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Tuesday, March 24, 2009 - Miss C
Hi All,
All I can say is … “The hills are alive with the sound of music” and I can tell you I hate the movie and the soundtrack, but Hinterglemm, Austria I am in love with. This place is absolutely amazing, it is like a postcard everywhere you look.
Arrived at the Salzburg Motzart airport and was met by the Pokernews crew, after that I was whisked away to a silver helicopter. The pilot took us on a 25 minute flight to Hinterglemm and the views on the way were breathtaking. The most stunning alps and we flew right through the middle. Some of the mountains are so tall, I was in awe.
Austria has the ability to mix old with young in regards to interior decor, The Alpine Palace is no exception. My room is just WOW, so many windows that you see snow wherever you are, even from the part glass bath! I must say it was a very pleasant experience waking up and seeing a mountain from bed. Must be the mountain are, but I went to the gym and even from there, there are views of the slopes. Very motivating indeed!
We are lucky enough to have Liv Boeree with us and she tells me the slopes are just fine. (I want to go, but I have a phobia I am going to break something the moment I hit snow and I can’t afford to do that since I have 8 weeks in Vegas coming up:)). Liv is the ambassador for our sister site – Absolute Poker. On the Absolute front one of our qualifiers – AIRKID3 attempted (by accident) to burn the 5* Alpine Palace down. Now, you ask how he attempted this…he was using his boot warmers to dry his ski boots. He left his room and thank God he went back 30 mins laters to find the lack of electricity and the smell of burning wool. Must have been something with the voltage? A sheepish AIRKID3 had to march his bootless feet down to the reception and say the power was out. I am told by the source he didn’t tell them the real story!
Funnily enough, I am not the only Aussie here there and in the scheme of things there is quite a few of them here. Very strange hearing the Aussie twang as you move through the hotel. There is a very mixed field here, of course with the majority being European.
This is a great venue to host an event and I do believe the players like the snow factor. I say here’s to more!
Signing out from Austria…Auf Wiedersehen
Cheers,
Miss C
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Saturday, February 28, 2009 - Cardroom
Ultimate bet steps have been running for a few weeks now and are already hugely popular. Did you know you can step your way to Vegas or Aruba for as little as 10 cents? Step your way to the WSOP in Vegas and if you happen to be among the first 10 people who conquer all 10 steps you’ll also win an $8500 package to the Aruba Poker Classic! Check here for more details.
We recently launched a series of single table Sit&Goes that pay the top 4 players out instead of the usual 3. The payout is as follows
1st: 50%
2nd: 24%
3rd: 13%
4th: 13%
You’ll find them under the sit&go tab. Go ahead and try some out and let us know what you think.
The Card Room
Tags: sit&go, tournaments
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Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - smokin_aces
This is your final boarding call for the Ultimate Bet Blog Freeroll Tournament. The tournament is this afternoon.
1st Place – A seat at the Sunday 200K.
Other cash prizes for top finalists.
To gain entry, use the code UBBLOGaew0r7q4pwn
Hope to see you all at the tables!!!
Good Luck!
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Saturday, February 21, 2009 - Poker Room
Exciting start to the steps tourneys this week and we’d like to remind you about the fact you can participate for as low as 10 points!!! The Dime tourney runs tomorrow at 16:35, $10k guaranteed and 10 points feeders running all day, don’t miss your chance to convert those points and dimes to a big win on Sunday!!
Check out all our promos here
The card room
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Thursday, February 19, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Last week I wrote that a South Carolina judge, deciding the fate of five men charged with running a poker game from their home, said at the conclusion of the trial that he believed poker is indeed a game of skill. That concession came after WPT host Mike Sexton and a statistics professor testified to that effect, and the judge’s statement seemed to bode well for the defense. That’s because the South Carolina law says that it’s illegal to run a game of chance from one’s home, and if poker is a game of skill that law might not apply.
The judge was to announce the verdict today and just a few moments ago he did just that, finding all five defendents guilty. My friend Brad Willis, who lives in South Carolina (and is a blogger for PokerStars) was in the courtroom during the trial and just posted the judge’s official ruling. In that ruling Judge J. Lawrence Duffy again stated that poker is a game of skill, and referred to other rulings in Pennsylvania, California, Missouri and Nebraska that also agreed that poker is a game of skill. However, as Judge Duffy wrote, “If this Court knew that this State follows that test in this factual circumstance the decision would be simple. But it is not.”
It’s not simple because one of the other people arrested in this case earlier pleaded guilty to operating a gaming house. And the South Carolina law says that “If any person shall play…in any house used as a place of gaming…at any games with cards or dice…upon being convicted thereof, before any magistrate…”. Which means, I think, that because because this house was already defined as a “place of gaming” when that other person pleaded guilty, the law applies regardless of whether poker is a game of skill or chance. I’d like to point out that I’m not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but that’s my back-of-the-envelope interpretation.
