Climbing Everest Poker

It seems that readers of Inside Poker magazine have had a problem climbing Everest this week.

Everest Poker advertised a freeroll in the current issue of the magazine that was hard to believe. So hard to believe that even the poker site isn't going to honour their promise.

The magazine offered its readers a chance to win a seat in the World Series of Poker by entering a tournament when depositing five dollars into new accounts at Everest Poker. Both Inside Poker and the poker company promised there will be one seat for every thirteen entrants into the tournament. They went so far as to guarantee twenty seats with there being only 2,000 players allowed to enter.

There were a lot of terms to this offer, though. One of the main things was that the users had to register between one minute past twelve on May 1st and one minute to midnight on May 7th. Anyone not adhering to this rule would be exempt from the tourney.

So, a lot of people waited up late on the night of the thirtieth in order to register when the clock struck the allotted time. Many figured that the two thousand limit would mean they had to endeavour to enter early to avoid upset.

But then Everest pulled a fast one.

They claimed that the two thousand player limit was an error. Their intention was for only two hundred entrants.

A long list of names are now being taken off the list of entrants, too. It seems that Everest are trying their best to find loopholes in their terms and conditions in order to save face. A couple on the Punter's Lounge message board have been removed due to their sharing of the same computer to register two different nicknames.

Everest has taken full blame for this mistake. They placed an apology on the Inside Poker website. I don't think Inside Poker should be absolved of all fault on this one, though.

Alun Bowden, the editor of the magazine, posted on the Punter's Lounge message board on the 13rh of April that this was a legit offer. He claimed that he had acknowledgement from Everest that what was written was accurate. If that is the case, then both parties are to blame.

The other troubling thing I find with this whole issue is Everest get the good publicity with this kind of offer and there are a lot of readers who may see the promotion and realise they were too late to enter and still decide to join Everest.

I hope the magazine does the right thing and publish something in the next issue informing everyone what happened. Putting a correction on their website isn't enough.