split among everyone who got dealt cards during the hand.
To begin with we have BronzeStar, which is the level at which every players starts out. This level has no FPP multiplier bonus, which means you will get 1 Frequent Player point for each individual VIP Player Point you get awarded. Most of the really good stuff will be either unlocked or prohibitively expensive FPP-wise in the VIP store while playing at this level, but you can still spend your Frequent Player points on Poker Books, clothing items and various poker accessories such as branded playing cards, card protectors etc.
The following step up the PokerStars VIP Club levels is the SilverStar level. This level is attained by accumulating 750 VPP’s in one calendar month. This level is also marked by the introduction to the FPP multiplier effect, which entails that you will be earning FPPs at a faster rate than the VPPs. Remember, at BronzeStar you were collecting 1 FPP for every 1 VPP you gain: at SilverStar you will now earn FPPs 50% as fast, meaning that for every 1 VPP you generate, you will be earning 1.5 FPPs. Things you can get as a SilverStar include a special $50 VIP Reward Bonus (not cash) that you will have pay 5,000 FPPs to acquire and earn 350 VPPs to clear, a lot of clothing accessories and a whole host of electronic equipment and gift certificates for pretty much every major store worldwide, and all of this is on top of the things you had access to as a BronzeStar.
The following step up is GoldStar. Reaching this VIP level is done by reaching the 3,000 VPP milestone in a calendar month. Benefits you can expect for being a GoldStar include a 2x FPP multiplier, which basically entails that your earning rate of FPPs will increase by 100%! Every item of SilverStar and below will be available to you if you have a GoldStar member, but you will also get access to a few GoldStar-specific items, including among many a Deluxe 500 piece poker chip set and $320 and $530 buy-ins for online tourneys. Also available for GoldStars is a selection of PokerStars money clips, which allow you to look real suave while doing your daily purchases.
And then we arrive at the last of the monthly VIP Levels, which is PlatinumStar. You will have to earn about 7,500 VPPs in any given calendar month to reach this. PlatinumStar offers a 2.5x multiplier on your VPPs (+150%), and you will also have access to pretty much every non-cash item in the store. Every item that is available to the lesser VIP levels will be unlocked for PlatinumStars and aside from that you will also have exclusive goodies, which include: a variety of cash bonuses going all the way up to $650 and also 50″ Plasma or 40″ LCD TV to get your entertainment fix. At this level it becomes very easy to generate a ton of FPPs to make purchases in the VIP store: just maintaining your VIP level will net you with about 20,000 FPPs each and every single month.
The next VIP level is Supernova. Since its one of the yearly levels, to become a Supernova you would have to earn a minimum of 100,000 VPPs in any calendar year. This will basically make you eligible for almost all of the money bonuses in the VIP store, including the $1500 and the $4000 bonuses which are exclusive to this level. These bonuses cost 100,000 and 250,000 FPPs respectively, and will require you to earn 10,500 and 25,000 VPPs respectively within 90 days to clear them. Of course, you can take these bonuses as many times as you want (assuming you have the required FPPs to do it) but can only clear 1 at a time. Hopefully you are starting to see how much money you will be able to make while a Supernova on PS.
At this level you will also be able to purchase the Porsche Cayman S from the VIP store, but it will cost you 3,000,000 FPPs to do so, so it will be quite a stretch to do this at Supernova.
Supernova also makes you eligible for the very awesome PS concierge service. This means that you will be able to buy pretty much anything you want with a total cost above $500, and then you will have the equivalent amount in FPPs deducted from your account, with the money you spent now deposited in your account. How many FPPs will be taken from your account will definitely vary depending on what you bought, and if you have any questions you should get in contact with the extra super PS cust. support dept. and any doubts and curiosities you may have had would be cleared.
But wait, there is more. If you are truly hardcore, then you should be going for the SNE VIP Level. This is the top VIP player level on Poker Stars and it will take 1,000,000 VPPs to reach, and will unlock every single thing you can get in the VIP Store. It is also a yearly VIP level meaning it is valid until the next February. Broken down to its bases level, you just reached the top of the mountain if you attain Supernova Elite.
For every VPP you earn while SNE, you will earn 5 FPPs, which entails an amazing 400% increase. On the treacherous road to get to Elite, thankfully, Poker Stars has implemented a large selection of cash bonuses which can be purchased and will be deposited immediately in your account for every 100,000 VPP milestone you reach until Supernova Elite. These bonuses, plus the other bonuses you can take while on the road to Supernova elite, amount to very close to $100,000. As you can see, you will be in for some serious moneymaking if you grind enough to reach Elite.
Every discrete VIP level can also access Daily, Weekly and Monthly VIP tourneys for which you would have to buy-in using FPPs; check the website or the PokerStars client for more details. And to help you make your way up the various VIP levels, PokerStars.com will be giving out various milestone bonuses that reward you for reaching various amounts of yearly VPPs. Further details are available on the site.
The PokerStars VIP program is considered by many to be the best loyalty program out there, and with good reason. There is a lot of money just laying there for grabs in on PokerStars, and the more you play the more money you will be making. And the additional benefits from having set figures to reach should not be overlooked, as it will keep you focused on the grind. But with all this knowledge under your belt, including the amounts of money you could potentially win, why don’t you stop reading right now and go over there to make a new account? If you start playing today you will still be able to make PlatinumStar this month, with the sky being your only limit!
Don’t forget to use the special PokerStars Marketing Code: PSA7201 and the PokerStars bonus code: STARS600 to ensure you receive the maximum bonus, and extra perks such as private freerolls and money-added tournaments!
