In my first entry, I talked about the best things about a PokerStars download. A PokerStars download provides you with top quality poker software and the player traffic that comes along with it is unparalleled. Aside from a large game selection and several options to customize your playing experience, I also specified that when you make your first deposit, you receive your first PokerStars bonus. You receive 100% of what you deposit up to $600, all in bonus cash.

Once you've made your PokerStars download, releasing your bonus is a really simple process. All you have to do is participate in real money games, and you will be earning VIP Player Points (VPP) while you are at it. This bonus is known as a 17x bonus, meaning you will have to earn 17 times the amount you deposited in VPPs to release it. So, if for example you deposited $300, you have to earn 17 x $300 = 5100 VPP to clear the bonus. If instead the amount deposited is the full $600, 17 x $600 = 10,200 VPPs will be required to clear the whole thing. The bonus will be credited to your account in $10 increments, which means for every 170 VPPs a chunk of the bonus will be released into your account. Cash and tourney games count towards the sign up bonus, so no matter which you play, you will be earning VPPs while doing it. You have 180 days to earn the required amount of VPPs before the bonus expires.

Of course, the speed with which the PokerStars bonus clearing occurs depends entirely on what games you play, and at what stakes. Let's take for example that you decide to play 25NL cash games (which is not a good idea if you deposited only $600, but it's just an example), clearing this bonus will take you approximately 159,376 hands at Full Ring, and about 110,870 if you prefer to play 6-Max. These numbers are extreme, and are only correct if you only choose to play one or the other. Mixing the types of games at the same stakes will result in an amount somewhere in between of these. If you play higher, for instance $50 No Limit, the total amounts will drop, becoming a total of 77,273 hands Full Ring or 56,667 hands at 6-Max, and a mix resulting a number in between.

You can also combine cash play with tournament play to clear the bonus, or if you so desire only play MTT poker. A total of 5.50 VPPs will be earned for every $1 you pay in tournament fees. Let's take for example that you play $15+$1 tourneys, you%u2019d have to play 10,200/5.5 = about 1,855 tourneys to clear your bonus. Up the buy-in to $25+$2, and it would take half as many to clear it. As already explained, these are the absolute extremes in any one category of games you could play; different combinations of game types and stakes will give you different results.

Of course, no player will only grind one type of game like that, so take these numbers with a grain of salt. But one thing should be clear to you, and that is that the higher you play the less volume you will need to clear the bonus, and the opposite is also true. One possible scenario in which a player may clear the whole bonus, is to play 50% $10+$1 SNGs, 25% 25NL FR and 25% 50NL 6-max. In that scenario, you would need about 900 SNGs, about 36,000 poker hands 25NL FR and about 14,500 hands 50NL 6-max.