Pokerstars Bonus WCOOP!

[Sandy Beach]

I decided rather then miss out on the bonus (like last time) I would try the moneygram option. I researched today after work. There is only one place (a bank) in my city that handles moneygrams. I called that bank and asked how late they are open. They stated the lobby is open until 5:00 and the drive thru is open until 6:00. It was 4:25.

I rushed to my bank and withdrew $500. I then rushed to 'the moneygram bank'. There are three tellers working. I asked to process a moneygram. The teller claimed they don't know how to do moneygram's. I would need to see the man in an office she pointed to. The teller on the end says 'I know how to do the moneygrams'. 'I will be right with you after I process this drive thru customer'. She finished and comes up to me. She says 'it is 4:50 - how did you get in here'? I said 'I walked in the door - why'? She stated the lobby closed at 4:30 and she is now too busy to process a moneygram. I said - 'ok, thanks anyway' and left.

This requirement of depositing money when I have several thousand dollars AND playing the required hands (paying the rake) seems silly. Players incur much unneeded fees and millions of dollars are moved unnecessarily. This may result in us losing additional deposit options. It may also cause players to be audited by the IRS or investigated by the Department of Justice. I pay all of my taxes but an audit would cost me probably one day of work for the actual audit and another day for getting prepared. This would hurt my family financially. Please PokerStars - remove this requirement for deposits and only require the x number of hands!

[MicroBob]

if you are in the U.S. there are moneygram locations at various grocery-stores and I think even gas-stations, etc.

Just do a wider search of your area. Maybe the whole city instead of just the zip-code. There should be a zillion non-bank locations to do such a deposit.

Your thoughts on how it could cause players to be audited by the IRS strike me as somewhat ridiculous. The continuation that such an audit would cost you a day of work and would thereby hurt your family was amusing though.

[Josem]

[ QUOTE ]
...I called that bank and asked how late they are open. They stated the lobby is open until 5:00 and the drive thru is open until 6:00. It was 4:25.

I rushed to my bank and withdrew $500. I then rushed to 'the moneygram bank'. There are three tellers working. I asked to process a moneygram. The teller claimed they don't know how to do moneygram's. I would need to see the man in an office she pointed to. The teller on the end says 'I know how to do the moneygrams'. 'I will be right with you after I process this drive thru customer'. She finished and comes up to me. She says 'it is 4:50 - how did you get in here'? I said 'I walked in the door - why'? She stated the lobby closed at 4:30 and she is now too busy to process a moneygram. I said - 'ok, thanks anyway' and left....

[/ QUOTE ]

...and you take from this experience that PokerStars has bad customer systems?

You may be incredibly mild and sweet, but accepting your bank's level of service with a meek "ok, thanks anyway" when they've stolen an hour and a half of your time, is quite extraordinary, I think.


While I appreciate the sentiment behind your wishes for non-deposit bonuses, they are going to be awfully difficult to advertise to PokerStars' customers. I can only shudder at the reaction on these forums alone (let alone others, where players are less likely to be high volume, high stakes players) if some people are required to deposit money, and others are not.

[stevematador]

Went to my local Wal Mart and did my Moneygram deposit there, by the time I got home and logged into my Stars account the money was there in about 5 minutes and about 5 re clicks later on the cashier screen to see if it had gone through. A small hassle for an easy $125 is well worth it!!

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]
Oh I love you PS. I love having my $125 bonus 15x clear and no RB. Any other gifts?
What 'RB' does a 15x $125 bonus equate to exactly?

[/ QUOTE ]


Well, many would argue that the FPP's you are earning IN ADDITION TO the bonus would mean that your claim of 'no RB' is false.
But you already knew that and are just being ornery.

But to answer your Q about what percentage the 15x bonus gives you...obviously like the FPP stuff it depends on what game you are playing.

At 1/2 limit full-ring I believe you are getting 76% RB by JUST clearing the bonus.

This includes such stats as:
1 VPP = 6.67 cents which is the same as 15 VPP = $1
0.4 VPP per hand
so....2.67 cents of the bonus is cleared per hand.
You pay roughly 3.5 cents MGR per hand
2.67/3.5 = 76% RB

If you include the bare minimum of 1 FPP per VPP meaning you haven't played there before and are the lowest VIP level..then that's an additional 1.5 cents or so.
This takes you over 100% during the bonus-clearing period for you and that's IF you've never played there before.

If you are already a Supernova then you are over 200% RB during this stretch. My calcs put it at 236%.

[MS Sunshine]

[ QUOTE ]
I have over $12,000 on PokerStars. Why do I need to incur the fees to deposit more money?


[/ QUOTE ]

I have about this amount and adding $500 by mail, opening an epassport(and pay fees), or wait until they get echeck up(I can use it since I'm an old customer).

I should just send the $500 to FT and see if they will give me the bonus to try their site with my 25K of mid-NLH hands a month.

MS Sunshine

disclaimer:

I'm stuck $600 while writing to pokerstars support on this issue so I'm reaching that irrational point.

[MS Sunshine]

[ QUOTE ]
The deposit requirement should be in place for people with less then $2000-2500. People with more then that limit should have the option of just having the bonus.

[/ QUOTE ]

DING

[earck]

Seems to me, that would defeat the whole purpose of a DEPOSIT BONUS.

[Henry17]

The deposit aspect is only important for people who have small balances of under $1000. Star's does get some benefit from them depositing.

People with between 2000-5000 are already playing at the level they wish to play at. Adding $600 is just going to lead to a $600 withdrawal after 48 hours. Star's gains nothing and actually loses on transaction fees.

Most people with over $10,000 are playing at a high enough level that they probably don't care about $125.

So it comes down to knowing what the distribution of players is. Since I suspect that 70% of players keep less then $750-1000 in their account the deposit aspect makes perfect sense.

The middle group which I feel should get the bonus without deposit is just too small to justify having two sets of rules especially when the different treatment will then piss off the smaller players.

[earck]

I guess I vview this as a bonus that is just targeted towards the smaller players then, there has been a lot of complaints where the smaller stakes players don't see enough bonuses because they can't achieve the desired VPP/month. This is just a way for stars to pay back the lower stakes players a little bit.

*Edit, it also works as an incentive to the smaller players. they will likely increase their volume if not the stakes they play at to clear their bonus, stars hopes the players don't move back down.