There was a lot of action and taunting, but in the end it was about SHUTUPANPLAY.
At almost two in the morning today SANNY1254 lost the final hand to SHUTUPANPLAY’s two pair (7s and 5s). The UB blog tournament took nearly six hours to wrap up as the biggest field yet fought it out for a $200K seat and cash prizes.
Over a thousand players found the code to unlock registration and play in the tournament. Our very own UB blogger, Gene, couldn’t make it as he was on his way to Vegas and the start of UB’s WSOP activities. And, his blog tourney replacement was shut out of the tournament due to an electrical storm. So, without the live coverage, here’s some other coverage. Perhaps you can report on last night’s tourney?
The final table all cashed and they deserve the credit. But, today we’ll celebrate all blog tournament players and the top 28, listed below in order of tournament rank. Note Vadim55 who finished in lucky italian #13. XASTRATEX took the honors in position 1035, inching out BACHNGOCDUONG for last place by only fractions of a second. And notable in their own way, players BUTCHEROS, BARBNDARREN, TBABY74BELL, INVALIDACCT, and AKNAPC must’ve been in a monster hand, ‘cause they all got knocked out at the same time for a joint ranking of 895th place.
If you’ve been following us on Twitter (twitter.com/ultimate_bet) then you know we’re quite active in that community. If you haven’t been following us on Twitter, then what are you waiting for?
We have a great new Twitter only freeroll coming up next Friday May 15 at 8pm EST.
On twitter, each Friday use the tag #followfriday in your twitter post and recommend @ultimate_bet to your followers! It’s that simple to help spread the word! Help us spread the word!
More ‘Follow Friday Freeroll’ details coming soon!
May has arrived and that means WSOP will begin in a blink of an eye!
This year, the opening event will be the well known Casino Employees NL Hold’em Tournament on May 27th followed by the $40.000 buy in No Limit Tourney to celebrate the 40th year of WSOP. Several UB pros will be there making sure our site is part of this historical event.
There are still tons of chances to qualify to the Main Event @ UB. The $530 satellite on Sundays is getting better every week and also the Step 10 option is available.
Early this week UB announced that on June 21st a WSOP 50 Package Guaranteed event will take place with a buyin of $530. You can use Step 7A to qualify to this event and tons of qualifiers will be ready in the following days.
One way to earn a sit to this event is by beating the Phil Hellmuth… Beat the Brat is the name of the tournament, and its taking place Tuesdays of May @ 21:30. The tournament has a No limit Hold’em format with a $30+3 buy in. Players can qualify through satellites running during the day and if you achieve to knockout Phil Hellmuth from this tournament, we’ll give you a free seat to the WSOP 50 Package guaranteed.
The most exciting poker tourneys can only be played at UB. This weekend remember to check out the $200k on Sunday, the $100k Deep Stack on Saturday and the $100k Guaranteed on Sundays.
Also look for the Apprentice Challenge Qualifiers which main event takes place next week and 1 seat to the Aruba Classic 2009 is up for grabs, which reminds me that now at the Steps tab you will find Step 10 Aruba, which awards 2 seats to the most exciting tournament on the Caribbean.
WOW… another week of celebrity apprentice.
Annie Duke is holding strong to the very end.
I can’t wait to see the final episode this Sunday with her going head to head with Rivers.
The rake race is really picking up and players are starting to fight for positions. With $500k up for grabs to all UB players I’m not surprised. Not to mention that there is a $30k free-roll for the top 1,000 places.
WSOP this year is going to be incredible. Look out for Phil’s entrance this year, it will be the biggest yet. Don’t forget, on June 29th Phil will be having his massive party at MGM’s Studio 54 where we celebrate Ultimate Bet’s 10th year anniversary. It’s amazing to see that Ultimate Bet has been one of the longest running poker rooms in the world.
It’s that time of week again for our weekly round up and congratulations go out to CHARDRIAN, SKIPAWAY99, THEHUNTD, MIW210, XXD33PXX, YOUNGSUPREMCY, MONKEY1001 and RAAAZIB for taking down the huge guarantees!!
It’s been a pretty cool month for online poker. My highlights include a few challenges: Gus Hansen’s boxing match against Theo Jorgensen, Tom Dwan’s (aka “durrrr”) challenges the world to a $1.5million prop bet and Patrick Antonious accepted, and UB’s Steps Challenge.
I was pretty busy in 2008 and I did not make time for keeping myself in shape. This year I started boxing training, started back at the gym, and I am just trying to stay active as much as possible. I never liked going to the gym and it’s always been a constant struggle for me. I played ice hockey for most of my life and it was a great way to stay in shape, especially because I actually enjoyed playing. For the past four years, I’ve been living in places where ice hockey is not an option and staying in shape has not been easy. To be perfectly honest, I hate going to the gym, but thankfully I enjoy boxing which has become my new hockey. It’s something I want to keep getting better at, which motivates me to work hard and to keep going to training, whereas with the gym, I usually stop going after a while. But now, even going to the gym to lift weights has more appeal because it is helping me to become better at boxing (At least that’s what I keep telling myself).
I have always been a fan of boxing and recently I have also become a big fan of Mixed Martial Arts. So when I heard about two professional poker players (Gus Hansen and Theo Jorgensen) in a boxing match, I got pretty excited.
I think it was a great publicity stunt and a really fun bet between friends. I am just getting started with my boxing training but I can appreciate the hard work these two guys must have put in to prepare themselves for a 3 round exhibition fight.
The challenge: Hansen placed a handicap on himself in the match. Gus had to pay $35,000 if he lost and Jorgensen $25,000 if he lost.
