PokerStars UK VIP Changes

PokerStars UK VIP Changes

Friday, 2 January 2015

As clocks around the world struck 12 and the New Year was ushered in on Thursday, PokerStars' team of number bods were putting the finishing touches to a new look VIP system for 2015.

Following the recent changes to the UK's gaming laws, PokerStars announced that anyone playing on its newly formed UK portal would see some changes to their VIP rewards in the New Year and those changes were finally revealed on Thursday.

Although many grinders were bracing themselves for some huge changes, the reality was a lot less negative than many had expected. Of course, the Point of Consumption Tax in the UK has meant PokerStars will have to pass on some of its costs to UK players. However, instead of burdening them with all the responsibility, the site has only passed on a small percentage of its overall costs.

In practical terms, PokerStars has basically decided to reduce VPP multipliers for its UK players but leave Stellar and Milestone rewards untouched. Essentially, this means players will have to grind a little bit harder at the lower levels to earn the same amount of VPPs they did in 2014.

Fortunately for players, PokerStars has made the reductions as small as possible and, in general, the new earn rates have a difference of less than 1VPP.

"For tournaments and cash tables with 7 or fewer seats, the VPP rate is changing from 5.5 to 5 VPPs earned for each $1.00 USD in rake paid, from 7 to 6.5 VPPs for each €1.00 EUR in rake paid, and from 8.8 to 7.9 VPPs for each £1.00 GBP in rake paid."

On top of this, cash game players on tables with eight or more seats (regardless of how many people are actually playing in the game) will earn 5.5 VPPs for each $1.00 in rake (or 7.5 VPPs for each €1.00, or 9.5 VPPs for each £1.00 in rake paid).

Finally, if you're a microstakes player, the following conditions will be in force when you ante-up at any sized cash game table:

$.01/.02 - 9 VPPs per $1.00 in rake paid
$.02/.05 – 7.5 VPPs per $1.00 in rake paid
$.05/.10 – 6.5 VPPs per $1.00 in rake paid
€.01/.02 - 11 VPPs per €1.00 in rake paid
€.02/.05 - 9 VPPs per €1.00 in rake paid
€.05/.10 - 8 VPPs per €1.00 in rake paid

The announcement of these changes was suffixed with the promise that PokerStars would not be enacting any other VIP changes in 2015; something which will come as a relief to many of the site's regular grinders.



Tags: PokerStars