Everest Poker
Everest Poker (sometimes referred to incorrectly as 'Evrest Poker' or 'Everst Poker') is a standalone online poker room. They use their own proprietory poker software.
The number of players on the site at peak times is continually growing and at present is regularly over 5,000. While Everest does not accept players from the United States of America, they have aggressively marketed in most other countries and their platform is available in over two dozen languages.
And when we say 'available' we really mean it, right down to online support.
Everest Poker is owned and operated by a direct licencee of GigaMedia, which is a publicly owned company listed on the NASDAQ exchange.
Everest is licenced in Kahnawake, Canada, and is als0 licenced in Malta in the EU.
Everest Poker Deposit Bonus
The Everest Poker deposit bonus is very unusual in that it is a flat dollar amount regardless of what amount you deposit, and not a deposit match (percentage) bonus.
Most other online poker rooms offer a bonus as a percentage of your deposit amount, commonly 100%. So if you make an initial deposit at one of those rooms of $100 then the poker site will give you a bonus amount equal to 100% of your $100 deposit, so that would be a $100 deposit bonus amount.
Not so with Everest Poker - they offer a flat $200 deposit bonus to all their new players, no matter the size of their first deposit. If you make a deposit of $20 you will be entitled to a $200 bonus. Same as if you deposit $2,000, you will get a $200 bonus.
A bonus set up like this is obviously more attractive to less professional players, and that makes Everest Poker a great place for new online poker players to start.
Earning your deposit bonus
Like all other online poker deposit bonuses, you must collect points to earn the Everest Poker Bonus. On Everest, player points are called 'Summit Points' (Mount Everest, Summit, Geddit?) and to release each dollar of the bonus amount you need 16.6 Summit Points. These points are awarded for playing on the cash tables and for entering in tournaments.
The highest number of summit points that you can earn per hand is 4.2, which are earned on the 6-seat tables when the pot is raked for the maximum , which is $3.
Players also earn summit points for every dollar of fees paid in tournament entries. Remember, tournament entry fees are the '+ $' bit on the tournament buy in. For example, a $10 tourney entry is listed as a $10+$1 tourney, and the +$1 is the amount of the entry fee (the $10 goes into the pot). Players actually earn a lot more points for tournament entry fees, earning 8 summit points for every dollar aid in fees.
So, for every dollar spent in tourney entry fees you will get back about $0.48 in bonus cash released.
If you don't understand the points system don't worry too much about it. Just play at the cash games or tourney tables and the bonus will be released when the points are met.
Another good point about the Everest Poker Bonus is that it is paid out in increments. That means that you don't need to earn all the points before getting the bonus. As soon as you earn some points the proportionate amount of the bonus is released into your real money account. This is really great as it means that eventually you will be playing with the poker rooms own money and using it to release the rest of the bonus.