Reaching the level of PokerStars SuperNova Elite is an accomplishment only managed by a few dozen players a year. As you might imagine, PokerStars doesn’t just rely on the exclusivity to get players to shoot for SNE – they also offer a serious amount of incentives.
Well, there’s no perfect answer for exactly how much value there is to achieving SuperNova Elite, but by breaking down the various benefits PokerStars provides to SNE players, we can get a better sense of the total value of being a SuperNova Elite.
Let’s get started. When you reach SNE, most of your value comes along the way, with additional bonuses thrown in when you actually hit the mark of 1,000,000 VPPs.
The value you get along the way
The value you earn along the path to SNE is substantial, and comes in two forms – milestone bonuses and FPPs.
Milestone Bonuses: While accumulating 1,000,000 VPPs, you’ll be rewarded with Milestone Bonuses totaling $30,800 ($1k for the VIP Stellar Bonuses and $29,800 for the Milestone bonuses).
FPPs: The math here is a little fuzzy, because as you move up the VIP ladder, you earn more FPPs per each VPP. We’ll assume that you head toward SNE on a steady pace, averaging 85k or so VPPs a month. At that rate, you’d be Platinum (2.5x) in your first month and SN (3.5x) in your second. That leaves you earning about 3.5m FPPs for the year. You’ll spend 400k on your milestone bonuses, leaving you with 3.1m.
The top rate for FPP spending is .016 / FPP. That means you’d earn about $50,000 via purchasing the top-tier bonuses or tournament tickets with your FPPS.
So far, that puts the value at about $80k. Obviously, if you started off the year as a SNE already, you’d be earning more FPPs (SNE has a 5x multiplier for FPPs), and therefore have a greater payoff from SNE.
Bonuses for hitting SNE
Get to the 1m VPP mark and Stars has two more bonuses that push the value of SNE above the six-figure threshold.
WCOOP Main Event: Entry to the Main Event of the World Championship of Online Poker, worth $5,200. Note that the entry cannot be transferred or converted into tournament dollars.
Live Event Entries: Stars offers you a choice here:
Option A: Any two packages from PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, WSOP Main Event, EPT Monte Carlo, APPT Sydney.
Option B: Any one of the above packages plus $10,000.
If we speak in rough terms, the average value of the above is just about $23,000. Obviously, for some players, the cash is worth more than the tournament entry.
These bonuses add roughly $29k to the total value.
The low-end estimate is just about $110,000. Again, not all of that is in cash – a decent chunk is in tournament entries.
