Premier League at PokerStars

The freeroll league of the poker school at PokerStars is changing format next month.
From now on, 1500 players are going to be residing in a "Premier League" of the poker school. Those premium players are going to take $30,000 of winnings among them each month.

I am not sure about the format of the tournaments, but out of 1500 players I am thinking about 200-300 will compete for points in each of the 3 daily tournaments. It looks like this could be quite lucrative for a persistent player, and I am already making sure to place myself in the inaugural premier league next month.

Once in the premier league you can hardly be thrown out since 2/3 of the players automatically qualify for the following month's league.It will be MUCH harder to qualify once it gets rolling.

I was wondering what others think of this new development?

I myself am Having/Finding it hard to come up with the 150 VPPs but I still manage to make the 20+VPPs required to be in Contention for the $1500 Mind you that If by some chance you were to be first spot in the League but not have the 150 VPPs that would be Upsetting...

As for the Premium league aspect I haven't really figured that out yet, Mind explaining it better for me to understand...I get the 150 VPPs part, I also understand making the top 1500 in the over all league, but is that all there is to it, or is there an Added bonus for making it? I only post this Question because as It stands at the moment, there's the 3 levels to the League based on VPPs earned...1 is <20VPPs 2nd 20+VPPs last but not least is 3rd 150+VPPs, so with these steps comes the money in Each...1st 150 2nd 1500 3rd 5k, but I don't get what the Premium league is in that case then? Is it another added 30+K bonus on Top of it all, which is a totally different league for the top 1500 Players in the "Normal PSO League"?

That's exactly it. At the moment there are something like 90k players or so that have played in the freeroll league in July. But if you can squeeze in among the 1500 top ranked, then from August 1st you are qualified to play in the premier league (IF you also have 20 VPP in July).

So, you will then leave the 90k players in your dust, they can stay in the ordinary league, and throughout August and coming months you will only be competing against 1500 regular players. For $30k each month, which should be a h*ll lot more intense. It looks to me like a great new concept they have come up with.

And just to repeat, to the freeroll junkies here on the forum:
NOW is when you need to get in, because 1500 people can qualify for the premium league in July, and only 500 people per month in the coming months!

Ah I.C thx for telling me so...So I have 1 more question to Ask About this, Is The League with the 90K players with a Monthly Prize pool of 40+k And then the Premium league an additional 30K for a total of 70K or is the 40K league only this month and then next month you just Compete for points for those that didn't make the top 1500 Cutoff?

It will be 30k for the premier league and 12k for the rest of the league
http://www.pokerschoolonline.com/league

Ty for Clarifying it for me Cista, BTW I See your in Great Shape in the League also

As for me, I just cracked the Top 1500....Now the only problem I have is making the 150 VPPs, exactly how many FPPs must I aim to get those Required VPPS...At the Moment I'm at 86 FPP's...But I can't figure it out for shit...

FPPs awarded are based on the VPPs that you earn, and on your VIP Level. If you are at the BronzeStar VIP Level, then you are awarded 1.0 FPP for each VPP that you earn. It follows that, if you currently have 86 FPPs, then you must have also earned 86 VPPs.


VPPs earned for a particular tournament are calculated by multiplying the tournament entry fee by 5.5. So if you enter a $5.00 + $0.50 tournament, for example, you will collect 2.75 VPPs (5.5 x 0.50). It's also possible to confirm the VPPs earned for any tournament by clicking on the "Tournament Info" button on the tournament lobby and then scrolling to the bottom of the "Awards Schedule" window located within the "Tournament Info" window.

On the website it says
"* Players are required to have earned at least 20 VPP during the month in order to be eligible for the next month's Premier League."

- so you need 20, not 150 VPP, to join the premier league. The difference between having 20 VPPs and 150 means a difference in prize money for you THIS month.

Each month you remain in the league you will also get higher prizes if you make 150 VPP, but again you are only required to make 20 VPP to remain in the league.

So, the way I see it, it is a clever system for them, as it encourages you to do 150 VPP. But also a good system for us, because as long as we make just 20 VPP per month, we can stay "premier".

