my impression with Rise Poker
Well..seven minutes in and I've busted out of their kick-off tourney :-(
The advertisements aren't that bad. Just turn the volume down and wait till your tourney starts. Three minute breaks occur every 30 minutes. All tournaments on the site appear to have the same structure: 10 minute blind levels, 1000 starting chips at 15/30.
They offer three options to players: free play with commercials and qualifier tournament access, a $4.99 "Elite" membership that nixes the commercials and opens up access to a forum, chatroom, videos, etc., and then the $19.99 VIP membership that eliminates the qualifiers, allows one to compete for an additional $20,000 per month in VIP-only prizes, allows one to compete on the leaderboard, and also allows one to play "cash games" (with points, of course).
Bottom line: based on my experience, if you are not a subscribing member, the qualifying tournaments are going to require a LOT of luck to navigate. Primary prizes are "points", and the payouts are extremely weighted to the top finisher. I would skip the "Elite" membership entirely as it seems to just nix the commercials; you still have to play in qualifiers in order to win any cash unless you are VIP.