I think my co-worker said it best when interpreting our new tagline:
“What is poker? Poker is a game of skill, a game of strategy, patience and controlled aggression, a game where you must exploit your opponents weaknesses and make sure you don’t have any. Poker is an individual game where you want to destroy everybody else at the table, poker is war. I will raise you. I will stack you. I will own you. – This is how winning players approach the game, no mercy.”
This is the mentality of our company and how we will forever be moving forward to give our players the tools they need to own their opponents. So, why re-brand, you ask? Well, we knew we weren’t doing our players justice the way we were in the past. It’s time for us to step up our game and really set ourselves apart from the other poker rooms. We’ve pumped up our software and tournament schedule and created an environment and community like no other.
We’ve spent the last I-don’t-know-how-many months working on a new company direction and learning from our players. We’ve research, tweaked, tested and launched a new brand and company focus that revolves around our players. We’re launching a poker news show on FSN called Poker2Nite and will be reporting on poker live and online so you won’t miss a beat. It’s hosted by our own Team UB pro Joe Sebok and Scott Huff, the poker journalist, who calls it like he sees it and stirs up some controversy.
Every move we make from here on out will be with our players in mind and we’ll be dealing directly with you guys to help shape what you see and interact with every day. We’re listening and want feedback on our new stuff right here on our blog. Please comment, share and let us know how you’re liking or disliking our new direction.
UltimateBet has been dominating the poker scene for over a decade. When we first started dealing digital cards, the internet was a vastly different place. It was all about 56K modems, Windows 98, and something called a Pentium. Since then the internet has been moving at light speed. Could you have imagined twitter, youtube, facebook, podcasts, and blogs back in those days? The fact is things are always evolving, especially in the world of technology. Perhaps the only thing that’s stayed the same is that we still have cards at our core.
We’ve added tons of great features over the years like avatars that let you add an extra dimension to your poker personality. Our hand history improvements let you relive your glory and learn from your mistakes. We brought you blackjack 3 years ago and don’t forget our unbelievable 7 Deuce and Horse tables. We’re proud of our new table schemes and popular promos like our Bad Beat Jackpot, RAI$E, and our lucrative Tournament Leaderboards. Let’s not forget the extra tourneys and players we added through the CEREUS network a year ago.
You can expect tons of exciting changes before the year is out. Stay tuned and let us know what you’d like to see. You can always post your feedback into the blog. It’s almost 2010, so you should probably get in the blogosphere, or whatever they’re calling it these days. We love hearing from you!
A few of us from the creative team spent the week in LA, CA for the shooting and production of our upcoming TV spots. I of course can’t fill you in on too much detail until they come out but it was a great experience with the team and production company we worked with. The process was great leading up to the shooting days, an awesome change from experiences we’ve had in the past.
The funniest part about the week was seeing us warm-weathered folks freezing our you-know-whats off in LA in the evening. The night we arrived and the following night during shooting it was 40 degrees and crazy-windy. Yikes! Good thing we had space heaters and blankets.
It’s amazing how much work and coordination goes into three :30 TV spots. I mean, after all is said and done, I imagine the total number of man hours spent on these were over the 1,000 hour mark. CRAZY! With the creative team, marketing and brand team, agency, production company and all the editing I was amazed to see these spots come together so well. These will for sure be the best TV ads we’ve ever had, and I can’t wait to share.
While we’re on the topic of great TV ads, I’d like to share a few of my recent favorites:
The eliminations keep on coming. We’ve been playing a bit over 90 minutes and the field has decreased from 36 to 22. As you might expect playing six-handed is creating more confrontations and that’s driving the pace of eliminations. Here’s who’s been eliminated in the last half-hour or so:
23
$ 16,130
Jon Favaloro
24
$ 16,130
Victor Ng
25
$ 13,820
James Czarnecki
26
$ 13,820
Kevin Kaikko
27
$ 13,820
Matt Vengrin
James Czarnecki was eliminated when James Mordue turned the nut straight and Czarnecki check-raised holding a pair of Queens. Not the best timing. Victor Ng was knocked out when, holding Ad-5h and the board reading 5d-4d-3d, got all the money in against Brent Roberts and his 2d-4h. The turn was the 9c, fine, but the river was the 4c, and that brutal beat sent Ng out of the Classic. Jon Favaloro went out when he was racing with K-Q to Ty Reiman’s pocket sixes…and a six hit on the flop.
The other big news so far today has been the resurgence of Brock Parker. Parker has doubled up twice, once with pocket Aces to Eric Baldwin’s Ace-King, and he now has over 300,000 chips. Tournament Director Matt Savage reminded the crowd that Parker won two WSOP bracelets this year, one in six-handed Limit Hold-Em, one in six-handed No-Limit Hold-Em. Need I remind you we’re playing six-handed the rest of the way?
