Not much of a problem for people who are used to C syntax of course, but may be confusing to anybody else, especially in expressions which have both pointer dereference and multiplication, for instance this is entirely valid C:
int a = 3 ** int_ptr;
(No, it's not a real operator, it's another case of weird but allowed spacing causing confusion)
int a = powl(3,int_ptr);
3 ** int_ptr multiplies the vakue pointed at by int_ptr by 3. It is exactly the same code as 3 * (*int_ptr) which is the point the parent was making.
powl(3, int_ptr) would be (int)int_ptr * (int)int_ptr * (int)int_ptr which is also unlikely what you wanted. You probably wanted to say powl(3, *int_ptr)
EDIT: actually even my last paragraph is wrong because the first arg is base... I'm not going to write it out but you get the point...
It's a multiplication with the value pointed to by int_ptr, e.g. rewritten to make more sense:
int a = 3 * (*int_ptr);
a := 3 * int_ptr^ int a = 3 ** int_ptr;