A bunch of people on here ask this, so I thought I'd post this, which was written by myself sometime back. Hope you guys can make use of it. Enjoy:

�What�s the best way to turn FPPS directly into cash?�

To answer that question, first we have to determine what is not the best way. Let�s take a look at the overly simplistic, old fashioned way: buying cash bonuses directly from the FPP store on pokerstars. If you buy the $50 reward bonus for 5,000 FPPs, each FPP is worth exactly 1 cent. If you buy the $285 bonus for 25,000 FPPs, each FPP is worth 1.14 cents. Going further, if you buy the $650 bonus for 50,000 FPPs, each FPP is worth 1.3 cents. So let�s calculate how much you�d have to play in order to release a $285 bonus:

Let�s say you are a SilverStar member on Pokerstars. You earn 5 base FPPs for every $1 in tournament fees. However, the multiplier for SilverStar members is 1.5 so you wil actually be earning 7.5 FPPs for every $1 in tournament fees. Let�s say that you play 10 $20 heads up sit n gos daily, for a total of $10 in tournament fees/day. This would yield approximately 75 FPPs per day. If you play 5 days a week, that�s a grand total of 375 FPPs/week. This means that it would take you 66 weeks and 5 days to acquire each $285 bonus at this rate. Yearly, you�re looking at only about $220 in bonuses, which roughly translates into $4.24/week in return on your play. To calculate how much of this is �rakeback� (money earned back from the rake you pay), all you have to do is figure out how much you pay a week in rake, and then divide it by your return. If we use the existing conditions (10 heads up sngs/day), and if you played 5 days a week you would pay approximately $50/week in rake, but only get a return of $4.24 on it. This calculates into essentially 8.5% rakeback. As you can see, this is not a very generous return on your hard earned FPP points.

So to choose a more optimal method of getting cash in return for your FPPs, we need to examine other options. There�s a beautiful thing about PokerStars satellites � you can unregister from them. Anytime you unregister from an event, you are credited with T$ (tournament dollars). These tournament dollars can be used in any tournament on PokerStars (regular sit n gos, heads up sit n gos, MTTs, or anything else that has a set buy in fee).

I know, I know. That begs the question �which satellites?�

The answer to that could be a matter of preference, but I will tell you what I do personally. Some people suggest the 1200 FPP 27 player satellites to the Sunday Million. After all, each time you win, you pocket $215. However, anytime you�re dealing with fields this big, you�re putting your fate in the arms of variance. It�s tough to grind out 25,000 FPPs, which would earn you 20 buy ins to the 1200 FPP Sunday Million satellite, and it�s totally conceivable that on a bad day you would not win a single one. However, let�s just say that you fulfill basic odds, and win 1 out of 27 like you�re supposed to. Well, it looks like I�ve already made my point. In theory, if everyone is of the same skill level as you, you are expected to win 1 out of 27. However, using this method you would only have 20 buy ins, which means that you�re statistically not even guaranteed to win one of them. Therefore, this method�s variance is too high to be a reliable method of turning FPPs into cash. So to that, I say no thanks. We�ll need something with (a) smaller fields and (b) lower FPP buy ins to maximize our potential of earning cash back.

Look no further than the 70 FPP satellites to the Sunday One Hundred Grand. These are single table (10 seated) sit n go satellites, with the winner taking the $11 buy in for the tournament. Not to mention these are probably the softest sit n gos on the planet. After doing some calculations we discover that we can buy into 357 of these satellites with 25,000 FPPs. For the sake of argument however, we will say that you once again fulfill normal odds and win 1 out of every 10. This means that you can expect to profit $11 36 times out of 357. Using this method, your total �rakeback� would be $396, which is a significantly better return on 25,000 FPPs than the cash award of $280.

How many at a time should you play? I suggest six.

Let�s take it one step further. We were being very literal when we talked about you winning 1 out of every 10. A blind monkey could probably take 1 out of every 10 of those satellites. Take my word when I tell you these sit n gos are so soft that you can expect to win not only win 1 out of 10, but actually as much as 1 out of 6. It�s simple: when you get a hand better than AQ offsuit (for unpaired cards) or 77+ (for paired cards), shove it. Yes, that�s right, that�s all it takes because they are that bad. The first ten hands of these things are pretty much someone picking up KJ, QJ, J10, or any suited connectors and going all in hoping to get lucky. If you have 6 tables loaded, you can afford to wait for AQoff or better and then watch in amazement as time and time again someone calls you with a worse hand. Of course there will be exceptions when people will call and you will be behind, but more often than not, even if you�re behind it won�t be by far. I don�t suggest shoving 22-66, as a good portion of the time you will be called by pairs higher than this and will be behind significantly.

If you follow this method, let�s assume you will win 1 out of every 7 satellites. This means that you will profit $11 approximately 54 times with your total of 25,000 FPPs. Using this technique, each 25,000 FPPs is worth approximately $594. Breaking it down even further, this makes each FPP you earn worth 2.4 cents. Compare that to the stingy return (1.14 cents/FPP) on the $280 cash bonus that PokerStars offers and you will see that by implementing this technique you will more than double the default value of your FPPs.

This method equates to 18% rakeback, which is light years better than the 8.5% rakeback method discussed above. Not to mention that if you win more than 1 out of every 7 satellites, you could earn up to 25% rakeback.

