I've changed my mind about what to do with my PokerStars FPPs. Originally I was going to play in FPP satellite tournaments and unregister from the seats to get W$ and then use the W$ to play in other tournaments to get regular bankroll.
I realized quickly that I wasn't enjoying it and it was too convoluted, too much of a grind, too much work, too many steps. I don't play tournaments much anymore so it just didn't catch my interest.
And one day I was up very early to take my son to 6 AM hockey practice. I realized I could use a travel coffee mug. Then I thought about the FPP store and checked if there was anything there. It turns out there is an FPP travel mug.
Ahh, that's what I wanted. Unfortunately I had spent my FPPs a bit below the 1250 FPP price. It seemed to take a while to earn the 10 FPP I needed at $0.25/$0.50 LHE but I did get there after a while and I made the order this week. My FPPs are now down to near zero but that's alright. I hadn't done anything useful with them anyway in all the time I've been on Stars so I'm pleased at this small reward for the time I've played there generating rake and fees.
The FPP store purchasing experience was very smooth and well designed. They sent me a confirmation e-mail for tracking and I'm looking forward to the arrival of the mug in around a month. I don't really have any visible poker gear around. Some people know I play for real money but I don't draw attention to it or really bring it up. So this will be a small departure. That said, I'll probably just be using the mug for those early morning hockey practices so I don't plan to be flashing it around.
I'm still hoping to play some live poker at the local casino this year. I could use a card protector. They had some nice ones I liked at the FPP store for around 800 FPPs so maybe as I rebuild my FPPs I might aim for that.