PokerStars, the world’s leading online poker site, announced last week that changes will be made to its VIP Club rewards for 2011. PokerStars VIP Manager “Steve” made an official post on the TwoPlusTwo forums on December 17th outlining the changes, most of which will go into effect on January 1st. Steve said the alterations will “not substantially affect most players,” as nearly all of the tweaks were made to the Supernova rewards program.
“There will be only a few minor changes to the VIP Program for 2011,” the PokerStars representative said. “PokerStars will continue to offer benefits to all players, will continue to reward VPPs equally to all players dealt into a hand, and will continue to offer the best advertised rewards for high-volume players. These changes for 2011 are focused on simplifying the VIP Program, making benefits easier to communicate, claim, and enjoy.”
One major change that took effect on October 1st involved the purchase of VIP Reward Dollars. Previously, VIP Reward Bonuses purchased from the VIP Store had to be cleared by earning a specific number of VPPs. For example, a SilverStar VIP player who purchased a $50 reward bonus would have to earn 350 VPPs in order to transfer the bonus to his or her account. Now, players will find the cash in their account as soon as the purchase is made. Cash bonuses of $25 (BronzeStar+), $50 (SilverStar+), $300 (GoldStar+), and $650 (PlatinumStar+) can be purchased in the VIP Store.
In addition to the VIP Reward Bonus changes, the following modifications will go into effect on January 1st:
Supernova Elite VIPs will be eligible for a $20,000 Milestone Cash Credit at 1,000,000 VPPs instead of receiving choices of cash and live event packages. Additionally, the Milestone Cash Credit will only cost one FPP, as opposed to the 50,000 FPP price in the current program. However, the value of each Milestone Cash Credit has been reduced by $800 to balance out the reduced FPP cost. PokerStars says the change is “intended to simplify rewards and make them easier to claim, not to increase or reduce value received by players.”
The 100,000 VPP Milestone Cash Credit has also been removed and will be replaced by a 100,000 VPP Stellar Reward worth $200. This means that the first Milestone Cash Credit is available to VIPs who earn 200,000 VPPs. VIP Stellar Rewards now total $1,200 and extend through 100,000 VPPs. Milestone Cash Credits available to Supernova VIPs at a cost of only one FPP each will be as follows:
$2,600 at 200,000 VPPs
$2,800 at 300,000 VPPs
$3,000 at 400,000 VPPs
$3,200 at 500,000 VPPs
$3,600 at 600,000 VPPs
$3,800 at 700,000 VPPs
$4,200 at 800,000 VPPs
Milestone Cash Credits available to Supernova Elite VIPs will be similarly affected. They will also cost one FPP each and are as follows:
$20,000 at 1,000,000 VPPs
$9,200 at 1,250,000 VPPs
$9,200 at 1,500,000 VPPs
$9,200 at 1,750,000 VPPs
$19,200 at 2,000,000 VPPs
$9,200 at 2,250,000 VPPs
$9,200 at 2,500,000 VPPs
$9,200 at 2,750,000 VPPs
$19,200 at 3,000,000 VPPs
Micro-stakes players will also see a small change in VPPs awarded at ring games. Pot Limit and No Limit Hold’em games will award VPPs according to the following rates:
$0.01/$0.02: 10X
$0.02/$0.05: 8.5X
$0.05/$0.10: 7X
€0.01/€0.02: 12.5X
€0.02/€0.05: 10.5X
€0.05/€0.10: 9X
This means that a player earning 10X VPPs at a $0.01/$0.02 nine-handed No Limit Hold’em table will be earning VPPs 167% faster than if the table awarded VPPs at the standard 6X rate. These new rates will be reflected at new tables created as of January 1st; however, some older tables awarding the previous VPP rates may still exist until the first server restart of 2011.
For more information, visit PokerStars.