We’re about 15 minutes away from the start of Day 3 of the 2009 Aruba Poker Classic and 86 players will drag themselves off the beach and take their seats in the Radisson ballroom. Robert Mizrachi returns to play today as the chip leader, boasting a monster 353,000 stack. Jon Favaloro came into play yesterday as the chip leader and continued his strong play, as he now sits second with 255,000. Defending champion Matt Brady is still in the hunt, as is 2007 winner Travis Rice, and players such as Phil Hellmuth, Shawn Rice, Scott Ian, Matt Vengrin, Gavin Smith, Eric Baldwin, James Mordue, Zachary Clark and Johan Storakers will take their seats at noon.
Here are the complete chip counts, and when play resumes the blinds will be 800-1600 with a 200 ante We’re going to play today until the field has been reduced to 36 players.
Day 2 of the Aruba Poker Classic has begun and 263 players braved the rain to return to the Radisson tournament room. Among those who are still in the hunt for the title are several members of Team UB, including Phil Hellmuth, Adam Levy, Michael Binger, Brandon Cantu, Bryan Devonshire, Shawn Rice, Gary DiBernardi, and Tiffany Michelle. We’ll play five 90-minute levels today, the same as we did during the opening days of the tournament. And here’s where the chip counts stood at the start of play today:
Can’t be sure if this’ll actually post what with our ‘net issues, but let’s be optimistic!! Here are some of the players who are/were in the field today.
Defending champion Matt Brady:
Last year’s runner-up Johan Storakers:
And last year’s 4th-place finisher, Allie Prescott:
James Van Alstyne, who won a HORSE bracelet at this year’s World Series and came in 2nd in another HORSE event, is sticking with just one game here in Aruba:
Jean-Robert Bellande, like Tiffany Michelle and Annie Duke a veteran of reality television, is keeping it real here in Aruba:
As is Layne Flack:
Jeff Madsen was one of the earliest eliminations of the day, as he flopped a set of fives and then got all the money in the middle when a King fell on the turn. His opponent snap-called with pocket Kings and that sent Madsen to the beach:
Another early elimination was the newest member of Team UB, Joe Sebok, who started off well but lost two big hands holding pocket Kings–once when he ran into Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin’s Aces, another when his opponent made quads. And that was that for the PokerRoad honcho:
Still in the tournament is Joe’s PokerRoad co-host/conspirator Gavin Smith:
And Robert Mizrachi:
P0ker H0 was another early casualty, losing most of his stack before the first break and busting out when he shoved with Q-9 and got called by a player holding Ace-King. Big Slick held up and H0 would not repeat his deep run of a year ago:
Hoping to escape H0’s fate and make the money again this year is Debo34:
While Liv Boeree is out, her pocket Tens bested by pocket Queens.
Bryan Devonshire has been holding fairly steady during play today:
As has Matt Vengrin:
Tiffany Michelle saw her stacked whacked when she lost a race with QQ vs. AK, but after being down to 2,000 she ground her way back to her starting stack of 15,000:
And still in the field as the final level of the day begins are Brandon Cantu:
Michael Binger:
Billy Kopp:
Shawn Rice:
And, last but never least, Lacey Jones:
Annie Duke will not be back for Day 2. Even though she was dealt pocket Aces seven times during play today (and getting Kings and Queens to boot) Annie lost time and time again with those big hands and went out when she flopped top two to her opponent’s bottom set. Sometimes it’s just one of those days, and now Annie gets to spend the rest of her trip enjoying Aruba…which is doubtless not what she wanted.
In case you weren’t aware we’re having serious Internet issues here and I’ve been reduced to printing out my posts and sending them via carrier pigeon to the mainland. Now, that’s a lie, but it’s an option I’ve been exploring if we can’t get a nice reliable connection.
However we are still able to connect to Twitter and that’s where you can find pics and updates and info from the tournament. My big priority is still to get stuff posted here in quantity as soon as possible, but truth be told you should be following UltimateBet on Twitter–the URL is twitter.com/ultimate_bet. I’d put in a link for you to click but the doggone Internet won’t let me do that either. This is definitely making me appreciate the magic that is WiFi, believe me.
Anyway, to get the instant, inside scoop about what’s happening here in Aruba check us out on Twitter and keep checking back here on the blog for a landslide of posts and pics once we get back on the grid.
Last week I mentioned that a lot of the action at the Aruba Poker Classic takes place around the Radisson Pool, and that after missing last year’s Welcome Banquet Phil Hellmuth would probably be in the mood to entice people to jump in the pool by promising them with piles of cash.
Uh, I had no idea how right I’d prove to be.
