Poor Intertops Poker. It’s a good apple in a bushel full of rotten ones. For the second time in two weeks, it has had to make a business decision because it is stuck on a terrible network, the Revolution Gaming Network. The lastest: Intertops is segregating its mid-stakes and higher players from the rest of the network.
In a post on Two Plus Two on Friday, an Intertops Poker representative provided the details. Those games that will consist of only Intertops players will be cash games at $2/$4 and above and Sit-and-Go’s with $20 buy-ins and higher. Intertops is also staying out of any Revolution multi-table tournaments with guaranteed prize pools higher than $1,000.
In the post, the Intertops rep wrote, “We want to keep our reputation and continue providing our customers with the service and support that they deserve. Furthermore, we want to be able to continue to guarantee our players their funds and remain one of the most trusted and safe places to play.”
He added, “We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause. We hope we can clear up a few of the issues over the next coming weeks and get back to where we know we can be. One thing is for sure – we have finished paying for the mistakes of others.”
Intertops is one of the oldest online gaming firms in the industry, starting with online sports betting in 1996. Its poker room has never been one of the largest, but it has generally been well respected and has been around since before the online poker boom. Its problem right now is that it is associated with other operators on the Revolution Gaming Network, many of which are just awful. One of the biggest problems on the network is the near-non-existent cashout speeds of some of its biggest operators.
For example, PokerAffiliateSolutions.com stamped Juicy Stakes Poker, which took over Cake Poker’s U.S. customers, with an “F” for cashout speed. Lock Poker got a “D-.” At first glance, it might not look like this would affect Intertops aside from people avoiding those sites and therefore reducing the traffic on the network, but it has. Because cashouts are so bad at some skins, many players on those sites have been finding friends at Intertops and chip dumping to them at the cash game tables. This way, the Intertops player can cash out and send his friend the funds he might not otherwise see for months.
As a result, Intertops decided last month to implement a new security procedure in which it will review all winnings at cash game tables before the funds are credited to a player’s account.
Despite the problems Intertops is having because of its association with some of the skins on the Revolution Gaming Network, there has been no public indication that Intertops plans on changing networks.