Hey guys this is my first post. I'm also playing in this league and trying to qualify atm, but i have a concern and a question about the VPP requirement. First of all i'm a former Full Tilt player so not sure how the VPPs work exactly. Secondly after FT went down i decided not to put any money on Pokerstars and try to earn it via Freerolls etc (just for the achievementt, i know it's a lot harder to do it this way).

So to the question why i posted this. Can the +20VPP or +150VPP be earned by playing cash games or something or is it only VPP earned from Pokerschool tournament? Is it possible for a guy with no money there to have the VPP requirement at the end of the month?

I'm getting worried because i'm inside 1500 and there's 5 days left and I don't even know how to check my VPP points (i might not even have any cause i haven't put money on to the site). On the Pokerschool site it has Qualified checked and it says im going to get 1$+2.50$+2.50$, but qualified for what? Does that mean qualified as in also having the 20VPP at the end of the month? Cause i'm not sure when they will update that. Really confused about this, hopefully someone can help me out.

So if i really want to get into the premier league do you recommend me to upload money on the site quickly before month ends and earn VPPs via cash games or something like that? Also i'm European and can upload money on the site if necessary, but would like to avoid it if there's a way to have the VPP in some other way. All i know is when i open my cashier and i see that 0.55$ ive earned via freerolls so far on that page i don't see any VPP so this worries me a lot right now.

Hey Wonderer,
You need 20VPP in July to enter the Premier League in August.
To check your VPP, open CASHIER and click on the VIP STATUS.

If you have been checked as "qualified" ... hmmm I think it just means you are qualified to earn some money in the league in July, not August.
I am afraid if you have not playe cash games then you don't have any VPP. I actually have deposited some money there a few days ago...
What is your Pokerstars name? I can check your situation.

Also, you don't get x+x+x money after the month is gone - you get 1 of the 3 amounts depending on your VPP

Hope this helps! Looking forward to meeting you there

All right ty for the info. Hmm yeah on VIP Status it says VPP is 0 so if i don't put some money on the site now and grind some VPP in the remaining days i guess i wont qualify. Also thanks for the info about the money thing i thought you get all 3.

I guess grinding 20VPP at micro (i can 4 table) shouldn't take too long? What confuses me about it is, FTP had only 1 bonus point thing whille Pokerstars for some reason has FPP and VPP. Both are gained via rake right?

20 VPP is not much.
I deposited $25 the other day but this was to grind for 150 VPP.
You can deposit $10 and make 20 VPP in one session at 2NL.

Then you will be in the premier league. But to get the larger prizes in August you would have to make 150 VPP in August (or July).

I'm going to ^^ (to get 150VPP on August that is). Ty again. Name is Steamtroll on pokerstars btw say hi sometime if you see me.

Man I'm running like Ass over on pokerstars in the PSO I was at 2300 points 3 days ago, now less then 2k, I have the 150 vpps needed but **** me, Running like this means I wont make it to the Premire league and that's an Issue for me

At your position you just need one good result then stop playing. My guess is you will drop on average 4-5 places per tournament you sit out the last few days.

Edit: oh wow you have 8 bad results in row man!
Here is a tip: to fold many more hands, concentrate on lots of other things, multitable with other PS tables as much as you can. The PSO tournament is very slow - players drag the time because of the league structure - and it tempts you to play too many hands. In some of these I have played maybe just 1 out of the first 30 hands - in other cases I have been coming back from as low as 400 chips by just waiting for the KK and AA.

Cista, I've been losing with Aces, Kings, AKs, AQs, Js, sets, Straights, 2 pairs....You know it I've managed to lose to it...Now I'm in 1744th OR 1944 Points...I just can't seem to get out of this stupid Slump...It's not as if I try on purpose to lose...I'm really just running Bad...

I guess It take 2 decent results to make top of the 1500 People Left...Just hoping to make it

Like Cista said. Don't only play in 1 table. Either multitable or watch series videos at the same time or something.

I'm at 2.1k now rank 905. Should be enough i think. I just played super tight and sometimes even folded KK. Especially in situations where someone else or if multiple people are showing huge agression that act before me. It's not that frustrating to fold KK in such situations cause most likely they are allin spamming donks which means u get to see the cards and if u would've lost the pot or not. You feel pretty good if u see 1 of them with A and A on the board etc. By folding everything u should be on positive points as well. I've done it a couple of times.

