PokerStars Bonus Clearing Requirements

PokerStars Bonus Requirements

Online poker enthusiasts can consider themselves lucky because there are tons of sites made for bringing players together from around the globe and placing them around the felt. That being said, it's difficult to find one quite so giving as PokerStars, which is now offering up to $600 as a signing bonus when you join up with them. That's right - they GIVE you money to play cards! It's just a matter of typing in the PokerStars bonus code 'STARS600' when you deposit real money for the first time.

Is this too good to be true, you may be wondering? It's a reasonable concern. After all, no one these days just hands money to people - there's always a motivation, always a reason they try so hard to get your hard earned cash.

This is exactly what Poker Stars.com's rationale is. They are needing your enjoyment of the game to keep you at their site. See, they don't hand over $600 in an immediate, lump sum payment. Whenever you play at PokerStars, you acquire what are known as FPPs, or Frequent Player Points. For each 170 FPPs you get, $10 of your bonus will be released. You can place this in your bankroll or use it to keep playing at Poker Stars, no strings attached.

It's not exactly as straightforward as this, either. You are asked to deposit $600 into your real-money account at Poker Stars before you meet the requirements for the $600 bonus. If you only put $300 into your account, you are only given $300 in bonus funds. But then, if you then deposit $500 additional, your bonus eligibility will be at $600, which is the maximum per account you can receive.

The last thing to discuss is the issue of an expiry date. You have within 90 days of making your first cash deposit to make $600 worth of deposits. You have just six months after your first deposit to accumulate the number of needed FPPs to earn the bonus. If you do the math, that's 17 * 600 = 10200 FPPs in only six months in order to be awarded your bonus of $600.

PokerStars has a FAQ for how FPPs are earned - read it here: http://www.pokerstars.com/vip/earn/ . It's not easy to read, but for the newbie, this should break it down for you:

* For tournaments, you get 5.5 FPPs per dollar of entry fee or 8 FPPs for every one euro in entry fees.

* For cash games of 8 seats or more, your table accumulates 6 FPPs for every dollar or 8.5 FPPs for every euro of "rake" paid per hand (the sum of money Poker Stars.com receives from the pot as payment), split evenly among the players dealt into the hand. For instance, if nine people are are dealt cards and the rake fee is $3.00, the table gets 18 FPPs; divided among nine players means each person accumulates 2 FPPs.

* For cash games of 7 or less seats, you accumulate 5.5 FPPs per dollar or 8 FPPs for every euro of rake fee, distributed among the people playing.

* For those especially enthusiastic, you can get FPPs at double (after collecting 3000 FPPs in a month), triple (100,000 in a year), or up to quintuple (1,000,000 in a year) these rates.

Perhaps it's not as impressive an offer as PokerStars.com initially makes it seem. If you acquire 2 FPPs for every hand, you still need to play 5100 hands if you want to acquire the full $600, and you have to risk losing more money than that while you're at it. However, if you love online poker, it's a nice way to get paid for playing a game you love.  Be sure to register your account with the PokerStars Marketing Code POKERMTT and the PokerStars Bonus Code of STARS600!