Pokerstars offers the most generous loyalty program in the online poker industry. We’ve broken that program down in great detail on our page PokerStars VIP program. On that page you can learn about frequent player points, milestone bonuses, suggestions for maximizing the program and more. In this article we’ll cover VIP freerolls which while not the heart of the overall VIP program are in fact a large added benefit for those who take advantage of them.
Million Dollar Quarterly Freeroll The largest valued VIP freeroll PokerStars offers is a quarterly tournament with a $1 million dollar prize pool. Even if freerolls are not your thing, this four times per year tournament is one you’ll never want to miss. To show you why let’s look at the quarterly VIP freeroll tournament held on August 7, 2010. This tournament had 3469 entrants. Divide the $1 million dollar prize pool by 3469 entrants and you’ll that’s $288.27 per entrant!
That’s quite a lot of value to pass up. As far a prize distribution goes again using August 7, 2010 sample, 999 places were paid with the lowest payout tier (901-999th) getting $225.00. The final table payouts starting from first to ninth were $150K, $120K, $85K, $60K, $40K, $30K, $20K, $12K and $8,025. Keep in mind this tournament is free to enter as long as you meet the required VIP level. To get into this quarterly freeroll you’ll need to be a Supernova VIP member, in which case it is free to enter, or a Gold or Platinum member, in which case you’ll need to win a qualifying freeroll to get a seat.
Overall it is not too difficult to get a seat to this event, you can learn more about the VIP levels on our page PokerStars VIP Program or directly from the PokerStars website.
$100,000 Monthly Freeroll On the final Saturday of each month PokerStars hosts a tournament with a $100,000 prize pool. Silver Star VIP members can participate in satellite tournaments (130 Frequent Player Point *FPP* buy-in) in which the top 10% of finishers win a seat, where members who have reached Gold or higher in the VIP tier scheme get free entry to this tournament.
If you’re a Silver Star member you can find these qualifying satellites in the PokerStars software by clicking the tab labeled “Tourneys” and the sub-tab “VIP”. To give an idea of the value of this tournament we’ll look at July 31, 2010. This $100,000 freeroll tournament had 7,292 entrants, which means the tournament was worth $13.71 per player. On this date the top 1080 places were paid with $21.00 going to places 991 to 1080, and the final table payouts from first to ninth place were $15000, $11037, $8000, $5300, $4100, $3100, $2150, $1200 and $775.
This is an extremely easy tournament to qualify for with lots of freerolls for Silver Star VIP members and free entry for Gold plus. Perhaps you’ll be the next lucky winner and find yourself $15,000 richer when you play at www.pokerstars.com.
Additional PokerStars VIP tournaments PokerStars offers many additional VIP freerolls on top of the two we covered in detail. The reason we don’t give them more coverage on this page is the value is quite small compared to the two we’ve featured. For example each week PokerStars hosts a $30,000 tournament available to Silver Star VIPs and higher which costs 100 FPP to enter. As we cover on our page PokerStars VIP Program each FPP is worth 1.59 cents so consider this tournament to have the equivalent of a $1.59 entry fee.
To show the value, these tournaments generally attract 6000-7000 players meaning the value is an average of $4.62 per player (30,000 divided by 6,500 = $4.62). As it requires 100 FPP to enter, this tournament has just a few added dollars of value to each player. The other freerolls offered to PokerStars VIP members are similar, not more than a few dollars added value per tournament. If you’re a serious grinder you probably won’t be interested in bothering with these, however for sure the quarterly freeroll and perhaps even the monthly $100K freroll are tournaments you don’t want to miss.
Here is a summary of the regularly scheduled VIP Tournaments:
Quarterly Events
$1 Milllion Freeroll: This event is free to enter for Supernova VIPs, Gold and Platinum Star can qualify via freeroll satellites.
Monthly Events
$2,500 Tournament: This event is held on the last Saturday of the month at 16:00 ET. 200 FPP are required to buy-in and it is open to all PokerStars players regardless of VIP level.
$100,000 Tournament: This event is held on the last Saturday of the month at 15:00 ET. Gold, Platinum and SuperNova players can enter for free where Silver players can qualify via freeroll satellite.
Weekly Events
$1,000 Tournament: This event is held every Saturday at 16:00 ET and has a 50 FPP buy-in. All PokerStar players can enter regardless of VIP level.
$2,000 Tournament: This tournament has the same 50 FPP buy-in as the one mentioned above and also is open to all players regardless of VIP level. The tournament starts at 18:00 ET each Saturday.
$30,000 Tournament: This tournament is open to Silver Star VIP members and higher and has a 100 FPP buy-in. The event starts every Saturday at 14:30 ET.
Daily Events
$500 Tournaments: Everyday PokerStars host three $500 Tournaments each having a 10 FPP buy-in. These tournaments are available to all players regardless of VIP level and are held daily at 12:40, 19:40 and 22:40 ET. For an opportunity to line your pocket with extra cash PokerStars is offering in these VIP tournaments all you need to do is play your online poker at www.pokerstars.com.
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