An interpretation I think is supported by Judge Duffy then writing, “There is no definition by the Legislature as to what will or will not constitute a house as a place of gaming.” Which, again, renders the skill vs. chance argument somewhat moot–the law doesn’t specifically say what exactly gaming is. Previous rulings quoted by Judge Duffy show that South Carolina courts have said that the Legislature prohibits “any game with cards or dice”, and since poker is played with cards, well…
The judge concludes by stating that the Court “…thus is compelled, since it has no clear guideline from the Legislature or from the majority of this Supreme Court to find the defendants guilty…” And so, because the law is vague (perhaps deliberately so), the judge had to rule in that way. Some people getting together for some $20 sit-n-goes, with the folks hosting the game taking a few bucks out to pay for pizza and drinks, and it all ends up in a court of law. It all sounds a bit absurd, but only to someone who hasn’t been paying attention to America in the 21st century.
There will be more information and reaction to this as the day goes on and I’ll try to update later on. I got the scoop on this via Twitter, by the way, following along to Brad’s tweets as well as the feed from the Poker Player Alliance. Yes, the PPA is on Twitter, too, as are all the cool kids these days (and the UB blog itself).
Tags: poker law, poker legal rulings, poker trial, ppa, ppa twitter, south carolina poker, south carolina poker ruling, south carolina poker trial, ub, ub blog, ub twitter, ultiimatebet twitter
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Saturday, February 14, 2009 - Poker Room
Well it’s that time of year again when people start to think about satelliting their way to the WSOP. The timing couldn’t be better with satellites now feeding into our first WSOP super satellite running Sunday February 15th at 8:30pm ET. WPT Bellagio satellite kicked off this week as well! Try and satellite your way into the WPT Super satellite running Monday February 16th at 8:30pm ET. A new and interesting addition to the schedule named the DIME Guarantee will be running Sunday at 4:35pm ET. This tourney features a $10,000 Guarantee and you can satellite in for as little as 10 points!
Good luck and check in next week for more news and info
The Card Room
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Friday, February 6, 2009 - ProductMan
Thanks to the rise of CEREUS our Bad Beat Jackpots are bigger than ever. Who can resist the prospect of everyone winning, especially the loser? Log on and watch the riches roll when you suffer a Bad Beat, by losing a hand holding four eights (8888) or better.
Naturally, there’s been some confusion about exactly how The Ultimate Bad Beat Jackpot is doled out, but the payout structure is now easier to understand.
When the Bad Beat Jackpot gets hit:
* 25% rolls over to the next Bad Beat Jackpot
* 10% goes to the house
* Of the remaining 65%:
* 50% goes to the Bad Beat victim
* 25% goes to the winner of the hand
* $1000 goes to every other player at the Bad Beat table
* The rest is divided among everyone playing the same game type and stakes when the Bad Beat takes place, provided they meet our qualification requirements.
You can see complete terms and conditions, including details on how to qualify, at the following link:
http://www.ultimatebet.com/poker-promotion/bad-beat-jackpot
Good luck (or bad luck, if you prefer) at the tables!
Tags: Bad Beat Jackpot, badbeat payout structure, payout structure, Product Features, product updates
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Friday, February 6, 2009 - UB Marketing
Another week is over and what an exciting week it was @ UB!!
One of the new features that CEREUS brought to UB was the $1000+50 Wednesday event. This tournament has a very good reputation among the best online players out there and is easy to find huge sharks like: apestyles, pearljammed, Annette_15, tedsfishfry among others who constantly visit the CEREUS network for this particular event. This week, due to the major success of this event, the guaranteed prize was rised to $150k. For the last months this exclusive tournament has featured a $100k Guaranteed prizepool. Well, the tournament was a huge success and attracted a total assistance of 216 players. UB player Mikeivey walked away Wednesday night $56,160 richer and the $216,000 prizepool was distributed among the first 27 places. If you want to take part of this exclusive tourney, make sure to check for daily satellites as cheap as $5.5.
On another note, remember that this Sunday another satellite for the Pokernews Cup will take place @ 16:00. An $8000 package is awaiting for you to go and have the poker experience of a life time in the Alps!! All the satellites and tournaments surrounding this promotion have been configured with an European friendly schedule, so no matter where you live make sure to check out the satellite tab on the lobby and you could end up in the alps in a blink of an eye!!
Remember that chances for an unbelievable and unforgettable party at Heff’s place, that’s right, THE
Finally, if you are a big fan of World of Warcraft, well you might want to check your UB points balance cause for the following 2 weeks satellites to the Gizmo WOW Main event are available and some lucky player will take come a WOW Dell Computer plus tons of other great prizes. For details check out: http://www.ultimatebet.com/poker-promotion/gizmorolls.
