www.Intertops.com is well-known in sports betting and casino gaming circles as one of the most established, trustworthy names in gambling. Established as a brick-and-mortar bookie in 1986, Intertops moved online in 1996; and since then, it’s been nothing but steady growth.
The poker room at Intertops is young, and definitely serves a specific niche. The games are filled with spillovers from the betting and gambling tables, which means everyone is really bad at poker. If you’re a cash game player and you know a bit of Holdem strategy, you will pretty much print money at Intertops.
Intertops Poker’s tournament offerings aren’t the best – there simply isn’t enough volume to sustain a reasonable schedule–but the bad cash game players and bonus offerings more than make up for it. As a first-time depositor at Intertops, you’ll be looking at some sizeable bonuses that are well-worth grinding out.
You’ll want to take advantage of Intertops Poker’s land-based tournament satellites, too. There probably isn’t another site online that will send you to a $5,000 tournament in Dublin, Ireland for as little as $1.10. That’s what I call value.
If you’re looking for a smaller poker room with fishy Holdem cash game players, huge bonuses, and valuable ongoing promotions, then Intertops Poker is for you. For me, it was worth it for the deposit bonus alone.
Intertops.com Poker Bonus Offers and Promotions
At Intertops Poker, you’ll get a free 110% of your first deposit up to $600 as a bonus. So if you deposit $500, for example, you’re looking at $550 in free cash on top. All you need to do after depositing is play enough raked hands to release the bonus into your bankroll.
www.Intertops.com will pay out your free cash at a rate of $5 per 83.355 Frequent Player Points (FPPs) earned. Don’t worry, FPPs come quickly. The earn rate is 1FPP per $1 in rake for hands you’re active in. If you play a hand that rakes a total of $2, for example, you’ll earn 2FPPs. If you’re a tournament player, you’ll earn 7FPPs per $1 in tournament fees you pay. This makes for quick accumulation, and means you’ll be able to clear the free deposit bonus quickly.
As well as using FPPs to clear your bonus, you’ll use them to participate in Intertops’ Gold Stacks reward system. Gold Stacks is simple: as you earn FPPs, you accumulate Gold Chips; and as you accumulate Gold Chips, you complete Gold Stacks. Earn enough Gold Stacks, and you can exchange them in for cash rewards. If you’d prefer free tournament buy-ins, you can exchange Gold Chips for those in lieu of cash. It’s up to you.
If you’re into unique promos, Intertops has one for you–the Gold Cards program. Basically, Intertops keeps track of the cumulative rake at each cash game table. When the rake reaches a certain point, a random draw happens that awards a player at the table a Gold Card. Gold Cards can be used to buy in to tournaments, or can be sold for cash in what’s essentially a Gold Card free market. If nothing else, the Gold Cards system is unique.
Intertops also runs qualifiers for brick-and-mortar tournaments throughout the year. Right now, the big event is Dublin’s Irish Open. Intertops is giving away packages worth $7,000 that include airfare, accommodations, and a buy-in to the Main Event. Considering you can satellite in for as little as $1.10, this package is nothing to sneeze at. If you’re a tournament player, there’s huge value to be had in the Irish Open satellites.
Intertops Poker Cash Games – Traffic and Competition
I’m a No-Limit Holdem cash game player, so I’m always on the lookout for lesser-known rooms that are full of fish. Intertops Poker certainly fits the bill. It seems like there are a lot of players “just visiting” from the casino tables, which means they’re almost all terrible. That’s what I like to see.
Intertops spreads 6-max, full-ring, and heads-up Holdem, and all of the games are well-populated below $1/2. That said, the $0.50/1 games and above are a lot tougher than the micro-stakes games. Since I’m mainly fish-hunting, that doesn’t bother me too much. I can just drop stakes and stack donks more often, rather than stack less at higher stakes. But if you’re looking to play strictly 100NL and above, you’re going to be up against some tougher-than-necessary competition.
There are some active Pot Limit Omaha games at Intertops, mainly at the micro stakes. You’ll always find a game from $0.02/0.04 up to $0.25/0.50; but above that, it’s mostly empty tables. Omaha Hi is spread, but you’ll have to wait a little while to get a game going. Intertops is certainly a Holdem-centric site.
Some people might tell you that Intertops spreads Stud, which would make sense if you look at the lobby–there’s a tab right there that says “7 Card Stud”. Thing is, the tab is apparently just for decoration. Stud players should look elsewhere, since Intertops doesn’t actually spread the game.
Intertops Poker Tournaments – Traffic and Competition
Sit-n-Go games are few and far between at Intertops. You’ll find some $1 turbo 10-man Holdem games running every 5 minutes or so, but that’s about it. The player pool simply isn’t big enough to support a vibrant SnG community; Intertops caters more to the cash game crowd.
As far as Multi-Table Tournaments go, there are a few decent games to choose from. Almost all of them are No-Limit Holdem, and almost all are basic freezeouts. You’ll find some decent nightly guaranteed tournaments: the $3,000 guaranteed Turbo NLHE is decent value at $50+5, and the daily $2,500 guaranteed is popular at $30+3.
There isn’t really a big Sunday tournament in the traditional sense at Intertops. Instead of a single guaranteed tourney, you’ll find two “added money” tournaments: a $5,000 added, and a $2,000 added.
Overall, the tournament pickings are a little slim at Intertops. It didn’t bother me, though, since the fish at the cash game tables more than made up for the lack of juicy overlays.
Intertops Poker Software and Support
Intertops runs Cake Poker’s software client, which is basically a run-of-the-mill poker client. While there are certainly worse pieces of software out there, there are better ones, too. Let’s just say that at Intertops, I’m playing because of the fish – not the pretty poker tables.
The lobby is laid out well enough. You’ve got your basic 3-level game selection logic: sort by poker variant, then game limit structure, then real vs. play money. There are filters through which you can choose to display only 6-max tables, only 50NL tables, and so on. All of this makes for an easy time selecting the exact game you want to play.
The table layout at Intertops Poker is a bit lacking in style. The avatars are 3D renderings of human figures, rather than simple pictures, which actually clutters up the table. You can turn the avatar display off, but then you’re left with a black void that makes the action a bit tough to follow. Obviously having outdated graphics didn’t prevent me from playing at the site, it was just a bit ugly. A small price to play for access to terrible opponents.
One thing I think Intertops did right was include real-time graphic hand recaps in the chat box. The easy-to-read summaries really help me follow my opponents’ actions, which in turn helps me gather information I can use to tweak my game. I hate having to follow text-only hand summaries in such a small space as a chat box, so Intertops’ system is great in that regard.
Intertops has a good reputation for service and support, and help is just a click away. You can contact the support staff via email, phone (toll-free!), or live chat. Turnaround time for emails is less than 24 hours; but if you’re impatient, the live chat feature is obviously much quicker.
Intertops Poker Deposit and Withdrawal Options
US-friendly poker rooms are becoming rarer these days, but Intertops still welcomes Americans with open arms. No matter where you’re from, there’s bound to be a transaction option that will work for you.
Deposit Using
Credit/Debit Card (VISA, Diners Club, Amex, MasterCard), Moneybookers, UseMyWallet, Neteller, Instadebit, Person to Person Transfer, Online Bank Transfer, Click2Pay, Wire Transfer, EU Bank Transfer, EcoCard, Paysafe Card.
Withdraw Using
Paper Check, Wire Transfer, UseMyWallet, MoneyBookers, EcoCard, Click2Pay, Neteller, Instadebit, EU Bank Transfer.
