Wednesday, November 18, 2009 - Victor
NEW Tournaments!!!
Have you noticed the new tournaments we now have available in the lobby???. WOW this is almost 1M prize every week just in guaranteed tournaments!!! We now have over 30 new additions, some of them are:
- A Monthly Special, $128K Guaranteed, $1,000+50 buy-in HU Event at 13:00 ET capped at 128 players, and held the first Sunday of every month.
- A branded New $500+30 buy-in $75K Guaranteed Deep Stack, Tuesdays at 20:30 ET.
- Saturdays at 15:55 ET we will have a $20K Guaranteed PL Omaha Deep Stack, $200+15 buy-in.
- Six Seated $50K Guaranteed tournament with $500+30 buy in every Sunday at 18:30 ET
- 2 NEW $100 Re-buy $35K weekly Guaranteed Tournaments on Wednesday at 21:05 ET and Sunday at 17:30 ET.
- 2 $10K Guaranteed four seated tournaments with a $40+4 buy in every Monday and Wednesday at 20:35 ET
What are you waiting for? If I were you I would be registering them all right now. Easy money! Check the Tournament Lobby, you can also find further information at our Tournament Schedule located at:
http://www.ultimatebet.com/poker-tournaments/schedule
Again, this is the schedule of our Main tournaments:
Sundays
• 14:00 ET $100K Guaranteed, $500+30
• 16:00 ET $200K Guaranteed, $200+15
• 16:35 ET The Dime, $10K Guaranteed, $10+1
• 17:30 ET $35K Guaranteed $100 rebuys
• 18:30 ET $50K Guaranteed 6 max, $500+30,
Tuesdays
• 20:30 ET $75K Guaranteed Deepstack, $500+30,
Wednesdays
• 20:30 ET $150K Guaranteed, $1,000+50
• 21:00 ET Sniper $80K, $200+15
• 21:05 ET $35K Guaranteed, $100 1R+1A
Saturdays
• 14:55 ET $50K Guaranteed, $300+20
• 15:30 ET$15K PL Omaha 8/better Deep Stack, $150+12
• 15:55 ET $20K Guaranteed PL Omaha Deep Stack, $200+15
Also, if you have any questions, contact your Personal VIP Host. We will be more than glad to clarify and discuss any questions, suggestions or comments you might have, our team is at your full service.
Have a good one, and good luck with the new added tournaments!
Tags: Cash, Easy Money, Guarantees, Rai$e VIP Team, Revamped, tournaments
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Thursday, November 12, 2009 - Annie Duke
I am really excited about some awesome changes in the blind structures at UB. I designed the structures that we have been using for years and I have always been pretty damn proud of them. But even a good thing can become better and last week I ripped back through those bad boys and made some big changes with the help of Roothlus :) The changes are huge. Amazing. Crazy! Okay. I know I am exaggerating but I am really excited about them.
We have added tons of level including the 250/500 level for all tournaments. That is a big change because it means you don’t get that big 50% jump anymore from the 200/400 level to the 300/600 level. That is a big jump that I am so psyched we have reduced to two 25% jumps instead. IN our deepstack tournaments, we had this crazy 5/10 level in there which, when you start with 5K in chips was pretty useless. So we got rid of that but added in a 25/50 level instead. I love that change. Start a little higher so the hands in the first round might actually matter but smooth out the structure later so you aren’t just losing a level.
The change to the deepstack events is part of a new policy that some tournaments will now have different structures than others, depending on buy-in and starting stack. Tournaments which start with more than 3K in chips now have a different structure than those that start lower and any tournament with a $500 buy-in or more has a new structure. In total:
1) For events 3K chips and higher the 5/10 level has been removed but a 25/50 level has been added. In total 7 new levels have been added to the structure
2) In events starting with less than 3K chips, a total of 7 levels have been added
3) In event with a buy-in of $500 or more, the 5/10 level is removed replaced by the 25/50 level. In total 11 levels have been added to those structures
4) The UBOC final has a total of 21 levels added to it
5) All tournaments now have antes introduced at the 100/200 level rather than the 150/300 level
6) The structures for limit tourneys have also been revamped and the antes in stud tourneys have been changed to be in line with other sites.
