PokerStars Rakeback
Does Pokerstars offer rakeback?
PokerStars does not allow rakeback. The exact reason is only known to them and it is not likely to change. The good news is that their VIP Club offers cash rewards that are equivalent to a rakeback system. If there are more players at Pokerstars than anywhere else even though they do not offer rakeback, it is because all other benefits are quite alluring.
Pokerstars review
Despite being the leader in the online poker industry by a comfortable margin, Pokerstars has not eased off the gas pedal at all. The site is improving every day, which is why it is, and likely will remain, the go-to spot for online poker players.
The biggest con for this site is probably that they no longer accept poker players from Washington State in the United States. Lucky for those players, sites like Carbon Poker still do.
Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars are actively participating in what appears to be a marketing war. There are a large amount of promotions going on at both sites at any given time. That is absolutely fabulous for PokerStars players.
Pokerstars bonus and promotions
For first-time players, Pokerstars offers a 100% sign-up reimbursement bonus of up to $600, which is quite helpful when starting out. That's the same bonus Full Tilt Poker offers by the way. In fact, not that long ago, before this war became apparent, PokerStars was only offering $50.
In addition to the new player sign up bonus, Pokerstars also features leaderboad competitions, guaranteed prize pool events (millions of dollars of them monthly), satellite tournaments for every major competition like the WSOP or the PCA, and other promotional events. This year, one of our favorite competitions involved a tournament event that paired both poker and golf.
Pokerstars VIP Club and rakeback equivalence
Pokerstars is the only mainstream website to not offer rakeback, in the traditional sense. Instead of signing up for rakeback through an affiliate like other poker sites, every player is automatically enrolled in the Pokerstars VIP Program.
As a player generates more rake, they move up through the tiers of the program, from 'Bronze Star' all the way up to 'Supernova Elite'. Supernova Elite could be worth more than 60% rakeback if it is attained, twice the percentage that other sites allow. Not to mention, any Supernova Elite player is given the choice to pick two options out of a bevy of live tournaments and $10,000 cash. A free entry to the $5200 World Championship of Online Poker Main Event is also dispersed to all who reach Supernova Elite.
Of course SuperNova Elite is the cream of the cream that only a few hundred players achieve every year, as this requires a large number of hours played every day. But even at lower tiers such as Platinum or SuperNova, the rewards from the VIP Club can add a few hundred or thousand dollars to your bankroll every month.
And unlike traditional rakeback where a player may receive their rakeback earnings every week, or month, Pokerstars does not work that way. When a player accumulates frequent player points, they can exchange those points in the Pokerstars Store. Most high volume players exchange their points for cash bonuses, as it often is the best return rate on their points. And thanks to a recent update, once the bonus is purchased, there is no need to clear it. It is entered as cash in the player's account instantly.
Active games
Unsurprisingly, players on Pokerstars rarely have trouble finding games. According to pokerscout.com, Pokerstars ranks 1st in traffic among all online poker sites, more than doubling 2nd place Full Tilt Poker. In both No Limit Hold 'Em and Pot Limit Omaha, multiple high stakes games run during all hours of the day.
In terms of tournaments, Pokerstars is unrivaled. The sites guaranteed tournaments are the most lucrative in the world. The 2 $216 tournaments that run each Sunday, the Sunday Warm-up and Sunday Million, guarantee $750,000 and $1,500,000 respectively. For those who crave playing tournaments with even higher entry fees than that, the Sunday 500 ($530 to enter, $500,000 guaranteed) and the Super Tuesday ($1050 to enter, $300,000 guaranteed) are also quite popular.
Pokerstars offers a slew of deposit options, making it easy for anyone to deposit and play. For players from the United States, who have had many problems recently throughout the industry with deposits, they needn't worry at Pokerstars. They can deposit via eChecks, Visa credit cards or Bank Drafts.
Even the Pokerstars support team is top notch. Unlike most websites that send generalized responses hours after receiving an inquiry, Pokerstars sends personalized responses within minutes.
Those are only some of the reasons that Pokerstars is widely considered to be the best online poker site in the world. Use Pokerstars marketing code PSA1555 when you register, and you will get a 100% bonus up to $600 applicable to your first three deposits.
