Gemstone Leagues: We need your feedback!

Suggestions & Feedback
1

Hey everyone! We’re looking for your feedback on our Gemstone Leagues promotions that are winding down. These were aimed at recreational players who want to place on the leaderboards, but need some scheduling flexibility and the option to commit to under ten games per week. We’re hoping you have some thoughts about how they went and what we could do better.

Some of the things we’d like insight on are:

  • The buy-ins offered
  • The leaderboard type and how it’s calculated
  • The weekly format
  • The number of qualifying tournaments (per day, per week, etc.)

And, most importantly: Would you like to see the Gemstone Leagues as a permanent promotion? [poll type=regular public=true]

  • Yes
  • No
    [/poll]

Thanks for your help, and we really appreciate everyone who has already weighed in on this topic as well!

1 Like
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I like the promotion, found it to be fun. I would like to see some high low omaha tournaments added in for variety.

Thank you,

Seville

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Fizzy - I should clarify my “no” vote. It has nothing to do with the formats or concept at all. Nor with the scheduling, buy-in amounts or number of games. My concern is for the “chip economy” here at Replay Poker. I see the amount of free/bonus chips being introduced here increasing dramatically without any corresponding drains. Satellites giving away more in prizes than they take in, MTT’s not reaching their guaranteed payouts in entries and the added bonuses on top of it all.

IMHO, before adding new promotions, I’d take a long hard look at the overall chip economy here. If the site is adding substantially more chips into the economy for free (as bonuses or guarantees) than are being removed through rakes and fees, then there is a problem. I’ve wanted to write a piece on chip inflation and the dangers that go with it but haven’t had the time. What I don’t want to see is this site become a joke like the WSOP site is, with chip inflation so rampant that there are multi billion chip buy-in tournaments regularly. That site has no credibility left because they ran their economy like Zimbabwe did and once that genie is out of the bottle, you can’t put it back inside.

In a balanced economy, you can do all sorts of things. However, if the site appears that it is not concerned with the value of the currency being used on it, then how can anyone expect the players to be? As the perceived value of the currency declines among players, the game becomes farther and farther removed from cash-based poker.

Please continue to innovate and experiment but please consider the ramifications to the overall economy here while doing so.

5 Likes
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RALPHIE IS ALWAYS UP FOR EXTRA NUTS!!
HE ACTUALLY LOVES NUTS!!
PROMOTION IS GOOD!!

TOM
RALPHIES SECRETARY

1 Like
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I want to clarify my “Yes” vote to… only if fixed / tweaked.

I wanted to 100% accurate so I pulled the raw data… All 4 leagues, All 3 weeks, Top 5, and number of MTTs played… they are as follows :

Ruby - 2k

Week 1: 1. 21/7 2. 22/7 3. 17/7 4. 12/7 5. 15/7
Week 2: 1. 13/7 2. 24/7 3. 14/7 4. 21/7 5. 18/7
Week 3: 1. 19/7 2. 16/7 3. 8/7 4. 14/7 5. 23/7

Saphire - 5k

Week 1: 1. 19/7 2. 21/7 3. 22/7 4. 20/7 5. 17/7
Week 2: 1. 20/7 2. 18/7 3. 18/7 4. 24/7 5. 16/7
Week 3: 1. 18/7 2. 15/7 3. 13/7 4. 28/7 5. 25/7

Emerald - 15k

Week 1: 1. 20/7 2. 16/7 3. 13/7 4. 20/7 5. 28/7
Week 2: 1. 17/7 2. 14/7 3. 19/7 4. 28/7 5. 17/7
Week 3: 1. 23/7 2. 20/7 3. 25/7 4. 23/7 5. 21/7

Diamond - 50k

Week 1: 1. 15/7 2. 15/7 3. 20/7 4. 14/7 5. 21/7
Week 2: 1. 26/7 2. 19/7 3. 24/7 4. 34/7 5. 14/7
Week 3: 1. 23/7 2. 22/7 3. 24/7 4. 13/7 5. 12/7

What the data shows me is that “basically” if you want top 5, you prolly will have to play minimum 2x per day. It also shows that in the 5k / 15k you’ll prolly have to play a couple more than that. I seriously don’t consider this “casual play”. Yes its very true, than there were ppl that played less and still “cashed” but I thought it was designed for a casual player to “win” not just “cash”.

Most of my comments up to this point was in another thread, I think it was 2k/5k tickets… but I’m adding everything I can to this thread… Here are my reccomendations :

1: You MUST split out the Regionals from the Jewel Leagues… playing 1 MTT shouldn’t count for both… plus the Regional players pretty much need to play every day, so they instaly log 7 MTTs in the jewel leagues for 0 xtra effort… so the 5k and 15k boards are even more “not casual” due to this fact alone, plus they attract higher entrants … thus the t-pts generated usually are more in these, than in the other ones.

