Launch of Cereus
Sunday, November 30, 2008 - Annie Duke
Well…I am not sure I could do a blog this week and not make it about the launch of Cereus. It has been a tough year to endorse UB, obviously, and I have been looking forward to cereus launching for months now because I kind of felt that would be the way to put all the nastiness behind us. So I think I really had some kind of rose colored glasses on about Cereus. That it would launch without problems and then everyone would be singing the praises of UB as the second coming of online poker or something. I mean as stupid as it sounds I had really kind of put my hopes on Cereus as like my knight in shining armor.
The thing is that all knights are probably not exactly what they are cracked up to be. I mean think about medieval times. The knights probably had bad breath and bad body odor. Imagine wearing the chain mail in a time when there was no deodorant. I imagine they were pretty stinky. The nice thing is that stink is something that can be cleaned up because in the end no matter how stinky the knight is he does save you from the dragon, rescuing the damsel in distress.
So Cereus is like my knight…it has a little bit of stinky breath, bad teeth and body odor but all that can be fixed because in the end it is saving us from the dragon. I agree with most of the UB players that there are things that need fixing. Certainly, I want the blinds and antes back in the title bar of the tournaments. I want my scrolling info back down in the left hand corner. I want the fonts changed. I want rebuys to be back to 30 minutes in a turbo.
But think really how minor all that is in the face of migrating a whole site onto a new platform. For anyone who lived through the Oracle disaster I think we can all agree that this migration was remarkably smooth. The site didn’t crash for one thing and the Oracle migration caused the site to crash for about 3 weeks. All in all it has been pretty smooth, despite the UB players having to get used to the new software. And what I have noticed is that, like me, the UB players are starting to get over the shock and explore the new features that really do make the site better.
I was as shocked as everyone and felt very disoriented when the new site launched. I have not played another site in years and felt really disoriented by the new software. I felt like I had lost a new friend almost. But as I have played over the last week I have realized that it really is like the knight with the smelly body odor. Someone will hand Cereus some deodorant and then we will all see how amazing this new site is. For one thing, I can find a game any time of the day and the guarantees are being crushed, something UB hasn’t seen in a year. There were over 30K players on the site in primetime during the week and that has never, ever happened.
The development team is hearing all the comments and you will see things get fixed and updated really quickly. This site is responsive to its players and wants everyone to have the best software and service out there because that is what will make UB a huge success going forward. So I am going out and getting some toothpaste, antiperspirant and buy some veneers for my knight in shining armor because I can deal with the superficial stuff if I need someone to save me from a dragon I am facing.
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Tags: Annie Duke, Cereus
November 30th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
From the cleanest looking interface to the most cluttered in 2 days.
Needless items should be removed:
The $ in front of chip counts
The blinking rectangles
The time clock..ugh that is so nasty looking
Playback? spare me…
There are so many kinds of fonts being used and different sizes it looks more like a young child designed the site
The new history…ugh
Favorite place to sit? Who would not want to sit in the bottom of the screen as always.
Items taken away…please return these
A running update of the MTT and SNG
Blind level and ante “in the pane”
Allow the UB buddy to go directly to the table. Being sent the lobby is lame.
It is just so sad that a bunch of lame individuals sat down and designed what is a worthless site. Were the beta testers smoking crack and drunk?
If this new software was the last stand in the battle against the “Super User Software” then great.
The site looks clunky. A cheap imitation of the old UB.
The site reminds me of the street musician that has a drum, guitar, mouth harp, cymbals and what ever else they can possibly attach to their body.
It is now the worst of the worse. The bottom of the barrel. Good luck UB from the rumors around the tables, you are going to need it. Numerous players are removing money and the free chip players are history.
December 1st, 2008 at 3:43 am
Maybe I’m used to the AP software but I much prefer the hand history the way it is now, and some people dont like to be placed in the middle at the bottom of the screen automatically I’m one of them. I like the look the way it is now. There are some things that need to be addressed that could be done better I’m sure but all in all I like the change so far. I’d like to see some HORSE sitngos and multis and Stud high multis again too of various price$ buy ins added, maybe add some triple draw again and “8-game”, that would be real cool. Other than that I think the change to Cereus has been positive.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:27 am
Well, I know a complete software revamp was critical due to security issues, and I’m willing to give it a try. I do like seeing my folded hole cards without having to pull the history- that’s good. Something that needs to be addressed SOON (I know there are priorities) is a problem that’s burned me several times now while in a tourney. I’ve found that the chat window often says ‘hit enter or click here to chat’ Well, if your turn comes around at the same time you are hitting enter to chat… guess what u just did?
You just bet or doubled someone else’s raise whether you wanted to or not!! And there’s no pulling that back or any ‘are you sure?’ prompts. I chat frequently during play and I’d hate to cut back on that for fear it would ruin my tourney. (as it has twice now) I don’t know what the best solution would be to prevent that, but I’m sure some of the software gurus could come up with something that works.
Just finished listening to podcasts of your first two Ultimate Poker Shows on Rounders Radio- Enjoyed them both greatly! Lots of fun and excellent poker info! Looking forward to more.
Hope someone can address my concern… I can’t be the only one this happens to.
Thanks!
- Knowmaad
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:50 pm
It seems that the NEW UB software is just Absoulte’s software with a UB table theme. The RNG/shuffling algorithm is that oh AB, just crappy. SNG are now 9 man, and the rake has doubled.
We should of just been informed that the UB has gone away and have been replaced by AB site. How do you continue to call your selves UB when you are really Absolute with a UB table theme.
As of today, I cashed out of UB and have joined PokerStars.
I will miss the old UB…
December 5th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Hi Knowmaad.
Thanks for the input. The product team has looked into your request and have scheduled some programming time to address this.
The new feature will allow you, and any other UB player, to disable the function from the options menu. This way it won’t interfere with your game play and still allow you to chat when you wish. The release is coming out mid-December.
December 13th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Dear UB Marketing team:
Fantastic! Thank you so much for the quick response and resolution on this issue! The new option helps greatly.
However, (there’s always something else, isn’t there?)
With the new setup.. with ‘disable enter to bet’ selected
when you move the slider and click on the ‘bet it’ button… there is no response. I have to click below the slider where the amount to bet is shown. Which is great- I can work with that! But it seems more intuitive to click on the ‘bet it’ button.
If I turn off the ‘disble enter to bet’ then I CAN click on the ‘bet it’ button.
It seems that enter is not really disabled, just the ‘bet it’ button. :/
But this is a vast improvement over the initial release.
I can now continue chatting without fear of destroying my game play.
Looks like the site is shaping up.
Thanks!
Knowmaad
December 18th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Yes Annie, you’re right. Your shining Knight stinks at the moment. UB was my favorite site, but now its not. I can’t find the people I used to play with – perhaps they are gone. Ultimatebuddy can’t take me to them. In fact my computer can’t even show me who is registering because the site takes up more memory than Explorer or Outlook. The thing is I haven’t changed but the site has, and not to my benefit.
My name is not Annie or Phil who will play 200/400 with anyone. My name is Sikko and I play $1-$2 SNG’s. I miss my old playing partners. I miss anyone who I had notes on and who is no longer around, especially those green dots.
There are many good things with the change, but none of them outweigh what has been let go. Its a shame that the people who should know what to do, don’t.