Intertops Poker is hosting a series of guaranteed poker tournaments that are timed to tempt soon-to-be exiled Australian players to the site.
Last week, the Australian government passed a law prohibiting most forms of online gambling. Although there may be a future carve-out for online poker, 888Poker and Party Poker have already withdrawn from the Australian market. PokerStars announced this week it will close its doors to Australian players in mid-September.
This will leave an estimated 130,000 online poker players without a site to play at. Although many will sit out the drought and wait for a new law to be passed, some will be itching to carry on playing. Ignition Poker has already started accepting new accounts from Australian players, and Intertops Poker is targeting Aussie players with AEST-timed events.
The (August) Aussie Tournament Series
Intertops Poker first trialled an Aussie Tournament Series last month. The series consisted of six tournaments over two weekends and did not perform very well – costing the site thousands of dollars in overlays. Nonetheless, the site is persevering with its goal to tempt soon-to-be exiled players and is hosting more AEST-timed tournaments with guaranteed prize pools this week.
The reason why these tournaments may be of interest to US-based players is that the tournaments are again failing to meet their guarantees. Although it may be very short notice for US-players to take advantage of any overlay in today´s tournament (as it starts at 6:00am ET), the more valuable tournaments at the weekend could well be worth investigating.
The remaining tournaments in this week´s Aussie Tournament Series are (all buy-ins and prize pools quoted in US dollars):
- Today – A $5.50 buy-in re-buy and add-on NL Hold´em tournament with a $500 guaranteed prize pool. The “Melbourne” tournaments gets underway at 8: 00pm AEST (6:00am ET/10:00am GMT) and has thirty minutes late registration.
- Saturday – The buy-in increases to $11.00 for a $1,000 guaranteed “Ripper” tournament. Again the tournament has a re-buy and add-on format and again it starts at 8:00pm AEST for players on the Eastern seaboard around at 6:00am on Saturday morning.
- Sunday – Sunday´s “Fair Dinkum” tournament has exactly the same buy-in, guaranteed prize pool, format and start time as Saturday´s tournament. It is also likely the tournament will have the same level of overlay.
More Aussie Targeted Tournaments to Come?
Despite the significant overlays in the AEST-timed tournaments, it is likely Intertops Poker will continue in its attempts to attract Australian players to the site. The attraction of AEST-timed tournaments is not likely to catch on until PokerStars departs the Australian market, by which time Intertops Poker will have its foot in the door as a viable option for exiled players.
We anticipate there will be more Aussie targeted tournaments before and after PokerStars´ departure – offering the potential for more overlays until Intertops Poker is established in the Australian market. Therefore, if you are not already playing at Intertops Poker, you could be missing out on some lucrative opportunities – not least the site´s first deposit bonus.
The Intertops Poker First Deposit Bonus
The Intertops Poker first deposit bonus consists of a 200% match on your first deposit up to a total value of $1,000. It is cleared in increments of $5 as you earn Frequent Players Points for playing in cash games and poker tournaments. Unlike most online poker sites, Intertops awards Frequent Player Points in cash games using the “dealt rake” method – meaning the bonus is ideal for players who prefer to wait for a premium hand, rather than get involved in as many pots as possible.
To find out more about the unique structure of the first deposit bonus, please read my [geolink href=”https://www.usafriendlypokersites.com/intertops-poker/”]Intertops Poker review[/geolink]. In order to take advantage of this opportunity, follow the links from the review page and enter the Intertops Poker bonus code “[bonuscode room=”intertopspoker”][/bonuscode]” when making your deposit. Not only will this code qualify you for the Intertops Poker first deposit bonus, but it will also get you into the Intertops Rewards Program in which you can quickly climb the statuses by playing poker and casino games.