7) The antes in stud cash games have been revamped as well.
I am really excited about all of these changes. The stud changes in particular really fix a problem that UB had in general that the antes and bring ins were often much too high a percentage of the small bet. Those have now been brought in line with industry standards which is nice because it increases the skill level of the game to know how to adjust to antes.
All in all, the new structures give you, the player, much more bang for your buck. No crazy all-in fests on UB. Every tournament on the site now offers more play for your buy-in. I am pretty proud of the changes
Tags: Adam "Roothlus" Levy, tournaments, ub, UBOC
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Sunday, November 8, 2009 - Roothlus
Hey fellow UB-ites. I was just trying to think of a way to say people of UB. UBians? I dunno. UB-ites doesn’t sound too bad. Either way, I digress (already). So I’ve been m.i.a. the past couple of weeks. Aruba came and went, not like a midday rain shower, but more like a category 5 hurricane where you’re lucky to get out alive with your liver still in tact. After Aruba, I came home for a couple of weeks, tried to get back into a good fitness schedule and book some wins in cash and tourneys. I did pretty well with all three. Went to the gym a respectable amount, broke even in cash, which considering how seldom I play cash is also respectable, and even won 2 tourneys with a couple other solid cashes.
Then I left for Las Vegas for the Caesars Classic $5k Main Event, which was my first visit back to Vegas since I moved away 3 months ago. It’s always nice to go back to a place you once lived and enjoy all the things you loved about the city. Vegas is a great place for that. If you live there it loses a bit of it’s luster but if you visit there’s so much to do with so little time it seems like an amazing city. And it is, amazing…for tourists. I went to Naked Fish, the place where I was Poker Punk’ed, to enjoy some delightful sushi and even got to Carne Vino, which is definitely one of my favorite steakhouses. I would highly, HIGHLY, recommend it to any steakhouse lover. I still think the food in Vegas is the best part of Vegas. I was really impressed with myself. I barely drank while I was there, didn’t got to a club, and didn’t even have an itch to go to the infamous Spearmint Rhino. I did get to hang with friends and stay at four different places while I was there. I guess you could say I was a vagabond and while my back wasn’t happy with me sleeping on couches day in day out, it’s definitely a good way to do Vegas if you know a lot of people. It keeps things interesting. As far as the tournament went, I played extremely well. Made some sick plays, grinded my shortstack when I needed to, but ultimately fell short of the final table and reshoved A10o into Kathy Liebert’s AQo to bust in 12th. One thing it did do was motivate me to play more live poker after a rough 2009 on the live circuit. I’m actually typing this blog on my way to Foxwoods.
So the meat of the blog is my Halloween experience! Awesome. Just awesome., but it started off really stressful and I was on the verge of giving up on the whole night entirely. My Halloween journey started around 8ish when I went to go pick up my friends and bring them back to my place so we could all take a limo from one place. Getting a limo on Halloween in a busy city is a must. Last year we couldn’t find a cab and we had to walk a mile home. I went to go pick them up about 15 minutes from my place. It was already starting to get busy and the only parking available was next to a fire hydrant. Oh, perfect, I’m only waiting for a couple of minutes so that’s fine. So I tell my friends to come out but since they are girls, saying “I’ll be right there”, never means that. I waited patiently in the car but because we were kind of on a time crunch I called them and even got out of my car in an attempt to go up to their apartment and make them hurry up. I left my blinkers on because I wanted people to know I was going to be leaving shortly. They said they were on their way and I decided to wait outside my car while they came down. It couldn’t have been more than five minutes but when I went to turn the car on, the starter made a clicking sound, and the engine wouldn’t budge which was weird because the windows, lights, and radio all worked. Regardless, I’m screwed. We assess the situation and I get in contact with my Infiniti roadside assistance who thankfully dispatched someone right away to be there within 30 minutes.
While we were waiting for the repair vehicle, fire trucks came racing down the street and stopped on our block. At this point, I really start to lose it. My car isn’t starting and it’s parked next to a fire hydrant. I would just feel horrible if there really was a major fire and I was blocking the fire hydrant. But thankfully for my own sanity’s sake, it ended up just being a false alarm. PHEW! The repair truck came and gave me a start and we were off Ricky Bobby style. I really did some excellent driving while we jammed out to fun songs to get us pumped for the night.
