UltimateBet Blog

Hello fellow Ub’ers Already Missing Aruba!

Friday, October 23, 2009 - Shawn Rice

This past Trip to Aruba was my 7th straight year, For those of you that have not been and enjoy playing poker this is true paradise. I always look forward to seeing all the many friends, and people I work with and many of the people that I play online with. I decided that this year I really want to play more of the preliminary events this year as I rarely ever play those because I am in paradise and would rather do other non poker related stuff. I know my girlfriend was flying out later in the week for the final few days and the closing partys, So I wanted to play a little more live this year than previous years. I flew in about 10pm met up with a few friends and really wanted to take it easy that night, went and paid my way into the $540 for the following day so I knew I could not get wasted that night. I did play a little sit & go with Ho, Debo, Debo’s wife Erin, Mamma Ho and Susie Q, I think I chopped 2 of them and lost the last one and ended up in a cash game. Ho was ordering drinks and before I knew it I was double fisted drinking double crown and cokes and then Debo is ordering shots, so much for taking it easy in Aruba.

After the sit & go’s Ho jumped into a cash game and let me tell you he can liven up a cash game, ever pot was raised and reraised before the flop, I think I got lucky with AJ and beat AK for about a $900 pot, I was no way folding top pair in that game and I got lucky and hit. I won a little playing the cash game, I think Ho started out losing a few thousand and ended up killing them. He played his image so well and is a master in talking other players into do what he wants them to do.

I get to bed around 6am which is ok because my tourney does not start until 2pm. When I got to my table I could not have asked for a better table, everyone was limping and at early levels I don’t like to punish the limpers til the blinds get higher or the antes kick in, I like to let them know I am totally ok with them limping. within the first 2 rounds I had already doubled my 3k starting stack with no real risk. The players at my table were calling my raises with really wide ranges. I then look up and find that Ho, Jon Green , Debo and Mike “WiscoMurray” are all out in the 1st level. I must say I was really shocked to see that. I was a little pissed at myself because I forgot to ask Ho for the usual $500 last longer bet. I am about a 20 to one favorite when I make this bet, I think I have lost it once or twice in the many years we have made this bet, I always remind him of that time he beat me and he is always ready to try his luck again. I got out of the gate pretty quick and had some chips early but as it got down to the final table I was near last in chips, Only the final table got paid there was 95 players who started, I did make one move with 7s8s when I reraised the botton when I had about 14 times the big blind and he called my reraise all in with A 10 I out flopped him and doubled up to over 30x with a shot to win this thing.

It got down to 3 players, the final 3 deserved to be the final 3 in my opinion as my other two opponents were very skilled players, One of which being Frank “gator93″. Gator has won like well over 400k online in recent months and I know he wanted the win more than the 15k first prize, Frank raised 5x on the button 3 handed, small blind folded and I look down at my all time favorite hand, 2 black aces, I know if I reraise him here I will most likely get a fold on many hands in his range, so I decided like I had a little bit of a tough decision and just called, knowing he was going to continuation bet the flop, the flop come King high and 2 rags and to my shock he check it, the turn was another club making a possible flush draw, I bet into the flop and as I was putting chips in Frank yelled he was all In, I called he had raised with KcQc and had top pair and a flush draw to my to black aces, He bricked the river and I had a monster chip lead heads up, I had close to 200k in chips and my opponent had a little over 100K and we agreed to a chip chop and ended the night. The 13k was a great start for my drinking tab in Aruba. I took the next day off as I know I would play day 1b the following day. I spent lots of the next morning doing photo shoots and video interviews for UB and would be in the UB Icon suite checking up on my friends whom played day 1a, Later that night I went out to eat at a wonderful steak house in Aruba called El Gauchos with Frank. I took it very easy that night as I take a day before a major tourney very serious.

