Monday, April 27, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
There are 30 days until the start of the 2009 World Series of Poker–this I learned from the Twitter feed of WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. Yes, even the Commish is Twittering now, God help us all. A month until the Series starts, and then a 50-day marathon of bracelets and bad beats and Benjamins until the next November Nine is set. And for the third consecutive year I’ll be there providing gavel-to-gavel coverage for the ‘ol UltimateBet Blog.
Every year the WSOP seems to be better organized and better run–last year there were so few complaints that people were writing stories about how strange it was that no one was complaining. Lots of people expected the number of players to decrease, but instead there was a substantial upticks. There was an uproar when Harrah’s announced they would delay the final table for four months, but TV ratings for the November Nine were up around 50%.
And people are talking about the changes to this year’s World Series. No more rebuy events–the insane shove-fests that characterized the rebuy periods were deemed unfair to players who didn’t bring a bandolier of rebuys (and who perhaps found themselves at a table with half the chips as other tables). The opening event is a $40,000 Hold-Em tournament to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the World Series–how might that deplete players’ bankrolls just as the WSOP begins? And the rules about verbal abuse have been dramatically tightened–forget the “F-bomb” rule, just about any nastiness directed at another play could result in a penalty.
There’s also been a change in the TV scheduling. Only four events will be televised by ESPN–the Main Event; aforementioned $40K Hold-Em tournament; the Ante Up for Africa event, and a special invitational event for past Main Event champions. None of the other bracelet events will be televised and there is going to be even more Main Event coverage than before.
This year’s WSOP will be held in a world that’s in a serious state of flux. The current economic crisis is the worst the world has seen since the Great Depression, who knows how that might affect attendance. There’s also the potential for great change in the poker world as well, as Rep. Barney Frank is planning on introducing legislation that would legalize online poker (and perhaps online gaming in genera) in the United States. A repeal of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) could trigger a new poker boom, one that might first make itself known at this year’s Series.
But all that will happen outside the confines of the Amazon Room. Inside, the game will go on as it always has and always will. Even if there are fewer players this year the World Series of Poker is still an event of staggering size. In 2008 a total of 58,720 players competed for prize pools that totaled a jaw-dropping $180,774,427. Peter Eastgate won more money as the Main Event champion than Tiger Woods (U.S Open), Roger Federer (U.S. Open), Ryan Newman (Daytona 500) and Scott Dixon (Indy 500) won, combined, for capturing their sports’ premiere events.
If you play poker and you’ve never visited the World Series of Poker, you really should make a pilgrimage to see it for yourself. Because once you see it, you’ll want to find a way to play in it. It is a sight to behold, and even if you spend 50 consecutive days and nights in the belly of the beast it’s still an awesome spectacle. And it’s just 30 days away.
Tags: 2009 november nine, 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, amazon room, Ante Up For Africa, november nine, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, world series of poker, world series of poker main event, WSOP, wsop main events
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Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - Cardroom
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!!
The Cardroom
Tags: Cardroom, online poker tournaments, poker tournaments, weekend roundup
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009 - smokin_aces
Seems like just last week that DENERODAY took down the last Ultimate Bet Blog Tournament. It was actually one month ago and here we are set for another exciting battle.
Get your shot at a seat at the Sunday 200K! First prize will get you there, with other cash prizes for top finishers.
Hurry up and register for today’s Blog Freeroll. All you need to do is use this code UBBLOGaep33nb43n
See you there!
GL
Aces
Tags: blog tournament, freeroll tournaments, poker tournaments
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Monday, March 23, 2009 - Cardroom
Here’s your weekly roundup and congratulations go out to ONETIME69, GARNET, DABLEACHERS, UTTERCZAR, LYNNWOOD313, RYANDJAK, PHILLY7PRO, HUSKY1, THEBUBBLE1 and ONEWAYFAR for taking down the big guarantees and to our deal makers ZMAN2224, SCHINJA, MATHCLUBNZ and TW1977!!
The Card Room
Tags: Cardroom, poker tournaments, weekend roundup
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Monday, March 9, 2009 - Cardroom
Here are the week’s results. We had some great action last week and congratulations goes out to the following players.
