New bonus system for poker stars. What do we know about PokerStars chests? What can be found in PokerStars Stars Rewards Chests

Any business is built on making money, and poker rooms are no exception: while users play poker for money in cards at the tables, PokerStars rake provides salaries to the room's employees. Taking into account the daily volumes of the game, the amount is huge, and part of the collected commission is returned to the players' pockets. Rakeback is a serious aspect of the poker game, thanks to which poker professionals can have a stable income and not be left without money during a long downswing.

For a long time at PokerStars, rakeback was one of the main advantages of the room. Stars users were offered to gradually rise through the VIP levels from Bronze Star to Supernova Elite, while receiving a lot of bonus points that were spent on purchases in a local store and exchanged for real money. The final percentage of rakeback turned out to be more than worthy: Supernova status allowed returning about a third of the commission paid to the account, and Supernova Elite players even had 70% rakeback.

All good things come to an end, and the PokerStars VIP system is no exception. After the room was acquired by Amaya Gaming Group, the playing conditions for regular players began to deteriorate rapidly. Rakeback at PokerStars suffered the most - the final status of Supernova Elite was abolished, and on all other VIP levels, the commission return percentage was sharply reduced. As a result, by 2018, the old rakeback system completely disappeared, and the PokerStars Stars Rewards system came in its place. Despite the attractive picture and bright design, from the point of view of numbers, the new loyalty program is purely decorative: with its help, you can receive rakeback at PokerStars in the amount of several percent.

How does Star Rewards work?

The PokerStars Rewards system is simple and straightforward. For each hand played for real money, room users receive Stars Rewards points. The more points you earn, the faster the progress bar will fill up and you will receive a gift chest containing valuable prizes. In total, the PokerStars Rewards program provides for 6 types of gift cases:

• red gift - maximum prize up to $50;
• blue gift - maximum prize up to $100;
• bronze gift - maximum prize up to $250;
• Silver gift - maximum prize up to $500;
• golden gift - maximum prize up to $750;
• Platinum Gift - maximum prize up to $1000.

At first glance, such a loyalty program may seem very profitable and attractive, because the maximum size of the prize that drops out of the chest is really capable of providing high rakeback at PokerStars in 2018. The catch is that the probability of such an event is 0.0001%, while the size of the other prizes is simply negligible compared to the maximum. In addition to cash, a tournament ticket, StarsCoin or Stars Rewards points can drop out as a prize from the chest, which will speed up the receipt of the next bonus case.

In addition to the main types of prizes, rakeback can also be received at PokerStars in the form of special rewards. The probability of such bonuses falling out remains a mystery, the official website does not contain any information about this. The special reward could be a live tournament package, a huge amount of StarsCoin, a cash prize of several thousand dollars, or another incredible prize. Such vague language can serve as a good marketing bait, but is unlikely to be of interest to experienced poker professionals.

To speed up the receipt of the next chest, players can use special boosters, or "Boosts". Boosters raise the rate of accumulation of Stars Rewards for a certain period of time. For example, if you use a 20-point booster, your next 20 Stars Rewards points will earn you 40 points. After using the booster, a timer will appear on the screen, which will count down the time until the next booster can be used. As a rule, such a period of time takes about 8 hours.

StarsCoin is a unique in-game currency that can be exchanged for real money or spent on memorable prizes by visiting the Stars Rewards store at PokerStars. StarsCoins drop out of bonus chests along with cash prizes, their value is calculated at a fixed rate of $10 for every 1,000 StarsCoin. What prizes can be purchased from the PokerStars Rewards store with this currency? Here are the main categories of products available to players in the poker room store and listed on the official website:

• clothing - caps, t-shirts, polo shirts, sweatshirts worth from 500 to 4000 StarsCoin;
• Accessories - cups, flasks, key rings, Rubik's cube, bags, spinners, headphones, soccer balls, iPad cases, anti-stress toys worth from 650 to 2950 StarsCoin;
• Safety - Avira Internet Security Suite 2018 antivirus program and RSA Security Token worth from 1700 to 3740 StarsCoin;
• Poker - card protectors, poker sets, all-in triangles, dealer button worth from 1050 to 14000 StarsCoin;
• Books - "A World Apart" comic book autographed by the author worth 1700 StarsCoin;
• Sweets - zChocolat ZBOX worth from 6000 to 7950 StarsCoin;
• Online tickets - tournament tickets in denominations from $0.25 to $50 worth from 25 to 5000 StarsCoin;
• Charitable donations - donation of $20 to one of the charitable organizations worth 2000 StarsCoin;
• Bonuses - exchange StarsCoin for real money in the amount of $10, $25, $100 and $1000 worth from 1000 to 100,000 StarsCoin.

