I started with 1000 play chips on Poker Stars, pretty much like everybody else did. I think I signed up sometime around 2008 and began my "career". No cash games, I am exclusively a tournament player. Today, I think new players begin with 10K starting chips or maybe even 15K or 20K, but back then, everything was much smaller.
On April 15, 2011, my American Federal Government banned us all from playing on Poker Stars. I still despise them for that bullsh*t move, but that's another thread...
Sometime around 2016, we were mysteriously allowed back onto Stars but only for the play chips. Whatever, I love Poker Stars and I love poker, and best of all, I have never played this game for the money.
So I logged back in, my username and password were still intact... and best of all, I discovered that I had run up my 1000 play chips to 11 million before Black Friday happened. And those were still in my account too!
I set a goal to gain membership into what Poker Stars was calling the "Billionaire Club" at that time. Sadly, before I reached 1 billion play chips, they had already closed that club, so I never made it... but sometime around 2019 I finally achieved my goal of 1 billion play chips!! I was now a "high roller", obviously its still pretty meaningless in the overall scheme of life, but it was a solid accomplishment to me.
During those few years, there were quite a few changes to the play chips on Stars, basically they increased the tournament entry fees and naturally that increased the payouts too. That's why they eliminated the Billionaire Club - because having 1 billion play chips was no longer "top dog". It was merely average
bankroll... so I kept going.
Today, my bankroll is as high as it has ever been, I'm currently at 73.5B chips, that's billion with a capital B.
Feelsgoodman. I play at the highest level, yesterday I cashed in the bi-weekly 5 Billion chip tournament (that's the entry fee, 100B guaranteed prize pool which wasn't even reached - 20 entries so it was close, but they take an absolutely absurd and almost criminal 12% rake even at high stakes tournaments LOL So we didn't hit the 100B).
Its a small crowd on the play chip side of Stars, at least at the top rung of the ladder. But I love the players, a lot of us chat often during the games and it makes Stars play chip tournaments very fun for me. Quite often, even tho I've expanded onto other
poker sites where we Americans are still able to give our government the middle finger and play using
real money, I'll be playing on Stars play chips instead. As I said above, I have never played this game to "make money". I play solely for the love of the game, and therefore, I don't care if the chips aren't real and if the poker is just play chip poker which isn't exactly rocket science or brain surgery. It's not "shove and pray" poker like everybody seems to think it is, I consider the play to be quite good, if not top notch (it's certainly not nearly as hard as real money tournaments are on the other sites where I am definitely NOT a "baller" but I'm a struggling microstakes player).
At least I'm a baller somewhere, that's my take on Stars play chips. I love Stars and I love the play chips. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED unless you are overly focused on making money at poker, then I'd skip it and play elsewhere. Best wishes, hope to see you in the 5B someday soon!!
