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PokerStars Rakeback Equivalents Thread to End all Threads
Overview of the VIP Levels
PokerStars has various VIP levels that have increasing levels of benefits in terms of your FPP multiplier and what level bonuses you can receive. This is an overview of those levels:
BronzeStar - This is the level everyone starts with. Here you get 1 FPP for every 1 VPP you earn.
SilverStar - This level requires you to make 1,500 VPPs in a calendar month, and this status stays with you until at least the end of the following month. Here you earn 1.5 FPPs for every 1 VPP you earn.
GoldStar - This level requires you to make 4,000 VPPs in a calendar month, and this status stays with you until at least the end of the following month. Here you earn 2 FPPs for every 1 VPP you earn.
PlatinumStar - This level requires you to make 10,000 VPPs in a calendar month, and this status stays with you until at least the end of the following month. Here you earn 2.5 FPPs for every 1 VPP you earn.
Supernova - This level requires you to make 100,000 VPPs in a calendar year, and this status stays with you until at least the end of February of the following year. Here you earn 3.5 FPPs for every 1 VPP you earn.
Supernova Elite - This level requires you to make 1,000,000 VPPs in a calendar year, and this status stays with you until at least the end of February of the following year. Here you earn 5 FPPs for every 1 VPP you earn.
(Source: http://www.pokerstars.com/vip/tiers/)
Overview of the VIP Bonuses
There are four distinct VIP bonuses, not counting the milestone bonuses which are covered in the next section. Here is an overview of the VIP bonuses that lists how much the bonus is, how many FPPs it costs, which VIP level it's available for, what the $/FPP value is, what the $/VPP value is if you clear the bonus at its respective level, and how many VPPs you have to get after you buy the bonus to have it released into your account (you keep these VPPs, by the way).
$50 for 5,000 FPPs - Available to SilverStar or higher, $0.01/FPP, $0.015/VPP. (350 VPPs to clear)
$285 for 25,000 FPPs - Available to GoldStar or higher, $0.0114/FPP, $0.0228/VPP. (1,995 VPPs to clear)
$650 for 50,000 FPPs - Available to PlatinumStar or higher, $0.013/FPP, $0.0325/VPP. (4,550 VPPs to clear)
$1500 for 100,000 FPPs - Available to Supernova or higher, $0.015/FPP, $0.0525/VPP. (10,500 VPPs to clear)
$4000 for 250,000 FPPs - Available to Supernova or higher, $0.016/FPP, $0.056/VPP. (28,000 VPPs to clear)
(Source: http://www.pokerstars.com/fpp/store/cash-bonus/)
Overview of the Milestone Bonuses
You receive Milestone Bonuses for breaking a set number of VPPs in a calendar year. Each of the these costs 50,000 FPPs.
$2,000 at 200,000 VPP (10,000 VPPs to clear)
$3,000 at 300,000 VPP (15,000 VPPs to clear)
$4,000 at 400,000 VPP (20,000 VPPs to clear)
$5,000 at 500,000 VPP (25,000 VPPs to clear)
$6,000 at 600,000 VPP (30,000 VPPs to clear)
$8,000 at 800,000 VPP (40,000 VPPs to clear)
$10,000 for every 250,000 VPPs above 1 Million (50,000 VPPs to clear)
$10,000 additional Bonus for 2 and 3 Million VPPs
(Source: http://www.pokerstars.com/fpp/store/special/vip-reward/)
Figuring Out How Fast You Gain VPPs
This thread (also by me) explains in easy-to-do fashion how to figure out your own personal VPPs-per-hand rate at some level using Poker Tracker: http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ps-t65238.html
Some Example VPP/Hand and Rakeback Calculations
The following are hand samples for full ring NLHE taken from PokerStars sometime this year:
Code:
Stakes Hands VPPs Rake Silver RB Gold RB Platinum RB SuperN RB SuperN4k RB
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25nl 28637 3601 $497.60 0.1086 0.1650 0.2352 0.3799 0.4052
50nl 34886 6694 $832.60 0.1206 0.1833 0.2613 0.4221 0.4502
100nl 62250 22783 $2,652.60 0.1288 0.1958 0.2791 0.4509 0.4810
200nl 70562 30400 $3,943.95 0.1156 0.1757 0.2505 0.4047 0.4317
400nl 27523 15447 $2,481.65 0.0934 0.1419 0.2023 0.3268 0.3486
For example, Gold RB at 50nl would be the approximate rakeback % that you would get as a GoldStar VIP member clearing the GoldStar VIP bonus ($285) at that level, and is 18.33%. This is only taking into account the value of the VIP bonuses, and does not take into account the Milestone bonuses or any other VIP club benefits. Also, this does not take into account any value of FPPs you would have gained at a lower VIP level that would go towards a bonus at a higher VIP level.