You can exchange StarsCoin for rewards in the "My Stars" menu in the "Stars Rewards Store" section. A complete list of products is available in the PokerStars PC client. While the items listed may not be available for purchase in certain countries, the pokerstars rewards store is the most attractive aspect of the VIP program. The Stars store retains the spirit of the former loyalty program, and the souvenirs purchased here can bring a lot of pleasant emotions and become companions on your life path.

How does the new system affect players?

The new PokerStars VIP system was perceived extremely negatively by poker professionals. Despite assurances from the room management that changes to the loyalty program would benefit the poker ecology, many regulars took part in protests, declaring a boycott of cash games and tournaments in the poker room. This position is easy to understand: the rake at PokerStars has never been particularly low, so the cuts in rakeback have hit the income of professional players hard. As a result, the confrontation between the managers from Amaya Gaming Group and the regulars of PokerStars ended in an unconditional victory for the former: all the announced changes came into effect on the specified dates, and those who were dissatisfied had to either adapt or change the poker room being played.

In 2018, PokerStars continues to implement reforms that worsen the playing conditions for poker regulars. Reducing the maximum number of tables played, replacing table select with auto-seating, turning poker from a game of skill into a spin & go lottery - all these decisions consistently confirm the protest thesis “They kill poker”.

How do all these changes affect regular players? Well, recreational poker players do not have to complain, for them the game becomes safer, faster, more convenient and more colorful. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about regular players: in addition to the obligation to pay PokerStars a hefty amount of rake, professionals are forced to forego a stable income from rakeback and switch to a highly variable income in the form of a bb/100 win rate and ROI.

And now, finally, it happened. In press releases and mailing lists, poker room representatives are promising "amazing instant prizes" including tickets to WSOP satellites, direct tickets to the PokerStars Festival and PokerStars Championship tournaments, as well as cash. Sounds really exciting!

However, the reality is a little more complicated. You need to earn a certain amount of bonus points, and for this you will receive a chest. In the chest, in fact, are the promised prizes. For four chests per day, you will be promoted to the next level. There are six of them: red, blue, bronze, silver, gold and platinum. The higher the level, the better the prizes. And now let's open the prize drop frequency table:

That is, at the easiest level - let's say you teach your grandmother how to play poker - with a probability of 99.99% there will be no more than $0.65 in the chest. Worse, in 88% of cases, the grandmother is waiting for no more than $0.13.

The chance of winning the biggest prize is only 1 in 10,000. True, if you are lucky with a platinum chest, there may be a whole thousand dollars. The current table, by the way, is already a corrected version. At the time of the launch of the program in Denmark and Italy, the distribution of prizes was not so even.

So how much rake does it take to open that coveted platinum chest? Even to hell with it, with platinum, at least the simplest, red? To get one red chest, you need to earn at least 100 points. There are no exact numbers, we quote the rules:

The number of Stars Rewards Points required to receive a gift depends on a number of factors and therefore may be different for each player. These are factors such as the volume of the game, gaming preferences, the ratio of deposits and withdrawals, etc. These factors and their effect on the required number of points may change over time depending on your activity.

For every $1 of rake, 100 points are awarded. At the same time, rake in games with high limits is not taken into account. High tables are $5/$10 and up, as well as 8 games and all other limit games over $20/$40. But points are awarded for casino games and sports betting. Every 8 hours you can get "acceleration" - you will receive twice as many points for the collected rake. Hello, good old Happy Hour.

As a result, after the new “loyalty” program was launched, it turned out that players receive an average of 4% rakeback. Here is what they write on 2 + 2:

I'm a reg, I usually play $0.01/0.02 Zoom or $0.25 spins. And for my 240 points (i.e. $2.40) they gave me... $0.09.

Hit $2.40 - got 11 cents, haha.

My first chest was silver, for $68 of rake I got 243 coins and 160 points. Rewarded so rewarded.

But why is this all? That's because "most players often only play a few times a month and PokerStars wants them to earn rewards as well." Another quote: "To celebrate the launch of our new loyalty program, we've stashed $1,000 worth of rewards in over a thousand random chests - that's $10,000,000 in tickets, bonuses and StarsCoins!"

