PokerStars is one of the leading poker rooms on the internet today, and the chief factors behind their large and ever growing user base are the solid programs they have set up to reward loyal players. Their VIP system has a umber of different levels, and so far in 2010 only 46 players have shown they’ve got what it takes to achieve the highest rank in that system, Supernova Elite.
Every player at PokerStars is a VIP. When you play real money ring games or tournaments, you automatically earn VIP Player Points (VPPs), which accumulate over the course of the year and are reset on December 31st. Players start out as Bronze Star members, but earning 750 VPPs in a month is rewarded with Silver Star status for the remainder of that month and the entirety of the following month. There are Bronze Star, Silver Star, Gold Star and Platinum Star levels, and the higher your level the more lucrative cash bonuses and other rewards you are entitled to. Above Platinum Star comes Supernova, which is not determined on a monthly basis, but rather players must clock up 100,000 VPPs inside one calendar year to achieve this great level. 100,000 VPPs may sound like a lot, but there’s one reward level higher, namely that of Supernova Elite.
To become a Supernova Elite, players must accumulate a staggering 1,000,000 VPPs throughout the course of a calendar year. This is by no means an easy feat, as PokerStars does not simply throw VPPs at you. As an example, if you were to play exclusively $10+$1 tournaments, you would pay $1 in tournament fees for each tourney, which earns you 5.5 VPPs, so you would need to play 182,000 tournaments in the year, or 500 every single day to hit your target. This is obviously an impossible feat, and Supernova Elite is reserved for high stakes serious grinders. The rewards are huge, however, as you can earn cash bonuses much more quickly than in other levels, are given free entry to the WCOOP Main Event and two packages to major live tournaments such as the WSOP Main Event.
So far this year, 46 players have achieved the impressive milestone of one million VIP Player Points and thereby earned Supernova Elite. Some players are going even stronger than that, and the man leading the pack has over three million VPPs at last count. Kevin “WizardOfAhhs” Thurman is a 31 year old poker pro battling a potentially terminal illness who has nevertheless managed to achieve awesome things both outside and inside the poker world. This year he has undertaken to shatter the world record for most VPPs collected, and has set himself the target of 4,000,000, a practically mind-blowing large number. For more about his story, check out his PokerStars blog post from three months back when he’d just rounded the 2,000,000 VPP mark.
The dedication to poker that Supernova Elite requires is truly massive, and I for one am glad to see that there are people out there who love the game enough to put in this kind solid commitment, and that PokerStars is making sure they reap the benefits. We wish the best of luck to anybody still on the Supernova Elite chase this year, and of course to Kevin “WizardOfAhhs” Thurman who is leading the pack of VPP collectors and well on his way to breaking the current record.