Let's report the bonus amounts we've got in The Ultimate Challenge!

1. $37,50
2. 600 VPP
3. Must be between 500-600 VPP

Cheers,
SDK1987

Originally posted by tonypmm
Hi all,

As you can already see in the News section in the Pokerstars client, they're offering a personalised $10-1000 pending bonus (that requires clearing by raking within 30 days of opting in and is paid out as a lump sum, not broken into parts) to every player, that doesn't require a deposit (only requires opting in by typing the star code ULTIMATE before Jan 23th 2015, 23:59 ET). The amount is claimed to depend on the maximum amount of VPPs earned in a calendar month of 2014.

I'd be glad if each of you shared three figures, i.e.:

1) the bonus amount you've got in this promotion;
2) the amount of VPPs required to clear it;
3) the personal biggest amount of VPPs earned in a calendar month in 2014 (e.g. look it up in tracking software).

This way, we'll be able to grasp the dependence. Officially, it's only known that new customers who didn't play at all in 2014 get $10.

In particular, it's interesting whether 1) and 2) depend only on 3) or whether Stars are using some opaque player evaluation system analogous to Essence / True Value / source-based to determine the bonus size and hoping that the players won't be able to discover it because the bonus is personal

I'll opt in when my Russian reload bonus ends and tell you then.

Full terms and conditions can of course be found at Stars' site, and of course JoshLogan will post a separate advertising and general discussion thread for this promo after getting the official promo materials from Stars shortly :f_grin:, so in this thread, it's advised that you only list 1) the bonus amount, 2) the amount of VPPs needed to clear it and 3) the maximum amount of VPPs earned by you in 2014. Thanks in advance!

GTFO

50$
1400 VPPs needed

77,50$

3100 points needed.

Isn't it based on your highest VPP month of 2014? In any case I've been waiting for over 30 minutes for the star code to be accepted

Yes, it's based on your best VPP month from 2014. I waited about 1 hour

137.5$
11k vpp

Wow this is even better then a reload bonus what a great way to start the year!!!

Originally posted by UPAY4DINNER
Isn't it based on your highest VPP month of 2014? In any case I've been waiting for over 30 minutes for the star code to be accepted

I guess it is, but as we see above, the amount of VPPs to earn per $1 of the bonus vastly depends on the highest VPP month - e.g. the clearance rate is 17 VPPs/$ for SDK1987 but 80 VPPs/$ for Rufus433 So I guess my personal bonus amount (for ~5K VPPs) will be merely around $100, but I'll delay the unpleasant surprise for a while. Maybe I'll even tell Stars to GTO and stop playing at all, as was planned, because, by my standards spoiled by iPoker, a bonus that clears at a cashback rate of less than 15% is not a great bonus.

clearly this is a bonus for hobby players and not grinders:f_eek:

Still no word on my amount

Must be $10,000

$650 bonus
91k VPP's to clear

I quit Pokerstars.

thats pretty nuts

Originally posted by BrokesoBroke
$650 bonus
91k VPP's to clear

I quit Pokerstars.

good luck with that

Originally posted by BrokesoBroke
$650 bonus
91k VPP's to clear

I quit Pokerstars.

i laughed it loud ♦

Edit: there's also a bigger table of bonus sizes and VPP requirements in the Russian thread, courtesy of CrazyStyle; under the spoiler, in each line, it lists the bonus size first and then the amount of VPPs needed to clear it.

Here's some data from the first 2-4 pages (I'm too tired to type it in from them all, hope the data is still representative) of Russian community thread dedicated to the promo (I've also included the English community posters, in purple).

PS-gy nick(s) | Bonus | VPP to clear | VPP per bonus $ | Cashback % [5.5 VPP / rake $]

The awful thing for me is that there are steep inflection points near 5K-9K monthly VPPs: those who've got a $107.5 bonus need 6020 VPPs, but those with a $110 one need 7700 - that's 1680 extra VPPs for a gain of $2.5

That promotion is typical of Amaya: bonuses on the Ongame network are also lump-sum, and bigger ones also have slower clearance rates (but only a bit slower, not like here).

250$
30k VPPs needed.

Better get right on it

$47.50
1140 vpp to clear

Still waiting tailoring, for an hour now