Ultimate Bet Review

     I always think of Ultimate Bet as a poker player's online poker room. For one, they have an impressive cast of room professionals, including several WSOP bracelet winners. Of course, the well-mannered Phil Hellmuth leads the way, but with input from the likes of Devilfish, Annie Duke and the tricky Antonio Esfandiari, you ought to have a great poker room.

     But, besides poker, they are the originators of the super-popular Elimination Blackjack game that has made it's way onto televeision sets everywhere.

     Players compete not only against the house, but against each other because after certain hands, the lowest stacks are removed from the tournament. It certainly is "blackjack with a twist".

     Ultimate Bet does a lot of things a little bit differently. For instance, they offer a wider selection of games than most other rooms.

     They deal holdem (all limits), Omaha (both straight and hi-lo), and 7 Card Stud like most rooms. They also deal Crazy Pineapple (both straight and hi-lo) which is a take on Texas Holdem where you are dealt 3 hole cards, and must discard one of them after seeing and betting the flop.

     You can also find draw poker tables at uBet, although it is lowball. They deal both A-5, and 2-7 Triple Draw games.

     The betting limits and table stakes are wider than at most rooms as well. Many games have penny ante tables, and on the high end, there are active $80/$160 tables. There are also kill pot games, and "mini" blind games (where the blinds are small, but the bets are large).

     The tables sizes vary as well. There are full 10 player tables, as well as short (6 player) and heads-up (2 player) tables.

     The room has a comp system, called UltimatePoints. You earn points by playing at the tables (including the free tables). Not many rooms comp players for playing at free tables. Ultimate Bet has tables dealing games where players wager their comp points. Which is an interesting idea, since comp points have value (you can trade them in for lots of things), but they aren't quite real money. Just another example of the things that make Ultimate Bet unique.

     The software has some standard online poker room features, like hand histories and player notes. It also has some unique features, like changeable backgrounds and a "mini" view that compresses the table. So you can keep track of, and play at more than one table at a time.

     The Ultimate Bet website is worth a visit, it has many poker articles written by the pros that frequent the room. There is a lot of strategy and insight to be had there, for free. And the room runs online poker seminars from time to time as well. So, you can register and be part of a chat session with a WSOP Champion.

     Another thing to mention is that the multi-table tournaments have some serious prizes. Besides the freerolls and the guaranteed money tournaments, Ultimate Bet also runs satellites for land-based events. One of them is their own Aruba Classic. A land based tournament sponsored by the room, and part of the World Poker Tour series of televised poker tournaments.