Day 1b seemed to be very stacked with lots of pros. I hated my table I had 2 world class players at my table , Gavin Smith along with Robert Mizrachi (”The Grinders” brother) and I knew if I made any mistake I would be punished. I didn’t forget to make my $500 last longer with Ho this time and that’s always sweet. He lasted til the beginning of the 2nd level. Ho did very well in Aruba last year making the final few tables before he blew up and gave Matt Brady a monster stack which Matt used to win the million dollar first prize.

I have played alot with Gavin over the last 5 or 6 years and not much with Robert, But I can tell you this , he is no prize to have at your table, He plays super and I totally respect his game. I got lucky in the 2nd level beating Tony from The Best Damn Poker Show season 2 with my AA on and A63 board and Tony holding 66, Those are just sick and Tong is a world class guy and hating to see him have to go out that way. Level 2 I was catching lots of cards and chipping up really well and had about 35k at one point from my 15k starting stack, I did get down below 8k at one point and finished the day around 13k. Day 2 was a bit of a grind as well and I had Eric Baldwin whom is from Madison WI, Who now lives in Las Vegas on my table, but luckily he was 2 seats to my right and he was sure torcher to may of the players he got involved with. I also got the chance to play with Tiffany Michelle who is now starting in this seasons Amazing Race on CBS, I used to work with Tiffany when I did lots of Radio for Bluff radio during the WSOP a couple of years back, It’s so good to see she is doing well in the poker and entertainment world, She is really a sweet lady. I ended day 3 with about 24k in chips and knew I would need to get a good start on day 3 to have a shot at this tourney that had 475 entrys.

On Day 3 I could not of got a worse table draw or seat position, two seats to my left of Robert Mizrachi and two seats to his left was Eric Baldwin, I did chip up to over 60k at one point for every bit of about 2 hands then I was on the button with 88 and Robert ended up with 99 and I was back down to around 30k, I was later in the big blind with about 13 or 14 times the big blind and it was raised from mid position from a guy who the day before called my UTG raise with Qh8h from the big blind when I flopped top set and he flopped a gutter and a flush draw we played a big pot and I doubled when he bricked out. So I am thinking he could have a big range but I know if I push and play for a 60k pot I am at best 50%, So I took in the value of just calling and seeing if I hit the flop and if I do I will give him some rope but checking and let him try and hang himslef. The flop come ace high , I checked it, he bet, I reraised him he called with AQ and GG me.

The following day I played a 1k buyin tourney and never really got ahould of any chips, I lasted til about 8 pm then when I busted I went and played the charity event UB put on for a local business that helps kids and familys in need. While playing the 1k tourney this lady on my left raised UTG with TT and gets called by 99 in late position and the button reraised with JT she and the other guy both call, the flop comes T high, she the the guy with JT get it all in and the board comes running JJ for her to lose her chips and double him up. Now a few minutes go by and she is still steaming and she reraised the guy whom had JT earlier and he calls half off his stack the flop comes JJ9 and she bets the flop and he calls making him all in and she flips over AA and he flips over Jc9c she screams out “God, I wanna kill a baby” I was in total shock hear a lady say this , right then and there I knew I wanted to bet she has never had a child, don’t worry river comes an ace and she busted him. I have heard many times over the years when you need to get lucky players will hollar “Just one time” but never had I heard that, But if it does work, I think poker players will say anything to make themselfs a little luckier.

The following day 10 of us had a shot at a $62,000 Mercedes, I was the second player knocked out when my TT ran into Ryan “papaGEORGIO’s JJ, Poker Ho was still playing and got heads up and ending up doing really well because they agreed to a chop and I had a small % of Ho which added to my drinking fund.

My girlfriend Amy fly in around 10pm that night, I went with my driver for the past 7 years named Henry and we picked her up and headed off to Phil Hellmuths private party ontop of the raddison in his suite. We just missed the Dan Band play, but the party was killer, check out many of the videos on youtube.com

The next night was the closing party and both Eric and Robert make the final table , Eric finishing 4th and ended up leading the Card Player of the Year points leader and Robert ended up in 2nd place , winning this year was Brandon Hall from Pa winning a little over three quarters of a million for his efferts., Thats a nice way to enjoy a trip in paradise.

