If you are thinking about reasons to play on PokerStars, none are as important as its VIP Club, which makes it very worth of your while to play some online poker at PokerStars. Even if the site does not offer true rakeback, playing some online poker on PokerStars.com awards you VIP Player points, and these in turn will get you an entrance in what is possibly the biggest and best frequent player program among all money poker sites! Do a side-by-side comparison with other programs and you will see for yourself that it is worth much more than standard rakeback if you get a moderate amount of playing time in.
It goes like this. Every player on PS.com starts out as a BronzeStar, which is the lowest VIP level. Play some hands and tourneys on PokerStars.com and you will be generating VIP Player Points. Generate enough rake and you will be on your way to the next VIP level. Some VIP levels are monthly, which means they will run out by the end of the next month if you don't meet the specified criteria to keep them. Others are yearly, and will remain in place until the next February, and thereafter will keep being extended if you meet certain VPP quotas each month. The higher your VIP level, it will be easier and easier to get FPPs and the more things will be available to you in the VIP store, such as bigger bonuses etc.
Let's get started in giving you a taste of what is possibly the best us poker sites loyalty program you can find online today!
Before we do that though, let us lay down some of the prime details. Playing real money games on the PokerStars Download, both in cash games and tournaments, you will be earning VIP Player Points in the process. Your success in climbing the VIP ladder on PokerStars is related to how many VPPs you accrue over either a calendar month or a calendar year. Earning VPPs will grant you Frequent Player points in accordance with your current multiplier, 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 Stress Spades to an old fashioned box of chocolates 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 FPPs.
Unleashing VPPs is done in the following manner: 5.5 VPPs per dollar and 8 VPPs spent for every Euro in tournament fees, and in cash games this will depend on how many were seated and dealt cards in a hands. With 8 or more seats, 6VPPs will be awarded for every $1 in rake collected, and 8.5 VPP per Euro raked, up to a maximum of 3USD or 3 Euro. When we are talking about games which have an amount of seats that is under 7 or exactly 8, the numbers are 5.5VPP per 1 USD raked and 85VPP/EUR. The VPP given will then be evenly split among all the players who got dealt into the hand.
And first up we have BronzeStar, which is the initial VIP level for every player. Playing at this level will net you 1 FPP for every single VIP Player Point you accumulate. At this level, most of the truly good stuff will be out of bounds from you in the VIP store, but you will still be able to spend your Frequent Player points on a wide variety of Poker Books, clothing items and also poker accessories including playing cards and dealer buttons.
Next up the VIP club levels is the SilverStar level. This level is attained by accumulating 750 VPP's in a single month. This VIP Level is also where we see 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: once you get to 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 cash bonuses such up to a max of $50, a lot of clothing accessories and a plethora of electronics and gift certificates for a large selection of stores around the globe, and of course, as a SilverStar you have access to everything BronzeStars do.
Next up is GoldStar. All you have to do to become one is generate 3,000 VPPs in a month. As a GoldStar VIP you will get a 2x multiplier, which basically means you will be earning twice as many FPPs as VPPs. 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, which include a Deluxe 500 piece poker chip set and $320 and $530 buy-ins for online tourneys. Also available for GoldStars is a selection of PS branded money clips, some of which can be customized as well.
And next up we have the final monthly VIP level, 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, including among many: large cash bonuses up to $650 and a variety of big screen TVs. Generating FPPs to buy things in the store becomes incredibly easy at this level: just maintaining your VIP level will net you with about 20,000 FPPs each and every single month.
And then we arrive at Supernova. Since its one of the yearly levels, to become a Supernova you would have to earn a minimum of 100,000 VIP Player Points between January 1st and December 31st of any given year. Every single PokerStars Marketing Code in the PokerStars VIP store will be available to Supernovas, all the way up to an extra juicy $4000 bonus. The picture should be clear to you as the amount of money you can warn while you are 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. If you ever want to reach this incredible status, make sure you brush up with PokerStars’ free poker training to get your game ready for the challenge.
Also available exclusively to Supernovas and above is the very popular Poker Stars concierge service. To use it you would have to simply buy something with a total value greater than $500 and then mail the receipts to PokerStars, and get the money back in your account in exchange for FPPs. 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 universally revered Poker Stars CS dept. and any doubts and curiosities you may have had would be cleared.
But that's definitely not all. If you are really dedicated, then you should be going for the Supernova Elite VIP Level. It's the ultimate VIP player level on PokerStars.com and requires 1,000,000 VPPs to reach, and will also make everything in the VIP store instantly available. 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, signifying an amazing 400% increase. On the road to reach SNE however, Poker Stars has implemented a whole host of cash money bonuses which will be available to you every time you cross a 100K VPP milestone. These bonuses, plus the other bonuses you can take while on the road to Supernova elite, amount to close to 100K USD. Without a doubt, it is a very lucrative affair to grind enough to reach Elite.
Each level can also access Daily, Weekly and Monthly VIP tourneys for which you would have to buy-in using FPPs; more details such as the time and date are available at PokerStars.com and also in the PokerStars lobby. Also, while climbing the VIP ladder, Poker Stars.com will be giving out a large amount of milestone bonuses for reaching a set amount of yearly VPPs. Further details are available on the site.
The PokerStars VIP program is considered by many to be the best loyalty program of all PC and Mac Poker sites. Playing on PokerStars is a very lucrative thing to do, and obviously with more play you will be getting more rewards. And the additional benefits from having set figures to reach should not be overlooked, as this will keep your mind steady in the most trying of times. But with all this knowledge under your belt, and know for certain just how lucrative playing poker on PokerStars is, what are you waiting for? If you start playing today you will still be able to make PlatinumStar this month, and you will enjoy of a ton of benefits that you just can't get on other sites!
