Pokerstars is misleading players with this chest Rakeback, no one wins, only Pokerstars is growing their revenues. I lost around 20k euro in 2019 and I am up 400euro in the last 2 days and they immediately doubled the points needed for the same type of chest.

The recreational players don t have time to enjoy a better Rakeback because they don t play regularly and they can t achieve enough points to hit bigger rewards from high tier chests, where the Rakeback can hit 30%. So Pokerstars keep everything in dark about how they give the points because they don t want to reveal that they are giving overall maximum 3% Rakeback. When they are asked about it, the CS team will give you ambiguous answers about how the system is tailored for each player individually bla bla...only lies and BS in order to avoid telling the players that they are not giving any rakeback at all!

All started when the new CEO , Rafi Ashkenazi, joined in , as he hasn't any clue about the poker ecology, he only wants to have financial results in order to get his performance bonuses...and the easiest way to do it is to cut everything(Rakeback, roaster of pros,personnel, moving location for their employees in cheaper countries). This is the sad news about pokerstars. The CEO is greedy and he makes everything for immediate results. The customer support has become a nightmare for every player because they don t have enough staff to respond to complaints.

And everything on the back of the regular players which grown this site in the first place. Even more sadly is that I am from a country, Romania, where they have a monopoly as Party Poker is not present.

The best move for PokerStars will be to return to the old rewards program and they will smash the competition...this is what I wish for 2020.

PS was my only option for the games I grind tbh. And still is for my hyper sat grind. But now we have 25bb and 25bb SKO hyper turbos running on PP and with the RB %'s available for Diamond Club / Elite + the extras, the game quality is fairly similar at the higher stakes ($50+)

Just didnt play all Summer and got the offer after not playing for 3 months. Want to make a bet on if I've been winning on stars since (and before fwiw)?
My volume and winrate were very similar for 2018 and 2019, only real difference was taking a ~3 month break then getting the offers.

Really don't need advice from people who need help in $100 tournament spots, thanks though! If you bink a few and move up to where I play you can say hi.

The fact that you think recs get rewarded shows your ignorance. Back in the day I was platinum/ supernova most of the time,

I rarely play on amaya anymore, but my 'reward chests' went from 600 points on bronze to 6000 right before that christmas crap, and I received 5 10cent tickets. Quite the reward.

This really is the most absurd "rewards" system I've ever seen.

Recently moved to Stars, & at the first blue chest level it was;

- 800 points for 10 coins, $1, & often some points

Just about to finish working my way the bronze chests & its been, on average;

- 5,950 points (constant) for 22-34 coins, .50 cents or a dollar, & no points

That is the most backwards **** I've ever seen. Nearly 8 TIMES the points for a chest of almost the same value, & occasionally LESS.

What happens when I hit Silver? Will Stars start taking money out of my account?

Sucks not to be able to track hands but I really might have to take myself back to Party.

If you think giving more rb to losing players and recs is a bad thing then you are just stupid. Obv it would be nice to get something back but if the cost for that is better hourly from the tables then I'm ok with that. Allso whhy would anyone quit when they can make money from the rb? Just like it used to be with sne and is similar to partys ff leaderboard bots. Sry grinders.

Yes. Allso there will be fees when you make a withdrawal.

You can dl your hands after 24hrs (?) now.

The problem is that the majority of the recs and losing players are not really getting a whole lot more. The recs might not play enough to get a chest in a timely manner. In the end this makes more for stars and less for the players. I am really confused on their reward system to be honest. I hear players claiming they make less than what stars claims is the minimum per chest.

When i dumped off cash at roulette and had nasty downswing . Stars had me on close to 100% rakeback for couple months.40% alone with exclusive challenge + black chests with only 20-25k point requirements and other promos.

Here's a report from Rob Davies of The Guardian on the UKGC considering banning VIP schemes outright in Britain.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/...king-customers

Some of the data is pretty astounding... one betting company receives 83% of all its deposits from only 2% of its player base. FWIW the movement to potentially ban VIP schemes is due to the suspected abuse of huge net-depositing players (aka "whales"), but then it's kind of a double standard because governing bodies specifically rely on tax receipts and are therefore burdened with the task of ensuring stable revenue streams.

It's referring to Casino VIP schemes that keep whales on the hook. Hopefully poker doesn't get caught up in it.

Casino whales get constant emails/texts/phone calls from VIP managers encouraging them to play more, they'll get "free" stuff sent to them, "free" money in their account if they've not gambled in a few days etc.

They do the same thing if anyone wins one of those huge slot jackpots. On some casinos it can take months to get a large win off-site due to withdrawal limits - during that time they're handled by VIP managers encouraging them to gamble it away.

Did anyone get the exclusive poker challenge for this month already? Got it the last three months and it was a nice free $800, although I never knew how I qualified for it since I should've been a net withdrawer for years on stars.

never ever got it

I've been getting the $400 one, but playing 80% of it then not bothering to complete it. Didn't get it again this month, though I was under the impression I wouldn't be getting it again once completed.

Had exclusive challenge last 3 months. This month no challenge so far

i cleared it for 4 full months, was a 2.4k one.
am still awaiting this months challenge, could get here as late as 8th

back playing some micro's after >1yr break and won around 25 BI in ~30k hands
first ten chests at 700 coins, next two bronze for 1250 and now they bumped it up to 5950 for a bronze chest, oh stars

I had rake 10k get 4k back for last 3 months but not this month either

I think the issue now is that Pstars rewards are clearly targeted at losing players and not based on rake paid as previously.

Didn't think of that, that's a good point.

I got the 40% rakeback offer today, weird considering im already playing on Stars and im not losing.

B0llox i must be off the list now then

Yeah I've had it the last 4 months but not this month either

Got it for the first time today. 40% rakeback is pretty sweet but considering last month I payed $350 in rake, my highest volume month ever I paid $880 in rake and now they want me to pay $2k in rake. It's a bit of a joke.

I guess I could switch to short deck.

yeah, Imo this thing is pretty scummy. I also got a first time offer and have to rake close to double that I've done in my biggest month.

i dont get any challenge or reward ever.. at least you are receiving something