In the first round I thought the fight was pretty even. Theo came out and landed a few in Gus’s face, which I think tilted Gus a little bit. Gus then came charging back at Theo for the rest of the round, landing a few really good right hands. The two exchanged a lot of punches and I think it was a very close round. However, I think Gus got too excited and was too eager to land a big right hand, which he was able to do a few times, but he also wasted a lot of energy in the process.
In the second round, I think it was a relatively even too, but Theo seemed a lot more calm and retained a lot more energy than Gus. In the third round, I think Theo pulled ahead by staying with his strategy and taking advantage of Gus’s fatigue. Theo continued to land solid jabs and right hands, while Gus came with solid punches when he had the energy.
I think it was a great amateur fight, even though to a lot of people it probably looked like two boys just throwing wild punches. Both fighters impressed me, but Theo was able to stick to a simple strategy of landing effective jabs and right hands without trying to land too many hooks or try anything fancy. He conserved his energy and stayed calm which enabled him to execute his game plan.
Thanks to both fighters for bringing some excitement to the poker world! And congrats to Theo on the victory and the $35K!
The Durrrr Challenge
Tom Dwan “durrrr” has made quite a name for himself in the poker world. At just 22, he has already become a legend through his success at the nosebleed cash games and tournaments.
Recently, Dwan issued the Million Dollar Challenge, open to any member of the poker community except Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond. The challenge requires opponents to play Dwan in 50,000 hands of $200/$400 or higher on four tables at a time. If either player drops below 75 big blinds in their stack at any point, they must reload.
At the conclusion of the Pot Limit Omaha or No Limit Hold’em hands, a winner will be crowned. If Dwan is ahead by $1 or more, his opponent must fork over $500,000. If Dwan’s opponent is ahead by $1 or more, he has offered to pay $1.5 million. In each case, the victor will also keep the spoils of the 50,000 hands of play. In addition to the money, the Million Dollar Challenge is about bragging rights.
So far Patrick Antonius, Phil Ivey, and David Benyamine have accepted the challenge.
Patrick Antonius was the first to accept and they are currently at just under 4000 hands and Dwan is currently leading by roughly $150K.
It seems that most people agree that Dwan has an advantage over the world’s top players when playing 4 tables. I’m wondering if it’s enough to justify the 3:1 odds against the best players in the world? Regardless, I think this challenge has created a huge amount of exposure for Dwan. This challenge and his appearance on some big poker televesion this year (including my fav show, GSN’s high stakes poker) , should make 2009 an even bigger year for Dwan than 2008.
We recently launched Steps on UltimateBet and we have come up with a promotion to celebrate it. The first 10 players who win all 10 steps (note: you have to start at the .10cent step to qualify) will win a WSOP package (value of $12,000) and an Aruba package (value of $8500)!
I believe this is the best value I have ever seen in a Steps promotion.
I’m thinking about issuing a challenge of my own this year. I’m considering challenging other online poker CEO’s to a boxing or golf proposition bet. If anyone has any ideas for the challenge, comment on this post.
As part of our continued commitment to offer you the Ultimate Poker Experience, we’re yet again launching another type of poker tournament. Never before have you had the chance to literally get to the WSOP on as little as $0.10. That’s right, 10 pennies is all it takes to start your quest to crushing the 2009 WSOP. Hence, GO DEEP FOR CHEAP!
How does it work? The STEP Tournament is a type of Sit-n-Go. Each STEP Tournament series consists of 10 STEPS, or 10 individual Sit-n-Go Tournaments. The initial buy-in for the first STEP is $0.10 and as the STEPS advance, the buy-ins increase.
How do you move through the STEPS?
The first two winners of STEP 1 advance to STEP 2 without having to buy in, and so on. This goes on until STEP 10 which eventually results in the winner securing the final land-based tournament package. If you don’t finish first in a STEP, depending on how you finish, you may have the oppourtunity to replay a STEP. That means as long as you finish high enough, you will have the chance to battle it out again, hopefully earning your way to the next STEP.
You can enter a STEP Tournament at any STEP, but you will have to buy in directly with cash. The only way to secure your spot in a STEP Tournament for free is by qualifying to advance from a previous STEP.
In the simplest terms, you can get to the WSOP on a dime.
Here we go again! The Ultimate Bet Blog Poker Tournament is quickly approaching. This is the third installment of freeroll poker tournaments running in conjunction with the Ultimate Bet Blog. We’ve decided to run these tourneys on the last Wednesday of every month, so register now for your spot at the next Blog Tournament happening right here at Ultimate Bet on Wednesday Feb 25th.
What do you have to do to enter? Use this code UBBLOGaew0r7q4pwn to register and you can look forward to your chance to take a shot at some cool prize money and the chance to brag your ass off about taking down the Blog Tournament. As well, we’ll feature your win here on the blog so you can email, instant message, twitter, blog, facebook and yell about your win to all your buddies. Sweet victory comes with many perks.
So register NOW for the Ultimate Bet Blog Tournament. What the heck are you waiting for?
Why tournaments are in red, green, gold, purple, orange and black?
Colors are used in the lobby to distinguish between tournament types. Tournaments have standard colors in order to provide all players with a uniform experience, these colors cannot be customized.
· Guaranteed Tournaments are red.
· Qualifiers to other events are green.
· Credit or Free tournaments are gold.
· Private Tournaments are purple.
· Non-Holdem type tournaments are orange
· All other tournament types are black.
Also, colors can be used to choose the types of tournaments that you would like to play.
Please visit the following link to review this information; http://www.ultimatebet.com/cereus-faq/
Feel free to send us any question or suggestion that you may have to support@ultimatebet.com
