Poker Stars F40 Milestone Hand

I’d noticed but not paid much attention to the fact that Poker Stars is approaching its 40 billionth hand dealt and having a promotion where they award cash prizes to all players dealt into certain “milestone hands” along the way. Lo and behold, I happened to get dealt into one of those hands last night:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (8 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 ($952)
MP2 ($859)
CO ($1040)
Hero (Button) ($1100.25)
SB ($758.75)
BB ($1271)
UTG ($1314)
UTG+1 ($1030)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, 6
UTG bets $25, UTG+1 calls $25, MP1 calls $25, 2 folds, Hero calls $25, 2 folds

Flop: ($115) 10, 3, 8 (4 players)
UTG bets $65, UTG+1 calls $65, MP1 calls $65, Hero folds

Turn: ($310) 10 (3 players)
UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, MP1 checks

River: ($310) 8 (3 players)
UTG bets $175, UTG+1 raises to $450, 2 folds

Total pot: $660 | Rake: $3

Results:
UTG+1 didn’t show
Outcome: UTG+1 won $657

I ended up winning a little shy of $700 from the promotion, which pays out $40 to each player for each VPP that player has earned in his last 40 hands at the table. If you win the hand, your award is doubled. In other words, you win more if you’ve been at the table longer and if you are in a higher VIP bracket. Good thing I made the push to hit Platinum last month, it probably ended up being worth almost $200 to me on this alone!

To be honest, though, it feels like a bit of a waste that this hit on a 5/10 table. The biggest beneficiary from our hand, who actually did not win the hand but was presumably in a higher VIP tier, won about $150o. In other words, this bonus was worth between half a buy-in and one a half buy-ins for any individual player at the table. We all thought it was neat, but nothing more than that.

I imagine that when something like this hits at $.25/$.50 table, where people are buying in for $50 or less, it’s pretty thrilling for all involved. Most of those players aren’t going to be in a high VIP tier, but the bonus will still be worth at least a few buy-ins for them.

I didn’t really understand how this promotion worked before the hand. If I had realized that winning would be worth an extra $700, the correct play may well have been to shove pre-flop (and I think anyone who folded pre-flop made a big mistake). Certainly that would be true if I didn’t have the button. In this case, it probably worked out well that I didn’t know that. UTG claimed, and I believe him, that he had AA. If that’s true, he played it terribly, because as I said no one should be folding pre-flop, and he ought to be raising a lot more. But he probably didn’t get how this worked either.

In any event, very cool!