For those of us who mass table at PokerStars, we build up quite a few FPPs in our cashier. While the 60″ TV and 30″ monitor are pretty mouthwatering, using other options can increase the value of your points and earn more money. Anybody who is Supernova or above should know the most efficient ways to spend their FPPs. It can earn you literally thousands of dollars over the course of a year! The best part is – it is extremely simple and easy to explain! I must preface this though, if you are one of the many players who is already planning on buying a Porsche, your best option is to save the 5 million FPPs for that, because it is hands down the best $/FPP value (at about 2c/fpp).
All you need to do is break down the FPP value of each thing in the store. We wont even bother covering any of the electronics, because the value of those is very low compared to the other options in the store.
BONUSES:
Most players go for bonuses, because everybody loves cash. Unfortunately, most of the lower teir bonuses are terrible FPP rates compared to the higher. As a reference, i’ll show how much the value changes for someone who is reaching SNE, and will have 3.5million FPPs accumulated over a year.
$50 for 5k – 1c per FPP – $35000 SNE value
$285 for 25k – 1.14c per FPP – $39900 SNE value
$650 for 50k – 1.3c per FPP – $45500 SNE value
$1500 for 100k – 1.5c per FPP – $52500 SNE value
$4000 for 250k – 1.6c per FPP – $56000 SNE value
The difference between the highest and lowest teired bonus amounts to a $21000 difference for a Supernova Elite! Of course no SNE chaser is going to waste their time on 50$ bonuses, but there are plenty of people who don’t see how much value they are missing by going for anything other than the $4000 bonus.
To take it a step further requires a little more work. The PokerStars Concierge is an excellent service, and you just need to send them receipts of things you would like them to “buy” for you. The minimum amount for a receipt is $500, and it must show the name on the receipt. They convert your FPPs to $ at a rate of 1.61c per FPP. For a Supernova Elite, this is $56350 worth of value, and your most efficient option.
Not everybody has 56k worth of receipts every year. The $4000 bonus is very close to the exchange rate of the concierge, and is also an extremely good option.
So for anybody who is a Supernova or Elite at Pokerstars, you will make significantly more money if you exchange for only the 4k bonus and Concierge receipts. Anything else is giving up value.
Unless it’s the porsche…
So there’s my short and sweet guide to FPPs! Hopefully it helps some of you readers build your rolls a bit.
If you play big live tournaments, you get a better rate buying the packages than bonuses.
How about the 15k points for the SNG w/the pros? Haven’t looked into it, but if you were a decent sng player, I’d think that would be a good return.
Just figured it out, the value is 1.33333c per point. So if you entered 10 of them, and got 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th each once, that’s a value of 1.3c per point. But if you could do do better (cash more than $2000 per 10 played) you would be farther ahead………..meh, I hate sng’s……why bother.
Vedast – is the math for this posted on 2+2 somewhere? It seems like something that would have been discussed, but it is fairly difficult to calculate the value of the packages.
The 2 available right now are EPT Copenhagen for 700k, and EPT Monte Carlo for 1.1mil.
It seems like the exchange rate of the buyin would completely determine the value of your FPPs, and for whatever reason I seem to remember the Monte Carlo package being worth more like 16k nowadays instead of 19k because of currency fluctuations.
Either way, if someone is planning on taking one of those trips, the FPP value is at least comparable to the 4k bonus. I’d suggest taking each individual tournament and calculate its value in terms of $/FPP, while keeping the exchange rate in mind. I can see how fluctuating currency can highly increase or decrease the value of the package, and you could very well find some extra value for your FPPs.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention
luckysob – i’ve calced out all of the fpp values of the satellite tickets, and they are all 1.6c/fpp or lower. Equal to the 4k bonus, except you dont have to clear any points, and you have to use it to play a tournament. If you’re planning on playing the tournament anyway, it would be worth it to exchange.
Thank you!