In my first entry, I described the benefits regarding a PokerStars download. A PokerStars download gets you the very best in poker software and the player traffic that comes along with it is unparalleled. To add to a large game selection and several ways to personalize your playing experience, I also stated that upon your first deposit, you are given your first PokerStars bonus. The amount you’re given is a match of your first deposit, up to $600.
As soon as you’ve made your PokerStars download, earning your bonus shouldn’t be too difficult. What you have to do is play in some real money games, and you will be generating VIP Player Points (VPP) in the process. This bonus is known as a 17x bonus, meaning you will have to earn 17 times the amount you deposited in VPPs to release it. Assuming for instance the amount in question is $300, you have to earn 17 x $300 = 5100 VPP to clear the bonus. If you have deposited the entire $600, you will need 17 x $600 = 10,200 VPPs to clear the whole thing. The bonus will be released into your account in $10 increments, which means for every 170 VPPs a chunk of the bonus will be released into your account. It bears mentioning that points earned in both tournaments and cash games count towards the sign up bonus, so it doesn’t matter which you play, you will be earning VPPs while doing it. You have 180 days to earn the required amount of VPPs before the bonus expires.
PokerStars bonus clearing speed is entirely dependent on the games played, and the stakes at which these games are played. Let’s take for example that you decide to play 25NL cash games (which is not a good idea if you deposited only $600, but it’s just an example), clearing this bonus will take you approximately 159,376 hands at Full Ring, and about 110,870 if you prefer to play 6-Max. These numbers are extreme, and are only correct if you only choose to play one or the other. Mixing the types of games at the same stakes will result in an amount somewhere in between of these. If you play higher, for instance $50NL, the amounts drop yet again this time to an approximate of 77,273 hands for Full Ring and 56,667 hands for 6-Max.
You can also combine cash play with tournament play to clear the bonus, or if you so desire only play MTT poker. You will be earning 5.50 VPPs for every $1 you pay in tourney fees. Assuming you play $15+$1 tourneys, you’d have to play 10,200/5.5 = about 1,855 tourneys to release your entire bonus. Up the buy-in to $25+$2, and it would take half as many to clear it. As already explained, these are simply the extremes in any one category of games you could play; other combinations of game types and stakes will give you different results.
It’s important to remember that differing combinations of stakes and games will lead to amounts which are different than those extremes. But one thing should be clear to you, and that is that the amount of play required to release the bonus lowers if the stakes are increased, and goes up if the stakes are decreased. One possible scenario in which a player may clear the whole bonus, is to play 50% $10+$1 SNGs, 25% 25NL FR and 25% 50NL 6-max. According to that scenario, you would need about 900 SNGs, about 36,000 poker hands 25NL FR and about 14,500 hands 50NL 6-max.