The Card Room
Tags: Card Room, online poker tournaments, poker tournaments, weekend roundup
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Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - UB Marketing
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.
Stay tuned for updates!
Tags: online poker tournaments, poker tournaments, STEPS tournament, WSOP
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Friday, February 13, 2009 - UB Marketing
Big news this week, the recently upgraded $150k tournament on Wednesdays offered a $200k+ prizepool for a second consecutive week. This tournament is gaining major attention on the online community for its high level of play. This tourney is no joke… Not only it costs $1000+50 but you will easily find yourself playing with the most aggressive online players. Last Wednesday the happy winner was MAVFISH who is a young player from the UK who has a very good reputation on the live poker community of Europe. If you want to play this event, check it out every Wednesday @ 20:30. If you don’t have 1 grand to play it, you can always find cheap satellites running all week.
And for the big news…… UB is sending the first players to the WSOP Main Event. Anyone who would like to join Phil (in his chase for his 12th bracelet) ,Annie and the members of the UB team can qualify this Sunday @ 20:30 in the WSOP Super Satellite that guarantees 1 $12.000 package. Satellites are running on a daily basis with a $10 rebuy format.
Keep checking our blog, promotions page and newsletters because the marketing team @ UB has several ideas on the oven that are definitely worth checking…
See you in Vegas!
Tags: las vegas, Marketing, poker tournaments, WSOP, WSOP super satellite
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Tuesday, February 10, 2009 - Customer Service
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
Tags: Customer Service, online poker tournaments, poker tournaments, tournament colours, tournaments
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Thursday, January 29, 2009 - P0ker H0
If you haven’t been listening to my radio show, “The Ultimate Poker Show”, 8pm, EST on http://www.roundersradio.com/, you really have been missing out! Besides the great guest that joins us each week, Annie Duke has been wonderful sharing her insight of the game we all love. But now the show has even gotten better! The http://www.wsopacademy.com/ , http://proplaylive.com/ and UB have put together one fantastic promotion. All you have to do is listen to the show, and we will give out a password for the UB 10pm $5.50 private roundersradio tournanment every Sunday night. If your make the final table all 9 players will get put into our free roll in March to win a FREE seat into the March 14-15th WSOP Academy, along with $1000 compliments of UB and a private night out to dinner with Annie and me. We are also giving away free Proplaylive packages too. If you really want to improve your game and take it to the next level, this is a GREAT way and you can do it for free with this promo. Annie will be one of the many pro instructors for this camp, and believe me, after you spend a day listening to her, your game will improve immensely! I have had the great pleasure of working at a lot of these camps. And I can guarantee you that this will be a life changing couple of unforgettable poker days . Do yourself a BIG favor and try to win this seat. I really hope to cya all there!
Ho
Tags: Annie Duke, P0ker H0, Poker Strategy, poker tournaments, proplaylive.com, rounders radio, ultimate poker show, WSOP
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Tuesday, January 27, 2009 - Tiffany M
Man, I am WIPED OUT! I’m writing this while sitting on a six hour flight (yuck) from Atlantic City back home to LA from a two week whirlwind poker trip – I had only intended (and PACKED FOR) a five day trip to Biloxi for the WPT Southern Poker Champs.
My plan for January was to stay in Los Angeles to play all the preliminary LAPC events but a few friends were headed to Mississippi for the WPT event and convinced me to come join the fun since it would be a soft field with PCA and Aussie Millions happening simultaneously. ‘Soft field’ for me on Day 1 of the WPT Southern Poker Champs Main Event meant Erick Lindgren, Brandon Cantu and Hoyt Corkins all directly on my right (thank god for that).