The UB Blog is (mostly) PG-13 and so I can’t really describe in detail much of Vinnie Favorito’s comedy routine that kicked off last night’s party. Chances are if you were within 50 feet of the stage Vinnie insulted either your race, religion, creed, gender, or face. All in good fun, of course, and especially so when the target is Phil Hellmuth.
And then after Vinnie wrapped up…well, that’s when the fun started. And it started with a group of synchronized swimmers in brilliant multi-colored swimsuits entertaining the crowd:
And then that’s when the real mayhem started. Just about every member of Team UB (including many of those who work behind the scenes) ended up in the pool. It started with Tiffany Michelle and Liv Boeree and Matt Graham and Bryan Devonshire and then before too long just about everyone wearing a logo was in the pool to stay. Some went in voluntarily, some less so, as you’ll see.
That should give you just a little idea about what the party was like. It was WAY more crowded that in years past, and the pool action was freakin’ nuts. Phil offered $500 for the first two women to jump in the pool naked and it took about 17 seconds for him to hand out a grand (as I said, this is a PG blog, so no pics. Unless someone offers me $500…).
I literally have 500 pics to sort through and develop and post, but it’s late, the tournament starts at high noon, and I promise to post lots, lots, lots more stuff about last night’s insane bash. But this should give you some idea of what was like, and if my pics and words don’t do the job then listen to what Scott Ian tweeted about the party–”It was (deleted) nuts”. Yes, PG blog, sorry, but I think you can fill in that particular blank yourself.
I’m not breaking news when I say that to win a poker tournament, especially one with more than a thousand players, you have to run good. You have to run really good. You have to avoid the obvious coolers (my Kings, your Aces) as well as the trappy hands that would lure even Stu Ungar to his demise. Situations like set under set, flopped straight to top pair/nut flush draw, etc. Of course one of the ways truly skilled players avoid these nightmare scenarios is by never getting involved in them in the first place. If you’re holding Ace-Queen and an Ace flops and you get your 300BB stack in the middle and find you’re dominated by Ace-King, maybe that’s a bit of bad luck but possibly it’s more bad play.
In a freeroll tournament (like, say, our Pocket Card Challenge Freeroll last night) folks are bound to play a bit more loosey-goosey. Especially early on players are more likely to gamble it up, try to accumulate a big stack early on or just be done with it. Kinda like Phil Ivey in a $10,000 event. And at my starting table last night there was a player named HANKSKY who was doing just that–gambling it up. He was raising just about every pot, not letting the limpers and callers see a cheap flop, and splashing chips all over the place. What he didn’t know was that there was a new sheriff in town–me. Because I too was willing to mix it up, put my chips in the middle, come home with my shield or borne upon it. HANKSKY was sitting to my right and when he made his usual raise I re-popped it with A-Q. The flop came Q-6-4 and fast as you could mouse-click our chips were in the middle. My top-top had his mighty deuce-four in big trouble and for once the better hand held.
My stack took a hit a few hands later when I flopped top two pair holding Ace-Queen. That’s good. What’s not good, what’s bad even, is that UNIQUELADY flopped Broadway holding K-10. All the chips went in and when I didn’t boat up my mighty stack was dented. “Nice flop,” I seethed, and she said “Yup,” in agreement. But not long after that t I doubled again, this time against JHUB420 when I held Big Slick and flopped a pair to his open-ended straight draw. The draw whiffed and suddenly I had one of the top 20 stacks in the tournament. And I may have cracked the Top Ten when I took most of JHUB420’s remaining chips when I was dealt pocket Aces. “I’m going to win this (deleted) tournament,” I told myself as the first break arrived. “I’m GOING TO WIN!”
I was eliminated three minutes after we returned to play. I three-bet VEGASRIVER8 while holding Big Slick again and when he shoved I came along. He had Jacks, we raced, and I lost. Lost about 85% of my stack, too. I open-shoved with Q-J the next hand and was called down by a medium Ace. Which held. And I was out, in 235th place. Which, obviously, is a long way from first.
“Oh well,” I sighed.
“Lost a race,” I sighed.
“Sigh,” I sighed.
I’d run exceedingly good in the tournament, holding Aces, Ace-King twice, Ace-Queen twice (and hitting the flop with each of those hands). I also flopped a set and got paid off. All that, and I was out 235th. If I’d won that race with Ace-King…who knows? I might’ve finished…112th or something. “Crap,” I sighed.