The Dan Band was awesome as there were in Vegas when they played for our WSOP party a couple of years back, Many people got into the pool and it was really a ton of fun. The opening part rocked as well with tons of people in the pool and lets just say some where wearing less than others thanks to Phil’s bribes. and NO I was not offended in any way.

I hope you are all planning on next years Aruba trip, they just seem to get better and better, I missed seeing a few of you and hope this next year can be the best ever!

I am off to go help teach the November Nine Final Table Academy in Las vegas on Nov 6th, 7th and 8th Featuring poker instructors Phil Hellmuth, Greg Raymer, Bernard Lee, Mark Seif, Mark Kroon, Erica Schoenberg. Special Presentation by WSOP Commissioner, Jeffrey Pollack. Hope to see you there as well.

Proud UB Team Member
Shawn Rice

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Aruba Part 1

Saturday, October 17, 2009 - Liv Boeree

Well where can I start? I’m sat in Amsterdam airport after a somewhat hellish, screaming child filled ten hour flight back from a certain beautiful little island. The past ten days has been my personal heaven – the Ultimatebet Aruba Classic. After a riotous few days in Amsterdam with various UB pros we arrived in the balmy tropics and got straight to the most important part – locating the rest of the team and hitting the bar.

The first full day was spent on the beach and warming up my tubing skills for the inevitable bouts of last longer bets that were to bound to occur throughout the week. A number of us (including team members Matt Graham, Roothlus, Tiffany and Billy) rented a boat and we went for a very beery cruise involving diving competitions and trying to swim back to the boat against a very strong ocean current.

aruba

That night was the opening party including all the free booze and food UB could throw at the guests, and which inevitably ended up in everyone getting thrown in the pool. Lacey Jones and I had a chicken fight aboard Matt Vengrin and Matt Graham (we won, of course), and Phil managed to get through about $10,000 getting ladies to jump in the pool naked.

Lacey and I also got $1000 for one lucky guy who was the first one to jump in naked also… gotta keep the balance between the sexes!

aruba chicken fight

Monday was relatively quiet as it was day 1A, and half of the pros, myself included, had been scheduled for a new UB photoshoot which I can’t wait to see the results of. Tuesday was day 1B, which was my first day of play. I had the Great Poker Ho on my table, who was lauding it up the way only Ho can, rallying the table and generally creating mayhem with some huge pots. Sadly things didn’t go Ho’s way once Robbie Cunningham came to the table and started crushing it utterly. I swear to God he had Jacks or better every other hand for two hours, and played them tricky enough too, knocking Ho out in the process. An interesting (and kinda costly hand) for me was when I had around starting stack and the blinds were 100 200. Robbie makes it 525 in the hijack, I have queens and make it 1600 in the cutoff. However, the supertight girl to my left who hadn’t played many hands at all goes to call his initial raise before I even get chance to act. When I say wait a minute, and do my threebet she instacalls behind anyway. The SB, who has been pretty LAG and was “internetting it up” as they like to say now does a really weird min raise making it 2700. Robbie now says “what the hell do I do?” and flats. I now ask the same question, and chose to call behind too (in hindsight should’ve jammed here, I mean, Laggy guy could have anything, Robbie or the girl, if they have me beat here are reraising) and the girl flats. The board comes A j 10 and Robbie bets out 2/3, I muck, the girl mucks and the SB stuffs it in with… A-10. What does the Cunningham have? Jacks of course.

My day went pretty much downhill from there and I got short after whiffing AK three times, and then found 10s vs QQs which sent me packing to the beach for more fun and frolics that I’ll document next week… tough life!