If you are in the same shock, we recall. Someone has already left, someone is just going, and someone plans to stay playing on PS.

Heming
For me, as a person who is not going and does not want to finish with poker, but on the contrary, is still burning with the desire to move on, everything is not so bad. The "zero" ones will leave or go down, weakly positive regs will think about leaving. Ultimately, it all comes down to the balance of power at the table. Even if you leave everything as it is and completely remove the RB, say, on Zoom 200, I will stay. The field suits me. Rakeback has never been a significant part of my profit. The main thing is how many amateurs will fall on a conditional reg and the level of play of the regs themselves. For me, the main thing at this stage is raising the skill, and then in the scorched desert of poker rooms, it will be possible to choose the best from the worst.

Many are confused right now. But there is no point in standing still. , and if in doubt where to go, . Well, remember that GipsyTeam players get access to exclusive promotions and bonuses, round-the-clock support and other “little things” that make up a comfortable game.

And if you play a lot, write to Skype vip500plus- this is . We will select a room for you, help you with the software and make sure that you get comparable rakeback in another room.

Good news for former PKR players

If you had an account on a closed PKR and there was some money, PokerStars is ready to return this money to you. More precisely, transfer to your PokerStars account the entire amount that remained on your balance in PKR on May 11, 2017. If you did not have an account on PS, the room offers to register - and hopes that you will stay in it, despite everything read above.

Severin Russet, Chief Innovation Officer PokerStars, posted a blog entry in which it was written that soon the room will completely switch from a multi-level monthly VIP program to daily payments, which will not only become several times smaller, but will also carry some element of randomness.

On January 1, 2006, PokerStars introduced a unique VIP system. All players in the room received FPP points that could be exchanged for various goods in the VIP store. For a long time, the PokerStars loyalty program remained the best for players, until the poker room changed its management, and with it the policy of the room.

To better understand in which direction the industry leader is developing, you should look at the past. Now we will tell you how the PokerStars VIP system has evolved over the past 11 years.

March 1, 2006: PokerStars FPPs

Each player on PokerStars received frequent player points, aka FPP. When playing cash hands or registering in tournaments, the player pays rake. The more rake, the more FPPs PokerStars gave. And the higher the VIP level, the more profitable it was to exchange FPP points for money.

The exchange of FPP points took place in the VIP store. Points could be exchanged for cash, tournament tickets or valuable prizes, including PokerStars branded clothing, poker books, a set of chips, electronic devices, etc. The most expensive item was the Porsche Cayman S-class. By the way, Dario Minieri was the first to exchange 5 million FPP points for Porsche. And in 2011, Cossett Spencer set a new record by buying a Porsche twice with FPP.

Perhaps, some of the Russian players would have managed to do this earlier, if FPP had been taken for customs clearance of a car.

March 1, 2009: Special conditions for regulars

It's been a great year for the regulars. When the Sheinbergs were at the helm, changes to the PokerStars loyalty system really meant improvements. In March 2009, the following changes were made:

• Reducing the number of WFP points to achieve Silver, Gold, Platinum statuses
• Increased guarantee in VIP tournaments by $25,000 (up to $75,000) and by $10,000 (up to $30,000)
• Special bonuses for Supernova. Now all Supernovas could buy $2,000 for 50,000 FPPs without making an extra 10,000 VPPs

Also changed are the concierge services that can be used by all players who reach Supernova status. The "concierge job" was that the player could send a check to PokerStars to buy anything they wanted, and the room would transfer $500 to the player's account for every 31,000 FPP.

This service was needed so that players could buy goods that are not in the VIP store. With such a situation, FPP points could easily become a separate world currency, given that the regulars wanted to pay for alimony, taxes, the purchase of a private dance in a strip club, the services of a psychologist and a statue of a Buddha for an aura.

Fun fact: the player under the nickname "blego151" traded FPP for a new horse. No, we do not mean Porsche, which was written about a little higher. This player bought a real live horse and named it "Midnight Gambler". Apparently, the guy liked to ride at night.

Since March 1, 2009, concierge services have been provided no more than three times and no more than once a month. And the total amount of the check must be at least $500. That is, a player could buy a case of beer and pay for it with FPP points if the case cost more than $500. And, of course, the concierge could only be used for legitimate purposes.

