Has anyone received a new poker challenge yet? I last received one on 2/18 and I had been getting them every 4 weeks prior to chest changes. Thinking the monthly challenge is axed and will only be promotional moving forward.

Unfortunately, I have not. Per a twitter response (03/15/22), they are still offering the monthly challenge. I believe the last challenge ended on 03-13-22. The monthly challenge enticed me to play on their site, so hopefully it'll be back.

What kind of challenges do you see? I've been playing since day 1 and haven't ever received one. There's a chance I may have had it turned off in my settings, but I can't remember. I was messing around with those earlier in the month but haven't seen anything since I made some changes. I contacted customer service and they forwarded my message to the marketing department. That was last week.

I've never seen a poker challenge either

do you get to at least a silver chest every month else you won't get a challenge every month.

I'm assuming the poker challenges are done with the new rewards system, although getting both would be pretty sweet.

Interesting. I just got my first silver chest last week....most of my volume had been on BetMGM instead of Stars (mostly cuz I never got Poker Challenges )

Wow. First month of launch I got a $300 challenge. Every month after that I got a $110 poker challenge. Since changes to chest, I haven't got a new one.

I've gotten them every month (except this one so far) without being at silver chests...

Does anyone play on a laptop that has built in LTE (that has GPS location built in to the chip)? I am wondering if this allows Stars to locate you without being close to WiFi.

I noticed that playing using the app on my phone, I can be located without WiFi hotspots around, and in the same spot my PC won't work. I assume that is due to the app being able to locate me using the phone's GPS, but when I use hotspot on my PC, my PC/Stars can not communicate with the GPS chip in my phone. That's what gave me the idea that it might work with an LTE laptop ...

I never paid attention to the chests really. I just opened them whenever I had the option. I see now that I'm gold w/ 3/7 chests to upgrade. I thought there were monthly challenges on top of this.

In looking at a post a few pages back, I see Gold chests mean 20% rewards. How do they determine what an award is? Is that 20% rakeback?

Yes, you earn 100 points for every dollar rakes. Every $125 raked, your golden chest will give you $25 (or 20%).

Just curious.... what is the best value for stars coins? I guess it depends on the player, but what do you all typically buy or how do you typically cash them in?

Thanks for any feedback.

I think there might be a bit more value from the sports free bets but I'm too lazy. I just take the cash.

Hoodies. Gotta let those fish at Firekeepers know who they are messing with....

Jokes aside...I just take the cash.

Funny you say that, as I was saving up for the tribal sleeve hoodie!

Thanks for the feedback.

Don't let me stop you! Get the hoodie! I got a Pokerstars Monkey from back in 2010 or so Still hangs out with me at my desk.

Guys I fugured out a trick to instantly clear casino bonuses, pm if u want

Yeah, I buy bonuses with my stars coin and use this trick, assuming it’s the same thing. It’s a little better than getting cash.

Did any profitable poker players in MI do their own taxes? If so, did you just claim your overall profit for the year, subtracting the losses?

Or did you have to claim the total of all your wins (whether it was tourneys or cash game sessions), not counting any losses?

I made a mediocre amount playing tourneys, but it looks like unless I itemize on my return, I cannot deduct my losses. I know exactly how much I profited as I kept records of each tournament through the year, so I am still considering just paying tax on my overall profit for the year. If anyone thinks this is a bad idea, please let me know.

Thanks for any advice, etc.

The correct way to file for an amature player is to report the sum of your winning sessions as income and then itemize and deduct the sum of your losing sessions (or alternatively don't deduct losing sessions if taking the standard deduction is better for you).

I doubt many people actually do this & I doubt many people get caught but who knows what the future may hold now that so much legal gambling is online where there is a digital record. Might be a good idea to try Googling what the realistic consequences are of accidently filing incorrectly and then make a decision...

Thanks. I may ultimately just contact a professional.

It is definitely better for me to take the standard deduction and not itemize, however if I have to pay taxes only on the times I cashed in a tourney, and cannot subtract all the times I did not cash, well.... that sucks and does not seem fair, but such is life.

My advice is 2 fold.

1) get a tax professional, mine cost roughly $200 every year

2) begin supporting groups that realize taxes are a sham

You absolutely can subtract all the non-cashes. You only pay taxes on your final winnings at the end of the year. However you are supposed to list both sums on your return, the wins and the losses. I didn't, I just reported the my net winnings. The IRS can either thank me for writing them one of the biggest checks I have ever written in my life, or come after me because it's not itemized properly. It's up to them. I may try to do better next year, but honestly with the amount of casino gaming, sports betting, and poker I do, this would bet a significant time burden. However I am confident the final number I reported is accurate.

Can you please post a picture of it?