Friday, May 15, 2009 - UB Marketing
It’s been a great week for the creative group. Somewhat chaotic, but it’s coming up on WSOP season, so of course there’s a lot to do. It comes with the territory of being an online poker community for 10 years. We’re planning some killer events for the WSOP to celebrate Phil’s 20th anniversary from his first bracelet and a 10th Anniversary party at the Aruba Poker Classic. It’s gonna be awesome.
To whet your appetite for what’s in store for the next few months, we’re about to add new table skins, one of which is pictured below. Get ready to feel like an emperor while you play at UltimateBet. Still not sure how to qualify for the Series? Our 50-Package giveaway is set for June 21st with a buy-in of $500+30 or through low buy-in qualifier or STEP 7a.
One of our team members is meeting up with Scott Ian this week while he’s in LA. Which reminded me that he is going on tour starting June 13th and gets back just in time for day 1d of the WSOP main event. Ahhh, the rock-star life. We love our pros and as a tribute (not like a bad tribute cover band), we are revamping the pro pages on the Web site and adding a new face or two, so keep visiting the UltimateBet blog for more info.
Tags: 20 anniversary phil hellmuth, aruba classic, aruba poker, Aruba Poker Classic, Phil Hellmuth, ultimate bet 10 anniversary, ultimatebet 10th anniversary, WSOP, WSOP ultimate bet
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Sunday, January 4, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
For most people the holiday season ends on January 2nd, as most folks have recovered from their New Year’s hangover and have to get back to work. It’s a bit different for me as my birthday is January 3rd, so the good times keep on rolling for a few days more. This birthday was a biggie, the big 4-0, and my “friends” decided I should celebrate by drinking whatever they put in front of me. Which was usually something noxious in a shot glass. Let’s just say I spent much of my special day on the couch, in my flannels, gobbling Advil.
But I wanted to post a few final photos from the year that was 2008, especially those from this year’s Aruba Poker Classic. I don’t know where you are, but here in Pittsburgh it’s about 30 degrees, overcast, with a 40% chance of snow. And that’s gonna be the forecast until St. Patrick’s Day. So what better way to chase away the endless winter blues than reminding yourself that there there are Paradises upon the earth:
In life there is time for work, time for play. The Aruba Poker Classic is a time for play:
And when you’re not playing yourself you can watch other people play…like Scott Ian and Pearl Aday:
That last pic came at the farewell party, and in between that and the welcome part there was actually, like a poker tournament. The reason why everyone flew to the island in the first place:
One player who wasn’t able to fly to Aruba in a timely manner was Phil Hellmuth, who was playing in the World Series of Poker-Europe as the Classic got underway. It isn’t that easy to get from London to Aruba and as Phil winged his way south his chips were slowly blinded off. And everyone had a bit of fun with Phil’s doppleganger:
Phil didn’t make it before he was blinded out, but both P0ker H0 and Gary “debo34″ DiBernardi made deep runs. H0 and entered the next-to-last day near the chip lead…before getting a bit frisky in two big pots with Matt Brady. Pots that both went Brady’s way, leading to H0’s sudden and surprising exit. And I’m sure he’ll be thrilled that I brought that up:
When the final table was set the plan was to hold it outside, as is custom at the Aruba Poker Classic. And as the final touches were given to the stage built over the Radisson swimming pool, it looked like this would be a stupendous venue:
Mother Nature, alas, had other ideas. Some clouds rolled in, and then it got dark, and then it started to drizzle, and then an Old Testament-caliber downpour inundated the stage and sent everyone scrambling inside:
OK, it doesn’t look it’s raining too hard in that picture but it was coming down pretty good. And it’s a bit hard to play poker when the whipping wind sends cards flying into the pool and raindrops are splattering on the chips. So we went inside to see who would win the Classic and take home the $1 million first prize:
And in the end it was P0ker H0’s nemesis Matt Brady who endured a long three-way battle with runner-up Johan Storakers and Jeffrey Papola to take down the title. And the bracelet. And the mounds and mounds of yummy, yummy greenbacks:
And with the tournament over it was time for a relaxing, low-key, dignified end to the week:
So, that was the year that was. One of my resolutions is to get better at this photography thing and take better pictures. So hopefully The Year in Pictures 2009 will be bigger and (much) better than this year. If you’d like to see more pics from the World Series or Aruba you can click the links and find those sets at my Flickr page. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna take two more Advil and see if I can fully put my birthday party behind me.
Tags: 2008 aruba poker classic, Aruba, aruba poker, Aruba Poker Classic, johan storakers, matt brady, P0ker H0, Phil Hellmuth, Poker Poker Poker, Scott Ian
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