Most poker rooms offer Rakeback Deals. For all you grinders, no explanation is required. There is still a surprisingly large amount of online poker players who are not sure what rakeback is exactly. The most basic explanation, rakeback is a way to get back a percentage of the money you have gambled. Win or lose you get a refund!

Online poker rooms usually require you register for rakeback with an affiliate website. Through which you will be linked to the poker room, who will then give a portion of your rake to the affiliate site. Then the affiliate will then return a percentage of that money to you. Simple right, lol!

There are quite a few affiliate websites, some trustworthy and some not. Reputable affiliates will actually pay you all your rakeback earnings. In my opinion ThisIsTheNuts is one of these reputable sites with some of the highest returns available on the internet. They also offer exclusive freerolls tournaments as well as there new rakerace promotions where top rakers can win there share of $75k monthly cash prizes.

In the world of online poker there are those who are on a rakeback plan and those who are out of luck.

A lot of players face the same choice between PokerStars and FTP and a big factor in their decision is whether or not the VIP level they can achieve at PokerStars will outweigh the benefits of rakeback and other promotions at Full Tilt. My FTP account doesn’t have rakeback, so my decisions was made for me. However, I think based on my level and volume of play PokerStars would work out to be the better selection anyway.

So lets take a look at the perks of PokerStars Supernova and I will go through each one and give my honest opinion about how valuable they are and how they could be improved.

Benefits of PokerStars Supernova VIP Status

• 2.5x FPP rate
  • Each VIP level has a different multiplier. VPPs refer to the base points your earn for every raked hand you play in cash games and each $1 you spend in tournament fees. FPPs are the points you can use in the FPP store or to buy into tournaments.
  • Having an increased rate of earning points is a huge part of the value in being Supernova. You get so much equity out of your FPPs by buying bonuses, buying into tournaments with them, buying merchandise from the FPP store or using the VIP Concierge Service.
• Bonuses from store
  • I used to buy a lot of these, but in terms of $ per FPP point you get more from the concierge service. Thus, from here on out I’m going to use the concierge wherever possible.
• Milestone bonuses
  • The milestone bonuses are issued at certain multiples of 100,000 VPP (base points) for a calendar year.
  • The milestone you plan to reach by the end of the year can often be the determining factor in whether or not you should play at PokerStars or not. The more play you can put in for a year, the more rewarding it is going to be to play at PokerStars because the bonuses are weighted towards the further out milestones.
• VIP store access
  • The VIP store is pretty comparable to Full Tilt and other sites.
  • Unfortunately, a lot of the electronic merchandise isn’t available to Australian’s, but for that we have the PokerStars concierge anyway.
• Weekly VIP tournaments
  • I never get to play any of these because they start while I am fast asleep (3am). It is extremely disappointing to me that they are always held at the same time of day and skewed for North American participation. I understand that the majority of of VIPs are North American, but surely they could vary the times just a little over the month to give everyone a fair go.
• FPP buy-ins to major tournaments
  • If you enjoy tournaments and have the time then using your FPPs to buy into tournaments or play in satellite’s is probably the best way to get value from your points.
• PokerStars VIP Concierge Service
  • This is probably my favourite component of the VIP program. If you want to purchase a large scale item, you can get PokerStars to pay for it for you using your FPP points! All you need to do is send them the receipt and they will reimburse you and deduct your points.
  • I recently used it to buy a laptop and for my entire trip to Sydney for the NRL grand final. I was reading another guys blog the other day and he used it to pay for his wedding!

Benefits of PokerStars Supernova

• Can redeem 100k points for a $1,500 bonus
• Earn FPPs at a faster rate
• Ability to access special items in FPP store
• Freeroll/VIP Tournaments
• Ability to buy into cash tournaments with points