For example, "bouh" bought an African safari with FPPs through the concierge, and "Bigjoe2009" used FPPs as a down payment to buy a house.

Actually, everything was exactly like that, and for a long time the PokerStars VIP system did not give chances to other rooms. If a player could fill Supernova, there simply were no other rooms for him. And every year the Starz reward system really improved.

January 1, 2010: Getting VIP status just got easier

Changes in 2010 affected the acquisition and retention of VIP statuses. "Silver" became possible to earn for 750 VPP points instead of 1,200, and it was possible to save Supernova by accumulating 7,500 VPP, instead of 10,000. Increased the number of VPP points for $1. There was also a new Vip Stellar Rewards system that included 19 bonuses totaling $1,000. New $1 million VIP freerolls for Supernova were also announced (Gold and Platinum could qualify for this tournament via a satellite).

January 1, 2011: Increased the VPP system for micro limits, Milestone Cash Credit for 1 FPP

In 2011, all micro-stakes players received a great gift: since January 1, NL2 players have been able to accumulate VPP 167% faster. SNE (Supernova Elite) players started earning $20,000, reaching 1,000,000 VPP + offline series discounts. And, most importantly, the cost of Milestone Cash Credits has changed to 1 FPP instead of 50,000 FPP.

And a new $200 per FPP bonus has been added to VIP Stellar Rewards. That is, the total amount of the VIP Stellar Rewards bonus amounted to $1,200.

January 1, 2012: VPP points change

2012 has started very actively for PokerStars and all players. PokerStars switched to VPP scoring from a "dealt" method to a "weighted contribution". If earlier VPPs were divided equally among the participants in the distribution, now they are distributed in proportion to how much money each player put into the pot.

Public reaction: loose-aggressive players appreciated the innovation, while tight players went on strike.

January 1, 2013: New Chrome Status and Hall of Fame

The changes of 2013 were perhaps among the most unrevolutionary. A new "Chrome" status between "Bronze" and "Silver" has been introduced so that other players can also evaluate the PokerStars VIP system. Chrome had weekly $5,000 Gtd Freerolls and a $100,000 Freeroll.

As for other changes, Silver and Gold have become even easier to get. To do this, since 2013, it was necessary to fill 500 (less than $100 rake) and 2500 VPP (slightly more than $400 rake).

Since 2013, the most dedicated and loyal PokerStars players have been inducted into the VIP Club Hall of Fame. All players who scored 5 million and 10 million RPL points began to be enrolled in the VIP club. In addition, each player of the VIP club was given a Tag Heuer watch with a personal engraving as a gift in a solemn atmosphere.

Also, players who reached 10 million VPPs received a PokerStars manager's phone number to resolve urgent issues.

Tipping point: In the summer of 2014, Mark Shreinberg sold PokerStars for $4 billion to Amaya Gaming. After that, hard times began for all the regulars.

January 1, 2015: SNE players lose free tickets

Changes in 2015 became, in a way, the first wake-up call. All Supernova Elite players have been stripped of free $5,200 tickets to the major online WCOOP, TCOOP and SCOOP series.

In general, the January changes were more like an announcement. The regulars had a premonition that PokerStars would never be the same again. The players are in for a tough time...

January 1, 2016: Rakeback reduction and VIP levels

The new year 2016 started with bad news for many players. The new leadership of PokerStars has made sweeping changes to the loyalty program:

• Introduction of a "simple and clear system of VIP levels". The regulars did not agree with this wording, and in general did not consider the old system to be extremely sophisticated and difficult.
• Reduced rakeback. As explained in an official letter from PokerStars: "As of January 1, 2016, we have revised the rewards system to limit the motivation to play for the rewards themselves." Therefore, the maximum rakeback for players earning more than 200,000 VPP has stopped at 30% since 2016. Maximum rakeback for Supernova = 28%.
• The emergence of Star Coins. Now all rewards are converted into Stars Coins at the rate of 1 Star Coins = $0.01. That is, now all bonuses are bought for these coins. $25 = 2,500 Star Coins, $100 = 10,000 Star Coins and $1,000 = 100,000 Star Coins.

Remember the 1 FPP Milestone, where an SNE player could get over $100,000 extra? Now these bonuses are gone. Nor are there quarterly freerolls for Supernova with a $1,000,000 guarantee. The hall of fame of the VIP club is now also gone, as is the concierge.