Btw Cista i got a quick question for you. I grinded the 20 VPP and I got to just above 20 points. I got it like 18 hours ago or so and on the Pokerschool leaderboard I don't see the 20VPP icon on me so kinda gets me worried. Other than that i should be qualified but wondering what's up with that. Search Steamtroll if you want to see it.

I read on one of the pages that it can take up to 48 hours to register.

For this reason I am working hard to finish my grind up to 150 VPP today, as I am hoping to end in the top-500 of the tournament.

Maybe I miscalculated though - I stopped playing tournaments when i got to rank 390... I dunno if it is good enough (praying hehe) now I am down at 412.
YOU should definitely stop playing this month.

Yeah makes a lot of sense that 48 hours register thing.

I actually might make it to top-500 as well, i've been tearing it up lately yesterday+today. Last tourney that isn't updated yet i was 440th or so. I took a risk at 6.5k players left with AA and went allin preflop which payed off. Then i was dead like at 1200 players left and from BB i got fullhouse with 77 lol and one more time AA to keep me alive little bit longer. Oh yeah and i folded KK preflop at 1 point and i saw their cards and would've been out if i had called haha. If i manage to get into top-500 ill be playing the whole day cash games on the last day of the month. I was surprised that getting that 20VPP took only about 3 hours 3-4tabling.

What games do you guys play in for this? (is it the 'blue' PokerSchool Skill League freerolls?). How does the point system work? (& where does one find this info.?)
Ok, I took a look at the Pokerstars page about it.... but still have very little clue.
With 2 days left in July, what games do I need to play in & approx. what placing would I need to make it in Top 1500?
I also read something where it said you could just enter a tourney w small buyin to qualify as well? What's up with that?

Maybe easier question -> what would you do.....

Around these pages:
http://www.pokerschoolonline.com/league

The qualification ends now though, I don't know if it will be possible to qualify based solely on the 2 remaining days of July. In August you can try to qualify again, but from now on it will be just 500 people that will be allowed to enter per month.

Omg... I got offered KK AGAIN and when 7k players were left. Hero folded it and 2 guys went allin other one with K7o and AKo and A hit the board. KK is officially bad for the people that want a decent rating in the ladder lol.

Answer: what was I thinking? (will post HH.. pretty funny)
PokerStars Game #65251633780: Tournament #411630608, Freeroll Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2011/07/29 17:14:14 ET

Table '411630608 695' 9-max Seat #8 is the button

Seat 1: kolymaximoff (2920 in chips)

Seat 2: x_bilu1_x (1040 in chips)

Seat 3: fido160 (1565 in chips)

Seat 4: yog100 (1380 in chips)

Seat 5: JanisSoprano (1445 in chips)

Seat 6: NOCHU (1450 in chips)

Seat 7: bvv777 (1385 in chips) is sitting out

Seat 8: danielserban (1425 in chips) is sitting out

Seat 9: CAJAMARCA34 (7410 in chips)

CAJAMARCA34: posts small blind 15

kolymaximoff: posts big blind 30

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to JanisSoprano [Ad Ah]

x_bilu1_x: calls 30

fido160: calls 30

yog100: calls 30

JanisSoprano: raises 180 to 210

NOCHU: folds

bvv777: folds

danielserban: folds

CAJAMARCA34: calls 195

kolymaximoff: calls 180

x_bilu1_x: calls 180

fido160: folds

yog100: folds

*** FLOP *** [3c Ac 9c]

CAJAMARCA34: bets 60

kolymaximoff: folds

x_bilu1_x: calls 60

JanisSoprano said, "60 into 900?"

JanisSoprano said, "wtf?"