Have a great week and hope to see you at the tables!
Tags: $1000+50, Cereus, poker tournament, Pokernews Cup, world of warcraft
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Wednesday, February 4, 2009 - Aciator
Does it feel like every time you turn on the TV or open the newspaper, the only thing you hear is “The economy…” or “Global recession…” ?
We have been getting quite a few emails & queries from our customers about the safety of their money they have deposited at Ultimate Bet.
I want to let our readers know that the security of your funds is our #1 priority. To ensure that your funds are secure, we use our network of established banks and financial institutions in Europe and wordwide to guard our player balances. We guarantee your funds will be safely protected until you are ready to cash out. We pride ourselves on the fastest payouts in the business and your balance will always be available whenever you require it.
You can rest assured we will continue to offer you the best payments service in the industry and your balance will be protected as long as we have the privilege of serving you as an esteemed customer.
Please let us know if you ever have any concerns about the security of your money in the room.
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Saturday, January 10, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
The second event in the UltimateBet Online Championship was an old-timey No-Limit Hold-Em tournament. A grand total of 485 runners took to the virtual felt and when we boiled the field down to the nine this is what the final table looked like:
As we got down to the final table XPOPSICLEJRX was involved in some heated back-and-forth with some rude railbirds, and it got bad enough that Debo stepped in to tell everyone to chill and let the players play. There’s no observer chat at our final tables and XPOPSICLEJRX (along with everyone else) enjoyed the silence. Though he didn’t get to enjoy it for long–after an Ace-high flop he tried a stop-and-go move holding Jh-9h, only to find that he was going all the way to the rail as SKANKY980 called with Big Slick.
Holding pocket Tens and having his raise called by SKANKY980, NUTZABOUTU probably liked the 6h-4c-9c flop that followed. Though less so when all the money went in and NUTZABOUTU saw that SKANKY980 had flopped top set. ATIMUF went out in seventh soon after when he pushed with Ad-9h and was called by LUPARDO6’s Kh6c. The flop missed both players but the turn brought a King and with no Ace arriving on the river ATIMUF’s evening came to an end.
THE_NORF_MAN was next to go, as he shoved with Jd-3h and his blindsteal was intercepted by DOGMA1975’s Ah-5h. Neither player improved and that was that for THE_NORF_MAN (though he wasn’t done for the night–he’s currently playing Phil Hellmuth heads-up in UBOC Event #3). SKANKY980 met his fate soon after, as he moved in after a raise by LUPARDO6. LUPARDO6 called with Ad-9s, which led SKANKY980′S Kd-10c, and the best hand held up to send SKANKY980 out in 5th.
A couple of years ago I was covering the WSOP Main Event and Doyle Brunson was at ESPN’s feature table. Doyle has said that he hates Ace-Queen and tries never to play it, and the hand that ended his Main Event probably reinforced that as he held Ace-Queen to his opponent’s pocket Queens and the flop came A-Q-x. I was thinking about that hand when TIMBURT was knocked out, though in this case all the money went in before the flop. TIMBURT flopped an Ace but DOGMA1975 made a set of Queens and when TIMBURT couldn’t conjure another Ace his night came to an end (though not without him making some unfortunate comments before he left).
Down to three-handed DOGMA1975 had a huge chip lead, with around 1.15 million to LUPARDO6’s 200K and FUMILLE’s 140K. But DOGMA1975 had some trouble putting his foes away, doubling both of them up (LUPARDO6 flopping quad sixes to DOGMA1975’s top pair). FUMILLE was on fumes when it looked like he was about to double through with pocket Tens to LUPARDO6’s Ak-4d. But an Ace spiked on the river and brought a cruel end to FUMILLE’s day (though hopefully the $20,000 he won provided some comfort).
The heads-up battle saw DOGMA1975 holding about a 950K to 500K lead over LUPARDO6. There was a sizeable difference between first prize ($47,000) and second ($29,500) and even a 2-1 chip lead isn’t comfortable. “Deal?” LUPARDO6 typed in chat as cards were dealt, but before DOGMA1975 answered the two players saw a 6c-3d-5s flop. There was a bet and a call, and then the 9h fell on the turn. LUPARDO6 checked, DOGMA1975 bet, and LUPARDO6 check-raised all-in. DOGMA1975 called and showed Ah-9d for the turned top pair while LUPARDO6 had 7c-5h for a pair and a gutshot straight draw. But the river brought the Js and that brought any talk of a deal to a quick conclusion. DOGMA1975 won UBOC Event #2 and $47,000, while LUPARDO6 concluded his outstanding run with a tidy $29,500 payday.
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