And so that the players once and for all forget about the old days of luxury and wealth, as of January 1, 2017, the Supernova Elite status has been abolished. And Supernova status became monthly.

The reaction of the players was unequivocal - protest. Internationally, opposition to the new management of PokerStars was led by Talal Shakerchi. Players agreed that they need to play less at PokerStars, support mass sitout promotions and take the bankroll out of the room. In social networks, the players set protest avatars.

Were the measures of the regulars successful? Obviously not. Some of the regs jokingly took out a diploma from the mezzanine and blew the dust off it, someone opened a newspaper with vacancies for the factory, someone fled to other poker rooms. But still PokerStars remains the largest poker room in the world…

What awaits us in the summer at PokerStars?

It is not yet clear what the new loyalty program will be. Now it is being tested in Denmark. It is known that chests with random prizes will appear for players. The poker community is anxiously awaiting the final details of the new VIP program.

Starting July 7, a new loyalty program is being introduced in all countries: Stars Rewards. No more VPPs and VIP Steps. Now there will only be chests... Chests! This is another step towards turning online poker into a kind of slots and games on social networks. All details below.

The largest poker room announced a new method of rewarding regular players back in April of this year, but then almost nothing was clear. But already in May, a post was rolled out on the official blog about what Stars Rewards are.

This is a bonus system that applies to poker players, casinos, and sports bettors. The more you play for real money, the more points you get reward points. They, in turn, gradually fill a special indicator. When it is full, a prize will open - a chest with various random prizes: tickets to tournaments, spin-and-go, money.

Chests come in six types: Red, Blue, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum. The more you play, the higher the chance of getting a more valuable container. The more expensive the chest, the more valuable the prizes. For example, in gold and platinum you can win up to $1,000, 1,000,000 StarsCoin or a PokerStars Championship package worth several thousand dollars.

Features of the Stars Rewards System

So, we have a classic system used in many computer games. The player gets pretty chests, clicks on them, pretty prizes come out of them - while everything sparkles and glitters.

The same principle is used, by the way, in the Hearthstone game, which is popular among poker players, where you can buy closed “decks” from which cards randomly fall out - most often cheap ones fall, but sometimes legendary ones also come out.

PokerStars, in fact, did not come up with anything new, but went along the beaten path. So, what should you pay attention to first of all:

1. Prizes are individualized. This is the most important point. In theory, this means that if you play tournaments, you are more likely to be given tournament tickets or money. If you prefer Spin and Go, get something for them.

There is also a logical division into poker, casino and sports betting. BUT! As we all know very well, there is a clear division into poker markets, which have their own characteristics. Moreover, PokerStars has a huge database of all its players - and they know who can painlessly accrue large prizes, and who can not. For example, if a player often makes large deposits and drains them quickly, it makes sense to reward him with a good chest. And the regular, who counts every cent, slips "dummy".

1. The probabilities of receiving prizes are known in advance. Thus, the most expensive cash prizes fall with the probability 1 in 10,000(0.01%), and the cheapest (in a platinum chest it will be $10.70) - with a probability of 32.99%.
2. Prizes are completely random which means: distributed using a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG). In fact, we do not know this and cannot verify it in any way.

CS:GO experience

Probably the most famous example of such a system (namely chests) in the gaming world is CS:GO. A sea of ​​sites offer to buy containers, which can contain expensive skins for weapons or just money. Moreover, many of these sites simply rob gullible users.

In the best case, the player will gradually drain the money. A chest, let's say, costs $1. It - according to the assurances of the creators of the site - can be prizes in the amount of $0.5 to $100. And the system works in such a way that at a distance the player always wins less than he invests.

As for PokerStars, there are some pitfalls. It's no secret to anyone that The room has long divided the players into recreational and regular players. The former even receive a different mailing list. And how can you be sure that amateurs will not be given other chests that are more valuable? No way.

You just need to believe in the word ...

In general, at the end of next week all this will become clearer. And then we will say goodbye to an entire era of poker. People will soon forget what rakeback and VIP system is. More complex gives way to more attractive to the mass audience. We have been seeing the same thing for many years in the example of Hollywood, television and the Internet in general.

You can read even more interesting and useful articles from the world of poker in ourblog . Also look forpoker clubs by country and city, find out about upcoming poker tournaments or cash games on the portalPokerDiscover.com .