JanisSoprano: raises 1175 to 1235 and is all-in

CAJAMARCA34: folds

x_bilu1_x: calls 770 and is all-in

Uncalled bet (405) returned to JanisSoprano

*** TURN *** [3c Ac 9c] 5♣

*** RIVER *** [3c Ac 9c 5c] 8♥

*** SHOW DOWN ***

x_bilu1_x: shows [6h 6c] (a flush, Ace high)

JanisSoprano: shows [Ad Ah] (three of a kind, Aces)

x_bilu1_x collected 2620 from pot

skillzz

Attached Images

skillz.gif (76.0 KB, 36 views)

now back up to ~40bb's (had shoves called by 93s, 92o & 84s).
These are like 10x worse than a reg. freeroll??? very painful

You were the flush or AA guy? :P

Had a sucky moment myself... Long time since i got minus points but shouldnt get too much now either, but this might seal the deal that ill barely miss top-500. Had like 4 BB stack left 1880 players left and i woudlve made it to the bubble which made the decision hard.

Everyone before us folded. I was BB he was big stack SB that likes to bully me because of my passiveness. Min raised 250 on the flop i had Q4suited spades. Flop 567 (2 spade) so went allin he won with A6o...

So wait till bubble and get like 10-15 points for the ladder or risk it and get little bit minus and have a chance to get 15-30... doubling after loosing that BB wouldnt have meant much after loosing that BB my stack wouldve been way too small... I was probably stupid to risk it though. You try little agression there and it's gonna bite you in the ass lol. Can't wait till the premier league so can actually play a bit.

lol, I love the calling with a Low club with 3 clubs out there (As If the 4th club makes him the nuts, as if he's got the King of Clubs)...Your right though these are horrible to play your A game in, The only thing there good for is the money potentially you can gain in it over all

Pretty sure I'm not the guy limping utg & then calling off over 20% of my stack pre out of pos. (& then calling a mindonkbet, followed by calling off to a rrai... hoping for?... what did he think he was ahead of, or even able to draw to that would be ahead of something? (was he hopin' for runnner runner 6's for quads? lol)

P.O I tried searching for you rank but it's not coming up how come? Didn't play often this month?

Yes they will add another qualification tourney format in August. Once the inaugural premier league is established on August 1, the following months the premier league will thus be made up of:
- 800 players from the running premier league of 1500
- 500 players from the open league (where 100k freerolling nutters duke it out)
- and 200 players from the tourneys you mention

So, to stay in the league with easier access to the nice prizes, one just has to float in among the top-800 of the 1500, which shouldn't be too difficult.

am trouble now myself! I decided I needed one more result, and busted out at no. 2200. So I need at least a couple of bubble entries now, I can only play 3-4 more tournaments i guess.

I even folded KK as well early on lol, and I saw that the hand was one with AA just like you did haha.

ha ha ha.. I played 'once'.. today only. For sure couldn't get myself to do it again.

Yeah seriously KK.... is deadly early on. AVOID. Anyway i just got a really deep finish 120th. After update i'll have 2230 points so i think thats rank 500-550th.

Ok how i did it was. I knew i was 100 points behind the 500 mark so i decided to gamble with AK very early (when 7k players were left). So i got AKo from utg and went allin preflop 2 called and won with the kicker lol. So had 4500 chips at this point. Then i waited till 1000 players were left i was nearly out of chips then. I got FH from BB. Then next time i was out of chips and BB was gonna be on me next turn and my last hand i got AA and stayed alive. I just didnt die and i lost only 1 hand in the tourney the last one lol. Won 2 more hands like that and 120th or so LOL.

Next tourney im not sure whether i should gamble 1 more time or try to get bubble positions... What do you think? Thing is. I'm still at 20 VPP so next tournament should decide whether i will start griding the VPP today or not. Because i think 130VPP isnt doable in 12 hours in the last day because i wont do more than 4 tables, but like 100 is. So that kinda says i should gamble i guess. Something like JJ QQ AA KK AK AQ allin preflop i mean by gambling.

Weird thing btw still doesn't say i got the 20VPP on the Pokerschool site.

Ok new tourney atm. 2nd hand AKo already. I was late pos and AQo guy went allin straight away i decided to fold and other guy called so i saw no king on the board and Q on the river LOL. QQ 3rd hand and i went allin straight away preflop all folded...

KK allin preflop doubled up 6k players left.

This is crazy... 5.5k left AA and allin pref and i got a 4.1k stack now. Guess i'll surf till the end now and fold everything.

Well All I'm out of my slump with 1 day left in the month, I'm in the top 1000...I plan on playing 2 more games just to make sure I'm in the top 1500 area for sure...GLA in Augest