Ultimate Bet Poker Review  87/100

Introduction

Ultimate Bet has been hosting online poker since 1999 and is one of the world’s leading poker rooms as well as one of the few sites that has evolved almost directly along with the online poker industry.

The site’s software has changed considerably over the years and is looking better than ever.

Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker (both owned by Tokwiro Enterprises) recently announced their intentions to merge their network platforms, combining the player base from both sites to create the third largest online poker network currently in the market. The new network, ‘CEREUS’ was launched in August 2008.

Ultimate Bet is also the home of several famous poker pro endorsers such as 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Liv Boeree, Brandon Cantu, Tiffany Michelle and Joe Sebok.


Bonus & Promotions   |   9/10

Ultimate Bet’s player appreciation program is called RAI$E. As you climb the RAI$E ladder, you gain better perks including everything from faster points accumulation, private tourney invitations and cash to playing poker with Phil Hellmuth and getting to fly a fighter plane.

There are five RAI$E status levels: Ultimate Member, Player, Contender, Legend and Icon. If you have an Ultimate Bet account and have made a deposit, you’re already enrolled in RAI$E as an Ultimate Member.

Ultimate Bet offers a deposit match of 111%. You need to deposit $991 to get the maximum bonus. Of course, any lower deposit amount will also give you the 111% UB Poker bonus.

The refer-a-friend program rewards you with up to $75 for each friend you invite (under the usual conditions that he or she makes a cash deposit and so on.) During the game year there are recurring reload bonuses, usually at around 20% match up to $100.


Software Graphics   |   18/20

Ultimate Bet’s software is one of the best in the industry. It is one of the only online poker rooms to offer a rabbit cam in some No-Limit Hold’em games. That means players can see what the turn and the river would have been if they had not folded.

Ultimate Bet software includes the following:

• Tiling and stacking buttons for multi-tabling
• Resizable tables and hot keys
• Statistics functionality
• In-depth information about your games
• Mini-View – Shrink the table, but keep all the relevant information clear and legible. Perfect for multi-table players.
• Hand History – Keep track of all your cards and the moves you made.
• Central Seating – Prime position given once seated at every table.
• Player Stats – Obtain stats on you play and easily incorporate third party poker statistic trackers.
• Ultimate Buddy – The fastest way to find your friends at Ultimate Bet.

There’s a UB Poker download version for Windows. As a Mac or Linux user, you’ll need a PC emulator to accommodate the UB software.


Tournaments & Freerolls   |   18/20

Ultimate Bet hosts plenty of daily tournaments with buy-ins as little as $1 ranging all the way to several thousands of dollars. Play at any level is competitive and the bigger buy-in tournaments offer really strong competition. You’re likely to meet the world’s top pros at the final table.

Ultimate Bet also offers regular qualifiers to big live events all over the world, such as the World Poker Tour, European Poker Tour, Aussie Millions, World Series of Poker and the Aruba Poker Classic.

Freerolls for the most part are large multi-table events and are more often than not No-Limit Texas Hold’em. There are freerolls with many different prizes and not just cash, such as WPT Boot camp entries, Ultimate Bet Points and more.


Deposits and Cashouts   |   8/10

Deposit options include:

• VISA
• MasterCard
• ukash
• Click2Pay
• ClickandBuy
• bank wire
• check by mail
• Moneybookers
• Paysafe card
• Neteller
• U.K. debit cards
• e-checks

Withdrawal options include:

• VISA
• MasterCard
• ukash
• Click2Pay
• ClickandBuy
• bank wire
• check by mail
• Moneybookers
• Paysafe card
• Neteller
• U.K. debit cards
• e-checks

Service & Support   |   18/20

Although Ultimate Bet only offers support through e-mail, the quality and speed are impressive and the support staff are very friendly.


Traffic   |   8/10

Being a US friendly site, the UB traffic usually peaks during North American evenings which is around 8 PM (PT). Ultimate Bet brings around 2,000 players to the tables during peak times.

When it comes to ring game traffic, UB.com places in the top ten positions world-wide. Peak-hour traffic during tournaments is good and sometimes exceeds 20,000 real-money players.


Game Variety   |   8/10

The Ultimate Bet game selection is excellent. They include the following:

• Texas Holdem
  

• Omaha high and high-low
  

• Seven Card Stud high and high-low
  

• Triple Draw Lowball (2-7 and A-5)
  

• Pineapple and Razz
  

With the advent of the $50,000 HORSE event in WSOP in 2006, mixed games have grown in popularity across the poker world. Ultimate Bet features HORSE games as well as two other mixed up species (HOSE and HO.)

No-limit and pot-limit formats are available for most games, and there are heads-up cash tables for Texas Holdem, Omaha and 7-Card-Stud.


Summary

Ultimate Bet is a trendsetter in online poker. The software offers great design, reliability and numerous customisation options and the promotions and a loyalty programs are very generous. All in all, Ultimate Bet doesn’t seem to have any major weaknesses.