| Re: Jumping back into the pool...
If you are looking to kill some bonuses, play O8 (L/NL/PL). The pots tend to be bigger than the same stakes at HE and if you play only premium hands (aka nut peddler), the variance should be small. For PLO8, the pots tend to be around 50-75% bigger for the same level of NLHE. Obviously, if you don't know O8 than this is bad advice.
As for the VIP, getting Silver in my opinion takes some effort and is probably about the best a serious, recreational player can get unless they are playing higher limits 5/10L or 1/2 NL. I've made Silver 3 or 4 times this year but I'm usually pushing it near the end of the month to get there; I think the best I ever did was 1800FPP. In order to get there, I needed to make an effort to get it but ended up loosing money those months. | 