2: Find a different format than " best of ", because it doesn’t mesh well with “casual”.

3: Don’t give any preference to any time zone, come up with a shedule that is 100% fair to all time zones. Your average “casual” player, to me is not necessarilly a “peak time” player. Once you un-even the playing field, ppl start dropp’n out.

4: Sattalites are in serious need of improvement… from times offered to ROI.

5: Seems Holdem is the only game offered, is that what the staff wanted ??

All in all I think it was a great Idea, just like Bankroll Builder, yet the implemtation, on both, seems to have left something to be desired of… Please tweak both of these promotions so they can survive longterm.

6

Addendum :
Of the Saphire(5k) & Emerald(15k)… 75% or more players , of the top 5 , across all 3 weeks… came directly from the Regional Players … now if you think Ruthless, Raven, Mason, Thomas, and a few others are casual players… then I got some RealEstate in Florida to sell you… ( duhh , swampland / worthless )

7

I still like the idea of running them on the hour, then a offset sattalite on the 1/2 hour.
2k, satt-15k, 5k, satt-50k, 15k, satt-2k, 50k, satt-5k … ( 4 hour block example )
Adjust blinds in sattalites so most finish in less than 2 hrs.
Sattalites: 1/10th buyin, pay 1 in 5 above the normal 3/9 …
Someone can log on, hit the sattalite and win thier way to the next MTT. ( 4 hrs need’d )

8

Voted no because of the Best Of 7 scoring.
Its a huge advantage for high volume players.

9

I agree. Thats why I voted no also.

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ITS FUNNY RALPHIE AND I PLAY ALOT LESS THAN WE USED 2-
YET SOMEHOW I AM LUMPED IN AS A NEGATIVE REGARDING MY AMOUNT OF PLAY??
WHAT WOULD BE A CASUAL AMOUNT OF PLAY?? JUST CURIOUS!!
RALPH AND I NORMALLY PLAY JUST THE REGIONAL TRNEYS!
TO BE HONEST I DIDNT EVEN REALIZE THAT I WAS IN THE GEMSTONE TRNY TIL I WAS NOTIFIED I HAD GOTTEN A BONUS!!

IM HERE FOR SOME FUN-AND RALPHIE IS ONLY HERE 4 THE NUTS!!

RELAX-ENJOY-HAVE SOME FUN!!
THESE ARE JUST RALPHIES THOUGHTS-BUT HES NUTS??
TOM
RALPHIES SECRETARY

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[quote=“thomas4126, post:10, topic:6534”]
TO BE HONEST I DIDNT EVEN REALIZE THAT I WAS IN THE GEMSTONE TRNY TIL I WAS NOTIFIED I HAD GOTTEN A BONUS!!
[/quote] Enuff said right there

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1Warlock I agree with everything except the last part. We are already far removed from ash based poker. How often do you see players go all in on offsuit 2’s through 9’s? I see it several times in every tourney and every ring game I play in. The only way to be close to cash based poker IMHO is to buy all chips.

13

Honestly, this site is the best I’ve seen so far for “social” poker. If you want to lose your mind, go play on WSOP for a few days and then come back here. I’m trying to keep this place from becoming that. Topic for another thread though.

14

A few tweeks and the Gems could be outstanding . I would petition for the following changes
1/ The buy-ins remain unchanged.
2/ Players must play a minimum of 7 per week. ( I chose 7 per week cos it equates to 1 a day but you don’t have to play every day).
3/ The scoring system changes away from "best 7’ to an average over games played. Tournament Points won divided by games played = position on leaderboard. This should remove the high volume advantage but still allow players to play as often as they wish.
4/ Six of each buy-in per day with a game starting every hour through a 4 hour cycle so it’s fair to all time zones.

1 Like
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Maybe this promo is another great situation to abolish the 50% rule …
We can’t talk about leaderboard untill we agree on what “casual” is …
Can someone from staff define casual to us ?? # hrs/day , # days/week ??

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I Only Played The Ruby And I Totally Enjoyed It.
In Reply To One Of The Questions My Answer Is Yes…
Can We Please Have This Format Permanently

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The average number of games for a top 10 finish in the Emerald League over the first 3 weeks was 19.27 so almost 3 a day.

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JUST A THOUGHT–
PLEASE REFRAIN FROM USING RALPHIE AS A NEGATIVE-
HES JUST A BLIND SQUIRREL WHO LIKES NUTS!!
TRIES TO BE POSITIVE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!

RELAX-ENJOY
AND GRAB SOME NUTS!!
TOM
RALPHIES FRIEND

19

I voted no because Gamestone Leagues and regional leagues are almost same.Regular players of regional leagues automatically benefited by adding points in Gamestone leagues with out playing any extra games.There should be some other tournaments in this promotion so that double benefit avoided.Points earned for one promotion should not be added in any other promotion to avoid double benefit.

2 Likes
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LOL Ralphie’s Secretary