During my run in the WSOP Main Event I didn’t actually run into many recognizable pros with that kind of star power at my tables so I have to admit it was a new experience for me to sit at such a stacked one. Knowing these player’s reputations I was a bit nervous when I sat down to play. My brain had a short circuit for a second, wondering what I was supposed to do and how I was supposed to play. Then I just reminded myself that these guys are just poker players like any others. None of them had super powers like being able to see my cards. Yes they have a few tricks in their bag and would probably be more observant and aggressive, preying on weakness and their reads but there was nothing I could do to change my table draw so I made a mental note to stay alert but not to shy away from game. I think that’s a really good mental tip for those of you who might be newer players but making the transition to playing live in pro heavy fields. If you find yourself at a “pro’s” table *Don’t freak yourself out – *Don’t be stupid, but Don’t shy away – *And Don’t lose confidence in your game. This little pep talk I gave myself helped restore my confidence and play a solid tournament.
I made it through Day 1 but I was steaming towards the end of the day when Brandon Cantu got dirty on the button with a garbage hand at the same time I woke up with KJ suited in the big blind… of course as the luckiest player in THE WORLD he hit a miracle flop (while I hit my flush draw and had overs) that left me with 20 big blinds.
Here’s another tip that I’m noticing more at the tables. Coming into Day 2 I was frustrated by the beat Brandon put on me the day before. I was not optimistic about my 20 big blinds but if I’ve learned anything from my Main Event run it’s that IT’S NEVER OVER. Most of you know on Day 2 of the Main Event I was UNDER TEN BIG BLINDS and somehow I managed to survive five more days and take 17th. I see so many players get tilted when they lose a huge pot and most of their chips. A lot of players end their tournament all on their own accord and can’t blame anyone but themself. They get chip envy, they throw a pity party about having a short stack and mentally give up on the game and somehow get all in with a poor hand in poor position when they could actually regroup and with a double up or two be right back in the game. I call it “commiting poker suicide.” JUST DON’T DO IT!
I was dejecting doing into Day 2 as the short stack but I knew a comeback was more than possible so I decided to play patient and grind it out. Grinding it out with a short stack is definitely no fun but I did exactly that. I went between a stack with ten big blinds to 30 big blinds… THE ENTIRE DAY. I’d picked my spots and mentally decided not to give up. The encouragement I always give my poker friends when they take a big hit and are unhappy with their chip count, “Push the rest button and pretend like you JUST sat down at the table for the first time and this was the amount of chips you were given!” There’s no going back once the chips are gone, right? You can only start where you’re at.
At my first table on Day 2 I sat with Bill Edler (directly to my left) and once again Brandon Cantu appeared at my table, I jokingly said that God was giving me the chance to get my chips back. Later on in the day when I worked my stack up to a healthy amount I was moved to a table with Greg Mueller, Anna Wroblewski and Jordan Morgan. After my roller coaster day and finally collecting some chips it took just TWO back-to-back hands to eliminate me. I shipped a majority of my chips when I made a big lay down to Jordan (who is a very solid player) and then the very next hand he delivered the final blow picking up Aces to my 8’s shove.
I thought the poker trip was over when I was kidnapped for a relaxing little weekend in Tennessee (where I got to see a fresh snowfall). But just a few days later I was convinced to jump over to Atlantic City for the Borgata Winter Open since I was still on the Eastern side of the country. The main event was a $3k buy-in and 2mill guarantee, which I couldn’t pass up. While hanging out with Maria Ho, Lacey and Etay we joked about how it was almost impossible to bust out on Day 1 of the event since you start with 50k chips (blinds starting at 25/50)! I guess Maria and I like doing the impossible… we both busted out Day 1 with the same hand scenario; Queens verses Kings! However Maria’s beat was worse than mine, flopping set verses set.
After two weeks on the road, between three different states (from what was supposed to be a five day, one city trip) I walked out of the Borgata Poker room upon getting knocked out, literally threw my clothes into a suitcase, hopped in a limo to the airport and took a flight out of Philly 2.5 hours later. My own bed has never sounded so good.
Oh yeah, besides watching the snowfall in Tennessee the other highlight of my trip was in Biloxi during one of the main event satellites where I flopped QUAD ACES (two in hand, two on board) and got paid off! THAT was fun… thanks Rock 
Tags: Brandon Cantu, Erick Lindgren, Hoyt Corkins, LAPC, Poker Poker Poker, Poker Strategy, Poker Tips, poker tournaments, world series of poker, WPT, WSOP
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