Oh yea, one key thing: I still had to get into my costume! Luckily it was this Cookie Monster costume I bought online the other day at a website aptly named BuyCostumes.com. It was just a one-piece costume and within 10 minutes I was ready. Unfortunately I had to park my car in front of a garage because parking was so brutal on my street. You think I would’ve learned my lesson but nope. The limo driver needed to get through so I had to move my car regardless. Of course, as luck would have it, the car didn’t start AGAIN. Like come the f on! So I had to have Amit, my roommate a.k.a. Amak316, and the only other guy there help me move my car in neutral uphill. There’s a picture of it somewhere and it’s hilarious but we did it. We pushed it into the limo’s old spot. Somehow it all came together and all ten of us in the limo were off to our Halloween adventure!
We went to this club called Madame Royale which was throwing a Halloween party hosted by Ryan Cabrera. Inside was a blast. Apparently, chicks dig Cookie Monster. Everywhere I walked girls would be like OMG that’s Cookie Monster. I even got some props from random dudes. It definitely was a hit and if I could wear that Cookie Monster costume everywhere, all the ladies would have to watch out !
The next stop was a house party which was a nice change from the fast-paced style of any club. I ended up finding someone wearing a TinkyWinky costume and jokingly told him we should throw down and the winner of the fight would officially be crowned the best children’s show! What’s funny is later on in the night I found out I knew the guy and neither of us realized it initially. The alcohol was scarce at the house party so I got creative and used wine as my mixer for vodka. After that, it was official: I was drunk. The rest of the night was a blur. I know at one point I was chatting up with a homeless guy while trying to rap with Jeff Madsen on the side of the street while waiting for our limo who also coincidentally broke down. But that’s the best part of any drunken night, trying to piece together what happened the next morning.
I hope your Halloween was at least as crazy and fun as mine. If not, you disappoint me! Well, until next, keep killing it at the tables and living your life to the fullest off of them!
Tags: Aruba, Caesars Classic, Foxwoods, halloween, Live Poker, Poker Poker Poker, tournaments, ub, Vegas
Comments (1)
Monday, November 2, 2009 - Joe Sebok
What’s up UB?! Hope that all are doing well and life is nothing but good out there. I have tried to play more and more on the site recently, had a couple of winning small sessions playing the $1-$2 game, and then got my ass kicked pretty good one day as well. I just like sitting around with ya’ll and chatting it up as well, so that has been more my focus with playing on the site so far. Seems I haven’t had enough time to really get serious with the cash game playing much, which explains the small stakes. I’ve played the Sunday $200k as well a few times, but haven’t managed to get anything going there at all. I’ll have to check with Cantu about how he does it. That fool seems to win a UB tournament every other week. Wtf? How is he pulling this off? Big wowzers…
I’m writing from Miami airport, on yet another business trip out of the country. I swear, you would think I was more important with all of these trips I am taking all the time. Haha. One this is sickly for sure: I am racking up mad frequent flyer miles. 
Just flew here from Vegas this morning, where I had just finished up taping my very first episode of “Poker After Dark”…but hopefully not my last. I always think I talk so much more than other poker players that they will want my ass on those shows. We’ll see if this inaugural Seebs episode sparks them to bring me back. I can always hope. My lineup featured Howard Lederer, Ali Nejad, Gabe Kaplan, Mark Gregorich, and Kara Scott and the theme was media-based. Was a total blast. You’ll have to wait for it to air to see who won though.
It’s unbelievable that the WSOP final table is just around the corner, and by corner I mean next weekend. I am sickly excited and am obviously pulling for Phil to work some magic and somehow take down that title. It’s hard for me to see anyone disputing that he is the best that has ever played if he can win that bracelet. I think he will have moved solidly past Chip and Doyle for all around dominance with a win there, and that’s to say nothing of his online game, where he crushes too. The dude is a total machine.