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UltimateBet’s Amazing Race

Friday, October 9, 2009 - smokin_aces

At UltimateBet, we enjoy producing Freeroll events that become more than just a really fun free poker tournament. For those of you that have been following the UB Blog or @ultimate_bet on Twitter, you’ve probably taken part in one of our fun events. We’ve recently had:

The Pocket Card Challenge
Twitter Is Our Middle Name
The Delicious Freeroll
The Golden Tweet
Twitter Up For Africa

…to name just a few.

The next phase is the evolution of our recent events. Normally each month we run a Twitter event and a Blog event separately. This time, we’re combining the two events into one, which means TWICE THE PRIZE POOL. It also means twice the fun, twice the memories and twice the poker action. 1st and 2nd place will receive a seat at the 200K GTD and cash prizes will be spread from 3rd place to 45th place.

So, you’re probably wondering what this one is made of. Do you like riddles?……puzzles?……scavenger hunts?…….what about UltimateBet’s Amazing Race? (for those that don’t know, our very own Tiffany Michelle is currently competing on the CBS show The Amazing Race alongside her pal Maria Ho.)

UltimateBet’s Amazing Race requires more than just a password or a Golden Tweet. You’ll need to traverse the web in search of clues that get you closer to solving the Ultimate question. UltimateBet’s Amazing Race happens right here on Wednesday October 28 at 9pm ET. HOW DO I GET MY CHANCE TO PLAY IN ULTIMATEBET’S AMAZING RACE?

Step 1
Click this link and go to UltimateBet’s Youtube channel at www.youtube.com/ultimatebetvideo. Rate 3 video’s on the UltimateBet youtube channel, then try to solve the first clue.
Clue number 1 – 0:30 / 6:58 – How many legs are at Caesar’s table?

Step 2
Go to UltimateBet’s Twitter page at www.twitter.com/ultimate_bet and Follow @ultimate_bet.
You are looking for a specific @ultimate_bet Tweet from a specific day in the recent past. Take the answer to clue number 1 and subtract 3. Now divide this by 3. The answer is the month of the Tweet you need to find. The answer to clue number one is the day. The year is 2009. Some of the posts on this date have links to UB Blog posts.
Clue number 2 – What did UltimateBet discontinue the use of?

Step 3
One of our UltimateBet pros finished 17th in the WSOP Main Event in 2008.
Clue number 3 – What is the “answer to clue number 2″ of this UltimateBet pro?

Step 4
If you were to ask a waiter at a restaurant in London, England for ‘the answer to clue number 3′, what would you receive?
Clue number 4 – The answer to this question is the password to the UltimateBet’s Amazing Race freeroll. With no spaces the answer is 11 characters long.

SPECIAL NOTE: Do not try over and over to enter passwords that you ‘think’ might be right. The game client will lock you out of the tournament if you try too many times with the wrong password. If this happens to you, email support@ultimatebet.com.

GL!
Aces

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Almost there…

Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - Debo34

A few days ago this were my thoughts… three days from now I will be on a plane heading to Aruba. This year it really snuck up on me. I can’t believe that this will be my 7th time going there for the APC. We are taking the red eye 10:30 pm flight out of Portland on Wednesday with 1 stop at JFK in the wee hours of the morning on Jet Blue. I’m sure we will be a bit tired when we get in but will fight the temptation of taking a nap as soon as we run into all the old faces. I see an Aruba Ariba and a crazy 1/2 NL game in my future. So how about them Ducks. Saturday I went up to Eugene to watch Oregon absolutely stomp #6 ranked Cal 42-3. This was the first time in almost 2 years that Oregon was a home underdog. They were a 6 point underdog and won by 39! All I can say is welcome to Autzen Stadium. What was amazing is that they held Cal’s stud running back Jahvid Best to 55 yards on 16 carries. Despite losing, Jahvid was a pretty good sport, and gave us a little attention and took a picture. Congrats to Joe Sebok on recently signing with UB. I don’t know Joe all that well yet, but he has always been a good guy at the tables and a terrific player. He will be a great fit for the team, and I am looking forward to getting to know him better in Aruba. Time for me to get packing for Aruba, and of course watch The Amazing Race that I tivo’d last night. Can’t wait to see team UB’s own Tiffany Michelle kick some butt. Goooooo Tiffany!! Hope to see you in Aruba Debo

