Ultimate Bet

Posted by Lassieham , 27/02/09

Overall score: 3.0 / 5

Network: Cereus

Country of origin: Canada (Kahnawake)

Established: 1999

Accepts US Players: Yes

EU Based: No

The site in general: UltimateBet is one of the most serious and traditional pokersites on the internet. The site is great on promotions, including freerolls, satellites and bounty tournaments. Huge sponsored poker personalities and a sleek, unique interface are just two of the features for which UltimateBet is best known. UltimateBet experienced a big setback caused by the “Superuser Scandal” where employees of "the previous ownership of UltimateBet" were responsible for cheating high limit players out of an unspecified amount of money, largely believed to run into the millions, thanks to "unauthorized software code that allowed the perpetrators to obtain hole card information during live play".

Big name pros: Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth, "Magic" Antonio Esfandiari, Joe Sebok, KrazyKanuck, “Hollywood” Dave Stann, Adam Levy, Shawn Deeb, Tiffany Michelle, Eric Rizen, Johan Storaakers, John Vorhaus and Jack McClelland

Sign up bonus: 111% sign up bonus up to $1100 on your first deposit

Reload Bonus: Offers reload bonuses roughly every other month. The bonuses are usually very good with a 25-100% deposit match up to $500-$600 in extreme cases.

Loyalty Bonus: UltimateBet offers a very nice loyalty program, where all real-money hands and tournament fees accrue loyalty points. No hand is too small, and the points build fast. Players can then buy merchandise in the Ultimate Bet shop or play points tournaments. In addition, a tournament leader board pays out to top multi-table tournament players.

Bonus Payout: Bonus dollars are converted to real money at the rate of $1 for every 10 points earned at raked ring-game tables and at $1 for every 30 points at sit-and-goes and tournaments. The bonus is credited in $1 increments to your account, which is very attractive to low-stakes players.

Software: The graphics have a unique look and the software runs quickly and reliably and two key advantages the UltimateBet software has are the simplified “mini view” option and the speed at which chips are collected and cards are dealt. The interface is very quick and smooth, which helps keep the game moving. Another great feature of UltimateBet is that when you take any seat at the table, the perspective rotates so that you are always sitting at the bottom center of the table.

Resizable Tables: Yes

Multi-Tabling: 6 tables may be played

Layout:

Special Features: The software has a couple of great features you tend not to find anywhere else: the ability to ‘fold and show’ as well as a ‘bet the pot’ button at pot limit tables. You can choose from six different table backgrounds. If you lose with quad Eights or better you can take home a hefty Bad Beat Bonus at the tables marked with “Jackpot”. Invite a friend to open an account and you will get a special refer-a-friend-bonus of 50% on their first deposit.

Player Traffic: The traffic at UltimateBet is among the top three or four in both ring games and tournaments. You usually find around 3,500 ring game players and up to 15,000 tournament players during peak hours. Most of this traffic is around the mid stakes cash game, which has a much larger player base than their tournaments.

Ease of game: UltimateBet has a mix of decent players and very poor players. For being a site that still takes US players, it's definitely profitable and seems a lot looser than Full Tilt or other US sites today. Don't be afraid, look and you will find the fish (or just add them to your Ultimate Buddy list!).

Game Variety: At UltimateBet there is usually action to be found at any poker game and at any limit. The game variety is very good with Hold'em, Omaha Hi and Hi-Lo, Seven-Card Stud Hi and Hi-Lo, Pineapple, 2-7 Triple Draw and A-5 Triple Draw. Also offered is the more unusual Royal Hold'em, where deuces through nines have been removed from the deck but the game plays as Hold'em.

No-Limit, Limit and Pot-Limit are offered in Hold'em, and Pot-Limit and Limit are offered in both Omaha variants. Heads-up tables are available in Hold'em, Omaha, Seven-Card Stud, 2-7 Triple Draw and A-5 Triple Draw.

Tournaments/Sit n Go: UltimateBet has a rather unique, intuitive system for sit-and-goes. Players select the “table” offering the variant (no-limit hold’em, Omaha, etc.), the style (shorthanded, turbo, etc.), and stakes they want and are taken to a waiting list. All players wishing to play in this kind of event go on the list and a table is immediately started when enough people have signed up. The multitable tournament schedule was formulated with the help of poker star Annie Duke herself. The new schedule includes Sniper (bounty) tournaments, a popular format wherein players are paid for each opponent they eliminate in addition to how well they place. UltimateBet offers a weekly $200,000-guaranteed tournament on Sundays that consistently requires an overlay for having too few entrants.

Cash Games: While there are plenty of games available for hold’em, players will most likely have to join a short waiting list for any stakes over $0.10-$0.25. Games like royal hold’em, deuce-to-seven triple draw, and pineapple usually have one to two small-stakes tables running at a time. The limits are from $0.01/$0.02 to $150/$300.

Rake info: The rake at UltimateBet is somewhat less attractive than the average in the industry, at least when it comes to lower-limit games. The rake caps are in line with the industry at 5%, but the drop is taken at more frequent intervals, which results in a higher effective rake.  The maximum rake for shorthanded games, however, is capped lower than at many other rooms.

Rakeback: You get 30 % rakeback through SmartGambler

Deposit & Withdrawal Options:  

 
    Deposit Options: VISA, MasterCard, ukash, Click2Pay, ClickandBuy, bank wire, check by mail, Moneybookers, Paysafe card, Neteller, U.K. debit cards.
    Withdrawal Options: VISA, MasterCard, ukash, Click2Pay, ClickandBuy, bank wire, check by mail, Moneybookers, Paysafe card, Neteller, U.K. debit cards.

Support: Ultimate Bet offers support only via e-mail, but the quality and speed are very good and support staff is friendly and helpful 24/7. Swedish support as well.

        support@ultimatebet.com

As a valued SmartGambler.com member, we offer you 30% rakeback and 111% signup bonus up to $1100 on your first deposit.

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