Low end Supernovas looked over by new VIP program.

[O Doyle Rules]

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Personally for me, the additional bonus at 200k VPPs and beyond is no incentive for me to try and reach such levels. I finished this year with 140k VPPs.


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Let's make some calculations. If you do play to get extra 60K VPP you will pay about $12,000 in rake and get back $1,200. That's extra 10% on top of 30%+ you already getting. If you do play on other sites you need to have over 40% rb to match what you can get on Stars.

Going from 200k to 300K you pay $20k in rake and get $2,200 in bonus - 11% extra. From 300K to 400K it's 16% extra, and from 400k to 500k it's 21% extra.

Plus when you play to get the same initial 140K as in 2006 you get better return because you get 3.5x from the start.

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Hey mb,

I am not saying it is not a nice reward program, in fact I am saying the exact opposite.

However, I am talking about what it will take personally for me to increase my play at Stars beyond what I play now. A $ 1200.00 bonus is not enough to increase my play by another 43% more than what I do now.

I would be estastic, if they at least they gave me the option of my plan instead of their bonus. My plan would not be in addition to the bonus. A player could have the option of the bonus or a reduced buy-in to a major poker event.

[O Doyle Rules]

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Odoyle,

Good suggestion. For me at least that would def inspire me to play more.

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Thx King,

Like I said copy & pasting my suggestion and "You" telling "Them" that a plan like mine would increase your play maybe could make a difference....

[lunapark]

I agree with Odoyle...I think they have great CS and a good VIP program.....I emailed them yesterday with the same suggestion. Personally I am not motivated to play past Supernova status, as I wont make elite. The 1200 bonus for 200K vpps isnt motivating enough for me. I would definitely give 100% of my play to stars if there was incentive for a reduced rate on using fpps for live mtts.
If you feel that you would play more on stars with that benefit, email them and let them know.

[ryanghall]

This is a great idea for many of us, however, one of the things Scottyy stated in his e-mail to me was that discounting large event buyins takes money off the site that could be on the site and they don't want to do that.

I disagree with his stance on this issue. First of all, it's somewhat hypocritical because Stars constantly runs satellites to all kinds of different land based events.

Secondly, they're giving those packages to Supernova elites.

Third, it's what the players want. Land based tournaments are (I'm assuming - I've never actually played one) a lot more fun and interesting than online tournaments. I would think that the number one priority would be to please the players.

Ryan

[DDBeast]

Quick question- If I just passed the 200K fpp milestone the other day, can I not claim the bonus?

[MicroBob]

The milestone stuff hasn't even started yet. It's for 2007. And it's VPP's, not FPP's

[O Doyle Rules]

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This is a great idea for many of us, however, one of the things Scottyy stated in his e-mail to me was that discounting large event buyins takes money off the site that could be on the site and they don't want to do that.

I disagree with his stance on this issue. First of all, it's somewhat hypocritical because Stars constantly runs satellites to all kinds of different land based events.

Secondly, they're giving those packages to Supernova elites.

Third, it's what the players want. Land based tournaments are (I'm assuming - I've never actually played one) a lot more fun and interesting than online tournaments. I would think that the number one priority would be to please the players.

Ryan

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Hey Ryan,

As far as the land based tournaments, they are waaaay more fun and intersting than ever playing online.

If it were not for the ability to win a seat to a major land based tourney, I don't know if I would be even playing online poker.

I understand what Scotty is saying about keeping the money on the site, but I think what Stars is missing in this equation are players like you and me.

Let's take me as an example:

Last year I played accumulating 140k VPPs. As I already stated I personally don't have much enthusiasm to increase my play by 43% to hit 200k VPPs for a $ 1200 bonus in 2007.

However, if they gave me the option for a discounted WSOP ME or PCA for 350K or even 400K FPPs in their store instead of the bonus, I would definitely go for it. (200K VPPS or more)

What does this do? Not only locks me into playing at Stars for all of 2007, but will also almost lock me into playing beyond that because of the extra FPPs I will have towards other discounted tourney packages.

In fact, I could see my play never leaving Stars, because I know I would be able to earn enough FPPs on a yearly basis to purchase two major tourney packages every year with a discounted purchase price at their FPP store.

I think this keeps money on the site by catering to players like you and me that want it. (discounted FPP buy-ins to major tournies)

Without the discounted land based touney buy-in as an option, my more likely scenario would be to continue to play this year to assure me a WSOP ME packge with the FPPS I have already accumulated with what I will accumualte this year and pay the full price come June for the package. (700k) After that, with all my FPPs spent in June, I know I will then have to play another 200K VPPs over the next 12 months just to earn a seat to next year's WSOP. Not a likely scenario.

[MicroBob]

I like the cash-incentives.

But if I had the option for much more value via a land-based tourney rebate I would very likely do that.

But I really don't think it is realistic for them to say:

At 200k milestone you can either have $2000 cash (which is really $1200) or a $6000 tourney-rebate.
That's just too great a difference to make sense I think.

The $6000 tourney rebate gets you most of the way to an entire EPT package (which I think are valued around $8500 or so).

I definitely wouldn't complain if they did this but I think the requests to Stars need to be realistic.
I also wouldn't complain if they offered the Aston Martin for 24 FPP's.

[O Doyle Rules]

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I like the cash-incentives.

But if I had the option for much more value via a land-based tourney rebate I would very likely do that.

But I really don't think it is realistic for them to say:

At 200k milestone you can either have $2000 cash (which is really $1200) or a $6000 tourney-rebate.
That's just too great a difference to make sense I think.

The $6000 tourney rebate gets you most of the way to an entire EPT package (which I think are valued around $8500 or so).

I definitely wouldn't complain if they did this but I think the requests to Stars need to be realistic.
I also wouldn't complain if they offered the Aston Martin for 24 FPP's.

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Hey Bob,

One thing to keep in mind is that a player has to spend way more FPPs to purchase a land based tourney than the bonus.

50K FPPs versus 700k FPPs.

I also was not including the EPT events in my example which are less expensive. The tourney credit could be a certain percentage off at each level versus a dollar amount. For example maybe someone hitting 200K in VPPs would receive a 35% discount off any major tourney package. For a 700K FPP tourney, this would mean you could purchase it for 450k FPP.

I think the tourney discount should be larger than the bonus since the player would be spending way more FPPs to realize the credit. In this particular example, 450K FPPS versus 50K FPPS.

The figures I worked backwards (approximately) from what they were offering the SN Elites in tourney packages - 30K.

I assumed each level would get their proportionate share in value when comapred to the Elites.

Naturally this is a faulty assumption, but when you ask for something, I was taught to ask high and then come down. That is easier to accomplish versus the opposite.

I think there is a happy medium which would satisfy many more players and benefit both Stars and players.

ALso, I know it is hard to turn back the clock, but I sure wish they had not added so much money (1 Million) to the free rolls and offered a little bit more of that back to the 200k+ VPP players

[MicroBob]

In the end though, this is pretty much you saying you should get $6000 when they are offering you $1200.

I understand the concept of asking high.
But that's such a huge difference that it might just result in them rolling their eyes and saying, "Ummmm, dream on. Why don't you just ask for $1-million instead?"