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AWARDS & ARUBA

Thursday, September 24, 2009 - Tiffany M

What an exciting few weeks behind and ahead of me! I was thrilled to see The Amazing Race win their 7th consecutive Emmy on Sunday for Outstanding Reality Series.  I am so grateful to be apart of such a wonderful TV family and quality reality show that doesn’t merely entertain but challenges people, strengthens relationships, and exposes audiences to world travel and a variety of cultures.

Speaking of The Amazing Race, the season premiere is THIS SUNDAY, 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT on CBS.  I hope you all will set your Tivos for Sunday nights and enjoy watching Maria Ho and I journey around the world.

Another thing I’m looking forward to in the next week or two is jetting off to the Caribbean for the Aruba Poker Classic. I seriously can’t hype this tournament and location enough so I’ll just ask you to picture what it’d be like playing poker in PARADISE. Last year my daily schedule looked something like this: Wake up, have breakfast on the beach, lounge by the pool and play a game of water-volleyball with my poker pals, play some poker, jet ski, sit in the sand and sip on a blended drink while watching the sunset, meet familiar faces at the hotel restaurant/bar for dinner and drinks, play a little blackjack or get a H.O.R.S.E. game going in the casino, bedtime…
and do it all again the next day. Don’t believe me? See for yourself… be there, Aruba… October 3rd!

I’ve started getting back into the poker groove. I’ve had a long sabbatical from the online poker tables but now I’m back! I came 16 people away from winning an $8500 Aruba package, ahhh poker… at least the trip was planned regardless of where I finished in that tournament. I’m back at my trusty ‘ole $1/$2 NL table as well, trying not to lose my entire bankroll a few bucks at a time. Be sure to keep your eyes pealed for some really fun promotionals and tournaments that I’ll be hosting on UB soon. I really enjoy the online UB poker community and I appreciate all of you who come play and chat with me. Hopefully I’ll see ya in Aruba and definitely at the online tables!

(With all this Aruba talk, I thought I’d share some pictures I took last
year!)

 

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Shoot ‘Em Up

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 - Gene Bromberg

The $1,500 No-Limit Shootout is a tournament of a different stripe. You sit down at a ten-handed table and battle until one player has all the chips. If you’re that lucky player, congratulations–you just cashed. Come back the next day and again you sit down at a ten-handed table and battle it out until all the chips are piled before one victorious player. If that’s you, congratulations–you just made the final table. And as you might have figured out by now, when you return for that final table you’ll sit ten-handed and play until one person wins the bracelet and the lion’s share of the cash.

Basically you’re playing three winner-take-all sit-n-goes, and it doesn’t matter how many chips you end up with at the end of the day, because if you don’t have all of ‘em, you ain’t got none of ‘em. You have to mix it up and play pots because the name of the game is to get chips, all of the chips–you can’t tighten up and cruise into Day 2 if you build up a nice early stack. All that stack means is that you’ve accomplished a fraction of what’s necessary to win.

It’s a format that encourages fatal confrontations, and that’s what befell Tiffany Michelle before I even made it to the Amazon Room. She went into battle with the Ace and King of diamonds, and found herself up against pocket Kings. She couldn’t catch an Ace and, boom, 30 minutes into the event she was out. I took a picture of her empty chair, but I’m not gonna post it. That’d be cold.

But still alive in the Shootout is Liv Boeree, measuring each of her nine opponents for pine boxes using only her eyes:

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Quicky Update

Saturday, June 6, 2009 - Gene Bromberg

First, the bad news–Tiffany Michelle, Liv Boeree and Brandon Cantu have all been eliminated from today’s $2,500 No-Limit Hold-Em event. Now for the good–Phil Hellmuth is still going strong in on Day 2 of the $2,000 No-Limit Hold-Em tournament (he has 185,000 with 54 players remaining) and Michael Binger is hovering around the top ten in chips in the prestigious $10,000 Mixed Event. There are 35 players remaining in that tournament, the top 27 get paid, so we may find ourselves pressing against the money bubble before too soon.