The following are hand samples for six-max NLHE taken from PokerStars sometime this year:
Code:
Stakes Hands VPPs
---------------------
400nl 36678 19324
600nl 26874 15984
1knl 20783 13297
2knl 19074 13598
I explain how to do some similar calculations in this thread: http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...us-t66606.html
VPPs/Hands Calculator
I made this quick script since people couldn't figure out the math involved and since I got tired of being asked to do it for them: VPP Calculator. Note that since no one has contributed any 6-max numbers, it only gives the numbers for full ring since I don't have anything for 6-max to work with.
Using the Milestones in a Rakeback Calculation
Suppose you plan to play 200nl full ring all year with an average of 15k hands/week, you start the year off as a Supernova, and you would like to know the percentage of your rake that you would get back in bonuses if you only used Milestone bonuses and the $4000 bonus, using lesser bonuses only if you have FPPs left over at the end of the year.
First we need to decide how many FPPs you will gain all year long. Note that 15k hands/week gives us 780k hands over the course of the year, which is about 336045 VPPs, or about 1176158 FPPs. Since we'll be breaking 300k VPPs, we will pick up the $2000 and $3000 milestone bonuses. For simplicity, we will start with those in our calculation.
Code:
Starting Balance: 1176158 FPPs $ 0.00
After $2000 Milestone: -50000 FPPs 1126158 FPPs $ 2000.00
After $3000 Milestone: -50000 FPPs 1076158 FPPs $ 5000.00
After $4000 VIP Bonus: -250000 FPPs 826158 FPPs $ 9000.00
After $4000 VIP Bonus: -250000 FPPs 576158 FPPs $ 13000.00
After $4000 VIP Bonus: -250000 FPPs 326158 FPPs $ 17000.00
After $4000 VIP Bonus: -250000 FPPs 76158 FPPs $ 21000.00
After $650 VIP Bonus: -50000 FPPs 26158 FPPs $ 21650.00
After $285 VIP Bonus: -25000 FPPs 1158 FPPs $ 21935.00
Overall, we can expect to pay about $43596.85 in rake over the year, and receive $21935.00 back in the form of bonuses, which comes to about 50.3% rakeback.
PokerStars Reload Bonuses
The typical PokerStars reload bonus is a bonus of $120 on a deposit of $600 (20%). To release the bonus, you have to earn 15x the bonus amount in VPPs, but you still earn the FPPs from those VPPs and you still "keep" the VPPs earned to clear the bonus. At the time of this writing (7/23/2008) there is a WCOOP reload bonus of $240 on a deposit of $600 (40%) as part of PokerStars' 2x Promotion. To release this bonus, you have to earn 20x the bonus amount in VPPs. Since all players earn VPPs at the same rate (dependent on their stakes, of course) the approximate equivalent rakeback from this bonus (not counting usage of the FPPs earned releasing the bonus) are as follows (for full ring only, again I don't have 6-max samples because no one will contribute them to the thread). This table lists the stakes, approximate hands needed to release, approximate rake accumulated during the time it takes to release, and the approximate equivalent rakeback for the reload bonuses:
Code:
20% reload bonus, $120 bonus on a deposit of $600 (1800 VPPs to clear)
Stakes Hands Rake Rakeback
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25nl 14315 $248.73 0.4825
50nl 9381 $223.88 0.5360
100nl 4918 $209.57 0.5726
200nl 4178 $233.52 0.5139
400nl 2641 $238.45 0.5032
40% reload bonus, $240 bonus on a deposit of $600 (4800 VPPs to clear)
Stakes Hands Rake Rakeback
--------------------------------
25nl 38172 $663.28 0.3618
50nl 25015 $597.02 0.4020
100nl 13115 $558.86 0.4294
200nl 11141 $622.73 0.3854
400nl 7043 $635.87 0.3774
Concierge Service
FTR member kingnat has written a pretty good Q&A for the concierge service available here: http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...39.html#760805
Edit Log:
July 12, 2008 - Added the new $4000 bonus and rakeback equivalent data for the bonus for the Supernova level.
July 13, 2008 - Added an example rakeback calculation using milestone bonuses.
July 23, 2008 - Added reload bonuses information.
August 9, 2008 - Added VPP/hands calculator.
August 12, 2008 - Added some 6-max data (thanks AndyAKB), removed flawed 400nl FR data, updated VPP calculator.
August 13, 2008 - Added corrected 400nl FR data (thanks mcatdog).
September 25, 2008 - Added link to kingnat's concierge Q&A.
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