Empire VIP/Royal Flush Club Questions

[fnord_too]

I'm posting this here rather than in the zoo so the people who can answer the questions will see this before it is pushed 10 pages deep.

Ok, first question, do you really get twice the rake in points if you are in the VIP club? (+ 20% when you make it to the RF Club?) If so, wow, when I was doing ring games playing 10k raked hands in a day (not that I ever did) would earn me 100 points but playing 25 100+9's gets me 450 and is no big deal for a weekend day. (I am pretty sure I read the site right, but wow! ring game players are really getting screwed in this regard.)

When I make it to the RF Club and am eligible for a monthly $100 bonus, will I have to play ring games to clear it?

What do you spend your points on? Looks like you can exchange them for cash or items or special tourney entries, but I have not done any real valuation of the prizes. Any particularly good/bad ways to spend these things I should be aware of?