Have fun with it!

5400fpp sattys to the million, not really a question

210 FPP satties where 6/20 get the seat are not half bad either.

No Thanks. I aint playin 357 sng's

You are actually way way wrong with this post jigsaw. You're forgetting one thing in your whole equation, which is the time. The time it takes to grind out all these sngs is wasted playing sngs of almost meaningless value. I would rather get $100 from $25k FPPs than spend literally tens of hours (which I value my hourly at higher than $100) grinding these. Best method is 13.5k FPP sunday mill tickets worth roughly 1.6 cents per FPP (if u plan on playing it anyway like I do), or 5400 FPP STT's where 4/10 get a sunday mill seat.

I went bust about 3-4 months ago, cashed out, left myself around 1k, went on a bad run playing the same games I played ABI $12 without moving down in limits. Anyhow, I lost it all, and had ~25k FPPs and managed to use around 3k FPPs playing 210 FPPs to 100k. Anyway, I ended up w/ about $T50 and now back to where I was before bust. I definetly recommend using FPPs for sattys to 100k, I do prefer the 210 sngs though.

I invest my fpps into tournies. If you have a decent roi% i can't see how this is not the best way to go. Hell i played the turbo takedown for 5k fpps and chopped the bitch for 63k, can't go wrong there. Plus cashed in a few wcoops all paid for by fpps and countless sunday millions. This is only realistic if you are raking lots of them in though so sats would work better for low volume/limit players.

8FPP + R to Turbo Takedown!

Excellent post

jigsaw... this must be a level. i mean, you're suggesting that we 6-table what are, essentially, $1.12 satties... for a total of 357 tournies.

FPP have cash value. so why not just stay around your regular buy-in level?

when i play the 400+ to the sunday million, i'm pretty much playing a $6.40 + rebuy tourney. i feel i have a reasonably high ROI in these tourneys, so it's pretty much the same thing as when i play my usual $12 freezeouts.

but you're saying i should move down levels and start playing $1.12 freezeouts... not sure i agree.

i'm calling shenannigans on the "completing the task in your free time" statement. i mean, you're pretty much saying, "it's ok to change your FPP into cash using this method, because you'll be doing it during free time, not work time!" five hours of grinding these = five hours grinding = five hours doing something else, it's all the same. i can say, "it's ok that i only win $3 an hour playing cash games, because i do it in my free time", but it doesn't change the fact that i could have been making five times that playing sng's.

that being said, if you like this method, go for it. 70 fpp tourneys are probably insanely soft

 

Originally Posted by Call Me Jigsaw

 

Originally Posted by leftygrove

jigsaw... this must be a level. i mean, you're suggesting that we 6-table what are, essentially, $1.12 satties... for a total of 357 tournies.

FPP have cash value. so why not just stay around your regular buy-in level?

when i play the 400+ to the sunday million, i'm pretty much playing a $6.40 + rebuy tourney. i feel i have a reasonably high ROI in these tourneys, so it's pretty much the same thing as when i play my usual $12 freezeouts.

but you're saying i should move down levels and start playing $1.12 freezeouts... not sure i agree.

All of this assumes that you will complete the task at hand in your free time, not during your regularly scheduled playing time. Set aside 2-3 hours a week, and play 10 tables, even 15 tables if you'd like. Chip away at it. Either way, it's the lowest variance form of FPP conversion, regardless of how much time it takes.

For me, I prefer the 3375 FPP 4 player hu satty to the Sunday Million myself (because doing it the other way would take a lot of time). Unfortunately, in theory I could go through 50,000 FPPs and not win a single seat. However, that's never going to happen with the 70 fpps. If you want MAX value out of your FPPs, then the 70 FPP is the way to go, imo. Going to take some work, but you will squeeze as much blood out of the turnip as you possibly can.

In your "Free time" why cant you just play normal tournies and make real monies instead of grinding 1$ sattelites?

If i make 10k fpps in a month and decide to turn them all into T$ playing 70fpp sattelites, i'm probably spending like 20% of what would be my play time in the next month....far better to spend all my fpps in 7 of the 1250 fpp hyper turbo 55$ sattelites or something.

Worrying about variance with your FPPs is silly imo. When you're dealing with 10-15% of your rakeback the variance in your whole bankroll is small even if you play higher buyin FPP tournies.

Hi my name is Economics and there is such thing as OPPORTUNITY COST!!!
For all the idiots, wikipedia a defintion if necessary. I play super low volume for decent/good results I have. No Fkin way i would play amillie 10fpp point sng's when at the same time I can ship freezeouts BOSSSSSSSSSSSS. Suggest the high stake cash game pros to play these with the million fpp points they accumulated, they will like the idea.

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE BOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

 

Originally Posted by Zackattak13

Hi my name is Economics and there is such thing as OPPORTUNITY COST!!!
For all the idiots, wikipedia a defintion if necessary. I play super low volume for decent/good results I have. No Fkin way i would play amillie 10fpp point sng's when at the same time I can ship freezeouts BOSSSSSSSSSSSS. Suggest the high stake cash game pros to play these with the million fpp points they accumulated, they will like the idea.

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE BOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

do u have a chevy with a 454 in the hood and 125 on the dash?

Jigsaw is the man and his site helped me pick up on some cool things as well.