There was an article on 2+2 a little while ago discussing "rakeback" at PokerStars. Of course Stars has no rakeback (which is probably a good thing, notice the other hugely successful site PartyPoker doesn't have it either).
The 2+2 article went on about the Stars FPP program as an alternative to rakeback which also rewards the biggest players who generate the most rake (i.e. revenue for Stars) at the site. They mentioned about the freeroll FPP tournaments that can be used to convert your playing points into cash.
I'm a small time player and I only have around 1,400 FPP points. Still I looked to see if there were any tournaments I could use to convert my FPPs into bankroll. Historically there's been a 10 FPP tournament but that was a joke because you had to sit there for hours to make a tiny amount of money, not a very efficient use of playing time.
There is a tournament available to bronze star though (I think every real money player is bronze star) that looks interesting. For 70 FPP you can win a shot at the $80K, $11 rebuy tournament. There's a seat for every 700 FPP in play. So 1/10th of the entrants will win a seat.
The seat is worth $11, and with one seat per 10 players the EV of each player is about $1.10. Since it costs 70 FPP for an EV of $1.10 that makes a payout of around 1.6 cents per FPP. That's better than nothing I suppose and I haven't done anything to date with the FPP I've accumulated.
I played in one of these satellites tonight and I can say that the EV should be more than $1.10 for any kind of a sensible player. The standard of play was pretty bad (as you would expect for a tournament with an effective buy in of $1.10), so a basic style will be profitable long term. Lots of vpip 40+, vpip 80, donators there.
Unfortunately tonight I got knocked out around the halfway point. I shoved $1300 from the BB with AQ at the $50/$100 level over about 5 limpers. Middle position fish who limped with K3s calls after a pause for half his stack. A King on the turn and I'm out. No worries, play like that is what makes this tournament worth more than $1.10. I want him to call with K3s even though I'll lose some of the time.
With a little over 1400 FPP I have enough for about 20 shots at this satellite tournament. I hope I can cash at least twice for a value of $22 (T$ after I unregister from the $11R tournament). Plus it's a little change in pace. After running well and hitting a new high in bankroll I've been misfiring in both LHE and SnG so I could use a break from a downswing.