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The Eyes Have It

Saturday, June 6, 2009 - Gene Bromberg

There’s a proverb that says, “The eyes are the window to the soul”. Look in a person’s eyes and you can plumb the depths of their very existance. That’s what the proverb says, but anyone who’s ever gotten away with telling a bald-faced lie knows it’s not a universal truth.

Still, people express a wide range of emotions with their eyes, voluntarily or not, and when you want to conceal the machinations of your mind your eyes can betray you. One of the greatest concentrations of deceit and deception is the poker table–lying is an integral part of the game. And so players often go to great lengths to ensure they aren’t giving away vital information through their baby blues.

One way is to invest hundreds of dollars in a pair of high-fashion sunglasses:

A more economical yet still potentially fashionable choice is to wear some manner of hat. Tug down the brim on your chapeau and your opponents would need X-ray vision to see your eyes. And if they had X-ray vision they’d probably use it to see your hole cards. Which would be a much bigger problem altogether. Suffice to say that if you physically block your orbs from another’s gaze your eyes will give nothing away.

But perhaps the most effective way to disguise your eyes is to have a glare that utterly discombobulates your opponent. Take a long, long look at Liv Boeree and ask yourself, Who would win this staring contest?

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Monochrome

Friday, June 5, 2009 - Gene Bromberg

The $2,500 No-Limit Hold-Em event just started and as I usually do I went out in search of the Team UB players in the field. And during my wanderings I came across a quartet of our players, each dressed in a relatively monochromatic way. So I thought I’d go with the motif and post some black-and-white photos:

Tiffany Michelle, catching me just as I triggered the shutter:

Matt Graham, contemplating a re-raise from PokerRoad Radio’s Court Harrington:

Liv Boeree, recording in minute detail every little thing going on at her table:

And Adam Levy, switching his allegiance from Barcelona to Chelsea today (”hey, I just like soccer,” he said.) Wonder if there’s an Arsenal jersey hanging in his closet:

Event #13 just went on its first break of the day, the $2,000 No-Limit Hold-Em restart is about to, uh, restart, with Phil Hellmuth and Brandon Cantu still in the running. Don’t see Phil over there yet, not that that’s a great surprise.

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Cancel the Lynch Mob

Tuesday, June 2, 2009 - Gene Bromberg

I somehow managed to miss getting pics of Tiffany Michelle and Liv Boeree before they were eliminated from the $1,000 Stimulus No-Limit event. This apparently displeased the masses–the reaction I got ranged from “WTF?” to “let’s burn him at the stake”. So once the $1,500 No-Limit tournament started I grabbed my camera and raced around the Rio searching them out. I don’t like the idea of some fan stuffing me in the trunk of his car and taking me for a ride out to coyote country.

Tiffany of course just posted about her early results and according to a recent tweet she’s up to 11,000 at the first break. Helped, in part, by cracking pocket Aces with her Queens. Hey, a little luck never hurt anyone. Except for the poor guy with the Aces…but he was lucky to have them in the first place. So it all balances out, right…?

Liv Boeree has already broken through at the 2009 World Series of Poker, cashing in the $1K Stimulus tournament for a $2,500 payday. And now she’s back at work in the Miranda Room, competing in the $1,500 No-Limit event as well:

The $1,500 NL field is spread amongst the Amazon, Brasilia and Miranda rooms, and mixed in here and there are the restarts for the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament, the $10,000 Seven-Card Stud World Championship, and the final fifty players vying for the $1,000 Stimulus tournament bracelet. It’s a zoo out there. And until everyone gets seated and situated I’m gonna stay on this side of the bars.

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