PSA: A Comparison of FPP-to-Cash Conversion Techniques

[urbansprawler]

POKERSTARS ONLY

So, today I was bent on converting my 19k fpps (quite large for me, actually) and did what I always did: I played the 280 FPP Hyper-Turbos to the Sunday 1/4 Mill. But I never hit my magic number of $150/10k fpps...Hmm...

This article will be intended to provide you with a comparison of low-buyin FPP SNGs to bolster your bankroll with.

Firstly, DO NOT buy items from the VIP store! That is, unless you don't want to devote any time to better methods! This is where Stars makes their money from FPPs; they charge a tremendous markup on top of the retail price (and its markup) on these things (this is not applicable to SN+, however). The Satellites are where Stars makes the least money.

We must stop treating FPPs like "free" points or exchangeable for gifts, and start viewing them as markers for real money. This may be a big change in your perception of FPPs, but you will make money off of it.

So, today, I'm going to be examining from a purely mathematical POV the basic FPP satellites with a buy in of under 500 FPPs that can be grinded regularly when one runs up a decent amount of points.

As I've mentioned, stars hates losing money anywhere so they will charge a lot of hidden markup and fees on your FPPs! The best exception I can think of at the moment, though, are the steps tournaments. While stars still makes money off them, if you have a significant FPP-roll (50K+) they are by far and away the best investment you can make.

It's also important to note that, typically, the higher the FPP price, the less markup/fees Stars is going to charge you. However, this article is directed towards SSNL/uNL players who do not have SN yet (or cannot hold on to FPPs for a long time).

To compare the satellites, we first need that "magic number" of $150/10k FPPs. This is Star's figure as their value for the FPPs they reward, pulled directly from here. Okay, so I guess it's $161/10k fpps. Meh, I was close .

EDIT: Sorry, something in what I posted wasn't working. I'll try to have it fixed ASAP

[Silverthunder]

this seems like a pretty cool post. I know nothing about Stars. I still would like to add to this discussion, though. Here's the thing.. so you say that you get a value by playing these tournaments. The downside, though, is the opportunity cost (the fact that you can be doing something else wiht the time- grinding your typical game). That has basically been my reson for not using my gold chips & gold cards (which are the equivalent of FPP) to enter tournies on Cake. I guess we will be able to factor this into the discussion here.. it should be pretty easy to quantify.

[podbelski]

I'm starting to wonder what is the best way to spend FTP points. Any experience/thoughts would be great to know.

[Silverthunder]

Originally Posted by podbelski

I'm starting to wonder what is the best way to spend FTP points. Any experience/thoughts would be great to know.

Don't know. For Cake/ Players Only, I want to install the software on one of my newb freinds computers and let them play using the gold cards in the donkaments. Gold cards cannot be used for entry into anything except donkaments. I would then give them some cut of the winnings. They probably play like 30/10, are not positionally aware, and don't call down light post flop at least. Does anyone know if they will allow a player to log in from a different computer like that?

edit: thx, MXRider

[podbelski]

I remember those cards) Played several Kamikaze tournaments and that's it

[mxrider]

Originally Posted by Silverthunder

Don't know. For Cake/ Players Only, I want to install the software on one of my newb freinds computers and let them play using the gold cards in the donkaments. Gold cards cannot be used for entry into anything except donkaments. I would then give them some cut of the winnings. Does anyone know if they will allow a player to log in from a different computer like that?

You can log into your account from any computer as long as it's only logged in from one and not from two places at the same time.