Speaking of the final table, be looking for me to do some commentating on the Bluff show that UB is sponsoring. Should be a blast and I’m excited about it. We’ll also be recording some “PokerRoad Radio” episodes as well, so be looking for those. Basically, it’s going to be a seriously busy weekend in Las Vegas coming up. I’ll also have a pretty big announcement that we are going to be letting out of the bag during next weekend as well, so be paying attention for that.
All of you be good, and I’ll holler at you soon!
peace,
J
Tags: Ali Nejad, bluff, Brandon Cantu, gabe kaplan, Howard Lederer, Kara Scott, Mark Gregorich, Online Poker, Phil Hellmuth, Poker After Dark, Poker Poker Poker, Poker Road Radio, tournaments, ub, Vegas, WSOP
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Friday, October 30, 2009 - ProductMan
This is huge, or at least hugely convenient. We’ve heard your pleas and we’re proud to bring Synchronized Breaks to our Multi-Table tourneys. Now everyone at our Multi-Table Tournaments can count on a 5-minute break at the 55th minute of every hour.
Whether you want to grab a snack, hit the bathroom, recharge, or plot your next move, you’ll love the flexibility that our Synchronized Breaks offer. You shouldn’t have to miss a hand or drag your laptop to the bathroom—and now you don’t!
Synchronized breaks for multi-table tournaments take place at the 55th minute of every hour with some exceptions. If a tourney begins at 10:30 and has the Synchronized Breaks feature enabled, the tournament will go on break at 10:55, but all hands will be completed before the break begins. Once all hands are completed, all players get a 5-minute break. After the 5-minute break is over, the tournament will start. Since breaks can happen a few minutes apart, some tourneys might resume before others.
If you play in multiple tourneys that have synchronized breaks enabled, you’ll get one break for all tourneys. Not all tournaments have synchronized breaks. Check the lobby to see if this feature is enabled in your favorite tournament.
You can find compete details right here. As always, let us know what you think. What will you do with your break?
Tags: Mult-table, Poker Poker Poker, Synchronized Breaks, tournaments, ub
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Monday, July 6, 2009 - Cardroom
Here’s your weekly roundup and Congratulations go out to SKINANDBONE, SPIN31, JUROLLO, 7D3LUX7, INEEDMONIES, SKIFOO, SEAN4444, UNGARSTU132, NOBADBEATSPLZ, ROCK3656 and 397COD for taking down the big guarantees and to our deal makers BENDERBLYA and NEGROSOUL!
Tags: guarantee, roundup, tournaments
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Friday, July 3, 2009 - ProductMan
Who doesn’t want to live forever? I’m not talking about tapping into some secret fountain of youth. I’m thinking more along the lines of not facing defeat so soon when you’re at play. I remember those days back at the arcade when games only cost a quarter, maybe two tops. I used to love getting more life out of a certain Italian plumber or taking my Soviet-style blocks further by slipping another couple of coins into the mix. No need to start from square zero when you’ve already found a comfortable place to stand.
It’s that kind of thinking that spawned a useful new feature that we’ve added to our re-buy tourneys. Players will now be able to re-buy any time their balance falls below the required amount (typically 1,500 chips). Players will no longer have to search for the re-buy feature from the menu, since it will be easily accessible from the table at all re-buy tourneys.
All re-buy tournaments will conveniently include a box that quickly lets you select two options. The first option will let you add additional chips to the table if your stack drops below 1,500 chips during the period when re-buys are still available. The second option will allow you to double your re-buy. Even if these options aren’t checked, you’ll still have the option of clicking on the re-buy button to add chips to your stack.
Tags: Re-buy, tournaments
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Friday, June 19, 2009 - ProductMan
After spending countless hours each week behind my beast of a laptop, my perspective might be a little skewed, especially on a Friday. You might just say that I’ve been known to take things for granted. Over the years I’ve become pretty reliant on all the computing powers at my disposal, especially a certain “undo” command. In my world, hitting control-z is the best way to pretend that things never happened. It’s way better than sweeping stuff under the rug, if you ask me. It would be amazing if I could bring those advanced powers to the tables on the days when lady luck decides to abandon me, but it isn’t exactly going to happen. Luckily with our new 30-minute re-buy tournament, we give you the next best thing.