So it isn’t enough to run good–you gotta play good as well. And as I watched the tournament play down to the final table (my nemesis VEGASRIVER8 finished 30th, nine off the money) it looked like the extremely short-stacked 44NIGHTMOVES would be the final-table-bubbler, as he had about a blind plus an ante left before him. But after pushing his handful of chips forward and telling the table “gl guys gg” he managed a desperation triple-up to reconnect his life-support machine. But for just a few hands, as his pocket nines were beaten by another player’s Jack-Nine when the paint card spiked on the turn. Still, he almost made the final table, because as I was watching that hand play out CUZZ59 was being bounced on the other table. But stack sizes come into play when eliminations are ranked and so CUZZ59 gets to put the Pocket Card Challenge Freeroll final table on his resume, while 44NIGHTMOVES was left to lament that blasted Jack. At any rate, here’s what last night’s final table looked like as battle was joined:
CMILLET81 had the big chip lead and he made it a lot bigger as the also-rans fell by the wayside. TOD38 was first to go, out in 8th, followed shortly thereafter by the cooly-nicknamed TANGENTMEMORY. It looked like THEMECH222 would be next to go, as he was down to just 22,000 and all-in with 2-4 against ANDYZHU888’s Ace-Queen. But where HANKSKY wasn’t able to turn the tables on me when we held those hands, THEMECH222 turned a four and doubled up. He then went on a tear, boosting his stack all the way up to 200,000 after he knocked out the aforementioned ANDYZHU888 with a straight. INDY29 was next to go when he woke up with Ace-Queen and moved his short-stack to the middle. Alas, he was dominated by LBKJOS’s Ace-King, and that was that. And then THEMECH222’s run abruptly came to an end when he bluffed with Ad-8c after a 5h-7h-4d flop and LBKJOS made a hero call holding 5s-2h. That gutsy play sent THEMECH222 to the rail in fourth place and boosted LBKJOS’s stack up over 400K.
With six players left CMILLET81 had held more than 50% of the chips in play, but LBKJOS’s reign of terror brought their stacks almost equal. SLICKWILLY14 trailed them both with around 150,000 and chose to sit back and let these two titans battle it out. And after LBKJOS took over the chip lead he and CMILLET81 played a huge hand where LBKJOS got a wee bit lucky. Well, he got a whole lotta lucky–after a 5s-10h-5d flop CMILLET81, holding Ks-10d, led out for 54,000 and LBKJOS check-raised to 124,800. CMILLET81 called and the nine of clubs on the turn probably seemed a totally innocuous card. It was not, because LBKJOS was holding 9c-10c and the turn was one of three cards that would give him the pot. LBKJOS shoved, CMILLET81 called, and when no King nor five came on the turn CMILLET81 was cruelly ejected and LBKJOS was the big chip leader going into heads-up play.
With about a 3-1 chip lead LBKJOS looked to be in good shape to take it down, and a few hands later his victory looked a lock as his Qh-Jc outflopped SLICKWILLY14’s Ad-9d. The money went in and LBKJOS needed to fade a nine or an Ace to win. I’ll let the picture tell the story:
But LBJKOS was undaunted, he pulled out his cudgel and bashed his way once more to a 3-1 lead. Once again all the money went in, this time with LBKJOS holding 7-2 (the HAMMER!) and a flopped pair of sevens to SLICKWILLY14’s Kc-Jc, which gave him two overcards and a gutshot. Those particular outs proved important as an eight on the river gave SLICKWILLY14 his straight and another lease on life. “Again on the river,” LBKJOS groused, understandably so.
The grousing no doubt increased in volume when the two again got the money in the middle after a 7s-Jh-3d flop, with LBKJOS holding 3c-6s to SLICKWILLY14’s Ac-5d. But here’s the thing about WILLY–he’s SLICK. He turned an Ace, rivered a five, and once again came from behind to frustrate LBKJOS.
Even after all this, all this, LBKJOS clawed and scratched his way back to a small chip lead. But the two played a massive pot where, with the board reading 3c-10c-10h-6c-Qh, LBKJOS bet 126,000 and SLICKWILLY14 shoved. LBKJOS made the call for almost all of his chips and saw SLICKWILLY14 turn over 4c-8c for the baby flush, one LBKJOS couldn’t beat. We never got to see LBKJOS’s cards, I can only think he had a ten, or maybe an smaller flush (tho there weren’t that many small clubs left).
But it must’ve been a bitter pill to swallow, and on the next hand swallow it LBKJOS did. His last few chips went in with him holding 5d-8c to SLICKWILLY14’s Js-9h, (and sorry to spoil the suspense, but those are the pocket cards of the final winning hand). You’d think that maybe LBKJOS might catch a break and turn the tables just this once–you must not play much poker. No, on this day the table was tilted in one direction, as both players flopped a pair but WILLY’s Jack was better than LBKJOS’s five, and when the board bricked out it was LBKJOS’s collecting $49.23 for finishing as our runner-up and SLICKWILLY14 securing a seat in our $200,000 Sunday Guaranteed Tournament. If he can keep that run good thing going…look out.
