The 
Gemstone VIP promotion is returning for an action-packed three-month period of 2014, with triple and double Gemstones to be earned in the first two months of the year and rewards paid out in April.
What is the Gemstone Promotion?
The objective is simple: earn Gemstones for every 2,500 or 7,500 StrategyPoints you generate per month at our participating rooms.
Earn Gemstones, get cash!
This VIP promotion is exclusive to PokerStrategy.com and rewards you for grinding in the first three months of 2014.
• Earn Gemstones by generating StrategyPoints at participating poker rooms.
• Maintain Gemstones with consistent volume throughout the promotion period.
• Receive cash per Gemstone in April.
How do I collect Gemstones?
| Gemstone Basic Overview | |||
 |
 |
 |
$ |
| 2,500 | |
$25 | |
| 5,000 | |
$50 | |
| 7,500 | |
|
$150 |
| 10,000 | |
|
$175 |
| 12,500 | |
|
$200 |
| 15,000 | |
|
$300 |
| Note that Gemstones are tripled in January and doubled in February.
The required 2,500 StrategyPoints or 7,500 StrategyPoints must be generated at exactly one participating poker room in order to receive a Gemstone. You may earn Gemstones at multiple poker rooms, but must hit the totals at each room individually. Bonus StrategyPoints do not count towards earning Gemstones. |
|||
It's easy - simply earn at least 2,500 StrategyPoints or more each month. Each month you do so, you will be awarded Gemstones:
January 2014:
• 3x green Gemstones per 2,500 StrategyPoints
• 3x red Gemstones per 7,500 StrategyPoints
February 2014:
• 2x green Gemstones per 2,500 StrategyPoints
• 2x red Gemstones per 7,500 StrategyPoints
March 2014:
• 1x green Gemstone per 2,500 StrategyPoints
• 1x red Gemstone per 7,500 StrategyPoints
At the end of the promotion, your total Gemstones are converted into cash and paid to you - but if you miss a month, the Gemstones you've earned will be lost.
At the end of the promotion:
• Your green Gemstones become $25 cash
• Your red Gemstones become $75 cash
• Cash paid to the respective poker room account
• Missing a month means cash deductions!
Consistency pays off: deductions system
The Gemstone VIP Promotion rewards consistent play throughout the promotion - missing a month will count against you!
Further information
Deductions of green Gemstones and red Gemstones are independent.
This means that if you lose your red Gemstone balance, you will still be able to cash in your green Gemstones if you do not miss earning 2,500SPs in consecutive months.
Here's the breakdown:
• If you earn less than 7,500 SP but more than 2,500 SP in a month, your red Gemstone balance is reset to 0. You keep your green Gemstones.
• If you earn less than 2,500 SP in one month, your green and red Gemstone balance is reset to 0.
Example 1: BobbyFishSticks earns 15 green Gemstones and 5 red Gemstones in January/February 2014. He earns just two Green Gemstones in March and his red Gemstone balance is reset to 0.
Example 2: BobbyFishSticks earns 9 green and 2 red Gemstones in January/February 2014. In March, he doesn't earn any Gemstones. His red and green Gemstone balances are reset to 0.
Participating poker rooms
Opt-in to take part at William Hill
In order to be awarded prizes for your accumulated Gemstones at William Hill you need to opt-in via the William Hill website. Regardless of when you opted-in, you will still be awarded Gemstones in April for your play in the whole of January - you just need to opt-in by March 31 to be awarded the prizes you are eligible for.
Get paid in April
In April 2014, your Gemstones will be paid out into the poker account of the rooms where they were earned.
I think such behaviour is pretty frequent among your grinders, so there's no wonder you're getting so big a difference in the month-over-month volume. A rolling-basis scoring system would make the volume more consistent.