Our new turbo and ultra turbo re-buy tourneys let you re-buy additional chips during the first 30 minutes of play, which amounts to 6 blind escalations on turbo tournaments and 15 blind escalations on ultra turbo tournaments. In case you are keeping score, our turbo re-buy tournaments have 5-minute escalation times, while the ultra turbo version has 2-minute escalation times.
You can re-buy for the same cost as the original tournament. What’s even better is that the extra cash goes into the prize pool. How do you feel about massive pots? How does a new lease on life sound? Log on and feel free to take a detour to victory.
Tags: new features, product, tournaments
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Sunday, May 24, 2009 - Annie Duke
Phew—thank god that whole Celebrity Apprentice thing is over. I feel like I got sucked into a vacuum and was hardly able to get anything done over the past phew months, much less focus on my main passion in life: poker! Well, I have come back up for air just in time to get happily drowned by The World Series of Poker! Yay! It is a week away and I am super excited for this year perhaps because I have felt so disconnected this spring with all The Apprentice shenanigans. So…what’s in store for me this coming month? Poker poker poker!
To start, I am going to be teaching 3 different WSOP Academies this month. The first one is a Ladies Only camp on June 5th and 6th. This will be my third year in a row kicking off the WSOP with the Ladies camp. The very next weekend I am going to be teaching an open camp (men and women) that will focus mainly on tournament strategy but, honestly, is really just a pretty complete strategic guide to No Limit Hold’em, tournaments or cash games. The folks over at WSOP Academy just like to label camps as tournaments or cash games. Personally I hate labels, so there ya go.
The camp I am most excited about is The Main Event Primer which is the big camp they put on every year right before The Main Event. New this year, you can win a VIP package to this camp right here on UltimateBet.com. http://www.ultimatebet.com/poker-promotion/shuffle-up-and-learn The package includes a private dinner with me and Phil Hellmuth!
You can find out about all these cool upcoming camps at http://www.wsopacademy.com/
Aside from all that teaching, I am going to be playing a ton of events this year starting with the $40K buy-in No Limit Hold’em event to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the WSOP. I was really undecided about playing this baby because I think the turnout might be kind of low and I honestly think I am just going to be sitting there facing the best NLH players in the world. Until a few days ago I was really on the fence about this one. What swung me? TV of course! ESPN is only televising 4 events this year and I am not even eligible for one of them (the Main Event champions tournament)! So what is a girl to do? I guess sail off for $40K against great NLH players!
Wish me luck!
Tags: Celebrity Apprentice, NLH, Poker Poker Poker, tournaments, ub, WSOP
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Friday, May 22, 2009 - ProductMan
If you’ve logged on lately, you might have noticed some changes. We didn’t exactly strap on the dynamite to demolish our software and start a new. It is more like we’ve slapped on a fresh coat of paint, but what a good-looking coat of paint it is. Actually, our recent changes are all about form and function.
Lobby Button:
Did you notice that we recently changed the location of the “lobby” button in tournaments? The old button placement was in the same spot as the “bet pot” button. If you accidentally clicked the “lobby” button right when your turn came up, you could have clicked “bet pot” by mistake. We’ve moved the “lobby” button to the other side of the bar.
Tournament Pop Up:
Tournaments are great but sometimes your operating system might decide not to cooperate. If you need to restart your machine or you close the main client during tournament play, we’ve made things a little easier for you.
In our latest release, if you are playing in a tournament and the main client is closed either by accident or on purpose, all you have to do is reload the software. You won’t have to search for the tournaments that you are playing in. Your tournaments in play will pop back up when you launch the client.
Ante Games:
We’ve really upped the ante. In our new ante ring games every player at the table will have to post an ante along with the two players that are required to post blinds. Ante Up and watch the pot grow pre-flop. Look for games with the word “ante” listed next to the stakes in the lobby.
Final Table View:
We’ve introduced a slick new final table view that just might blow your mind. Want to see what all the fuss is about? You can experience our new multi-table tournament final table firsthand by competing in our guaranteed tourneys over 10K.
As always, let us know what you think.
Tags: product, tournaments
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