http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/black-card

discuss. looks like FTP's answer to SN/SNE. should be interesting to see responses to this

A card, that is black.

Interesting.

Going to have to calculate the correlation between this and Stars system, let's see if I can do the math without hacking it up. Back in a bit.

This is cool but really it all depends on whats in the store and how good it is.

I'm interested in seeing how you'll come up with these #s. Please show your maths.

Interesting, but if this is all there is, it's going to disappoint a lot of people.

The store isn't available yet, so there no is numbers to work with.

I already predict there will be much moaning in this thread when ppl realise it isn't as good as they had hoped.

500 points for Tournament players is $71.43 so you have to rake just over $2000 a month to get on the scheme.

jesus i get like 4x more than 500 points a day and they will just lump me in with everyone else?

i didnt look, but id guess fail

500*365=182500 FTP minimum needed per year to retain continuous Black Card membership.

Each FTP correlates 1-1 to rake, so that would be $182500 in rake paid in pots you were dealt into.

All calculations assume full tables at all times (Just because table size is a bit hard to quantify...).

Full Ring:
$182500/9*6=121667 VPP

6 max:
$182500/6*5.5=167292 VPP

Heads Up:
$182500/2*5.5=501875 VPP, well into SNE status

Tournaments:
182500 FTP/7=$26071.43 in tournament fees paid.

$26071.43*5.5=143392 VPP

So in all cases, it is slightly easier to get Supernova than it is to retain continuous Black Card membership.

---

Now, for a "One shot" Black Card Status:

50000 FTP in 100 days. (Note you will retain Black Card membership for 50 days after this, even if you don't play another hand.)

Full Ring:
$50000/9*6=33333 VPP (One third of the way to SN.)

6 max:
$50000/6*5.5=45833 VPP (Nearly halfway to SN.)

Heads Up:
$50000/2*5.5=137500 VPP (Already SN)

Tournaments:
$50000/7*5.5=39286 VPP

So, for the effort, you might as well obtain SN at Stars, as even at full ring, you are already 1/3 of the way there.

---

So unless I've messed the math up badly somewhere along the way, unless FT makes the items in the store roughly equivalent to at least SN status, it won't be worth it.

(Yes, you'd have to subtract rakeback from this, I'm having trouble wrapping my head around that right now. Maybe someone else can pick that calculation up...)

So will this makeup for ftp refusing to give me rakeback?

Good math but I disagree with the conclusion. FTP 27% rakeback plus points plus Iron Man is already better than Supernova until well past the annual Black Card points. Black Card might push that a little farther. Calcs shouldn't be too hard once we have the data.

ETA: though some strategic thought makes me guess they're primarily targeting the 300k VPP level.

I would guess not even close. Good thing I cleared cookies back in the day.

On the plus side, the faq says you will be able to buy bonii with previously worthless full tilt points.

When this goes up, it'd be nice of them to give players some form of retroactive credit so we can start Black Carding ASAP. I'd say count the number of Iron Man months you earned in this past 12 months, and each month gets you 5 days of 500 point credit. You can get 60 days this way, and thus get your black card in 40 days after it starts, rather than over 3 months.

Very intersted to see the "perks".

The FAQ indicates that the standard is retroactive, so someone would become Black Card immediately if he had 50k FTPs in the 100 days before September 30. That's probably the best we can expect.

Probably not a bad idea to start grinding now if you're close and have been hoarding points.

Yeah, it's all a bit of speculation until they reveal the store Thursday. Just figured I'd crunch the raw numbers and see what shakes out...

Fair enough. I've not done the FT calculations as it stands, so we'll see how they target it in a week.

(If you have a link to that posted previously (especially if the calcs included all 4 levels), I'd love to see it. I tried a search once and couldn't find it.)

it'll be better than SN if they sent you a literal black card that you can use at ATMs and are linked to your account.

Yeah, that would be shut down in about 2.3 microseconds for US players (by the banks/US government).

I'd be showing my "O" face for sure.

I thought this black card was gonna be useful, like a credit card from your account or something cool. Turns out to be just something for show...

yeah, the physical card itself appears to be useless

For what it's worth, bonuses in the Academy store are at $5/1000 points for $100 and $300 and $6/1000 points for $600, and I'd be surprised if the rate for BC were worse.

Even 73% times $6/1000 points plus double points is a pretty nice boost from current values. 1000 FTPs under double points is $55.56 in rake at full ring, so that's an extra 7.9% rakeback (10.8% for non-rb accounts). At six max, $83.33 for 5.6%. That puts FTP at very close to the same level as Supernova, without counting Iron Man. I don't remember what IM is worth off the top of my head.

24 posts and MGR has yet to be mentioned.

Is there an MGR hit? =)

hahahahahahahahaha, is there an mgr hit


hhahahahaahahahahahaaha

my side hurts from laughing!