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Ultimate Bet Review

Ultimate Bet for Mac, currently known as UB, is the best skin of the new CEREUS Poker Network. Online home of poker greats Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke, UB serves a large player base including those in the United States. UB has been under attack in recent years for poor security and customer support but has vowed to improve all aspects of their poker room since their merger with the CEREUS network.

Being affiliated with Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke was quite useful when legislation looking to close American Poker Online was passed in 2006. Having two of the most admired American poker players on their side definitely swayed UB’s business decision to continue with their doors open to American poker players. You can also make use of them by checking out some of UB’s free poker training videos.

Staying open to US customers has served them quite well as their traffic has seen an increase recently along with UB’s partner skin, Absolute Poker, thanks to being one of the few US friendly poker sites. US-based poker players have been lucky that poker sites like UltimateBet, Absolute, Poker Stars, and FullTilt Poker have stayed committed to American Poker Online.

The UB initial deposit bonus of 111% for up to $1,100 is one of the greatest promotions found at online poker rooms today. By using the bonus code FTRBONUS when signing up at UB, you will receive the maximum possible bonus in addition to entry into monthly freerolls and money-added tourneys. The $5 buy-in FTR5 is a money-added tourney with $300 added to the prize pool. A bonus this size comes with a few stipulations. In order to clear this bonus, players must take part in real money ring games, tourneys, and SNGs. Paying rake in cash games and fees in tournaments/SNGs will generate Status Points which are necessary to clear your bonus. Every 20 Status Points a player gains he/she will clear $1 of their bonus. The bonus is cleared in multiples of $5 which means you do not have to clear the full bonus amount to gain any money, just earn 100 Status Points and your account will be credited with $5. This bonus is hard to clear and players only have 60 days from the time of their deposit to do so.

Those playing at UB will undoubtedly notice their wide variety of games and limits. A selection comparable with other top texas holdem sites. Ring game stakes start as low as $0.01/$0.02 blinds and work their way way up to $200/$400 with antes. Players can choose to play Texas Hold ‘Em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, Stud, Stud Hi/Lo, Razz, and HORSE. The micro, small, and midstakes games get plenty of action up to $5/$10 blinds. Players looking for higher stakes games will most likely need to search somewhere else as the heads-up games are usually regulars waiting for fish.

UB’s tournament schedule is flagshipped by the weekly $200K Guarantee which runs every Sunday. The $215 buy-in tourney normally fills the 1,000 players necessary to reach its guarantee. The UBOC (Ultimate Bet Online Poker Championship) is a huge series with several million-dollar events such as the $1,000 buy-in Main Event. Those with smaller bankrolls will find a variety of tournaments from as small as a quarter to choose from throughout the day. UltimateBet’s sit & go’s offer a wide array of games, stakes, and formats. From $0.10 to $5,000, players of all levels are certainly covered. The more popular games tend to be their heads-up format of all buy-in levels and 1-table SNG’s from $5 to $20. UltimateBet also has Stud and Omaha SNGs but neither gets a lot of traffic.

UltimateBet.com has always been known for having the best Mac poker sites software of all the poker sites. Recently they have upgraded their lobby and tables to make the games run much faster. The lobby uses tabs at the top of the screen to help players trying to navigate through games, stakes, and formats. Players looking for a more personal touch can use the lobby filter to focus on your games/stakes even more. For the longest time players could not resize or “tile” tables; however, UltimateBet has recently upgraded their software to allow tables to be sized small enough to fit 9 on a screen without any overlap. You can access a slightly pared down version of this software by using the flash texas holdem client, which has the advantage of being accessible from anywhere with an internet connection.

Mac Poker Bonus at UB

With a monster 111% return on all first-time deposits for a maximum of $1100 bonus dollars (with a deposit of $1000), Ultimate Bet for Mac clearly proposes a very worthwhile bonus opportunity for new customers. All you have to do is type in the UB referral code of FTR111 when you make your beginning deposit. It's important to comprehend the technicalities behind how you're going to acquire your UB bonus.

You have to always think of how much you have to bet to get that money, what increments you receive the cash in, and the time you have before the additional offer goes away, so you can evaluate it against the other online poker rooms out there.

Here's the base info. When you make your first ever real-money deposit, Ultimate Bet gives you bonus dollars equal to 111% of the money you banked, up to $1100. But these bonus dollars are not yet "yours to use." In order to use your additional dollars, you need to get Status Points. This can only be done playing poker hands in real money poker games and tournaments, just like at all of the other US friendly poker sites.

For every 20 Status Points you get, $1 of your extra cash is "released." Each time $5 of your additional money is given out, so every time you get 100 status points, you get a deposit of $5 into your account. If you make an initial deposit of $1000 (and thus $1100 of extra dollars), you need to earn 22,000 status points to free the full $1100. Here's the kicker – there are only 60 days to clear all of your additional dollars before you forfeit the ones that remain unreleased.

The next question is how do you obtain these Status Points? In association to some online poker sites, the algorithm UB Poker uses is quite simple. For tournaments, you win one status point for any $0.30 of entry fee (so in a $30+3 tournament, you'd obtain 10 status points). For cash games, you win Status Points according to how high stakes it is. UB Poker provides a chart for your use at http://www.ultimatebet.com/raise-loyalty/earn-climb/status-points, or you can just use this one:


No Limit

$0.01/0.02 - 1 point for each 15 hands

$0.02/0.04 - 1 point for each 10 hands

$0.05/0.10 - 1 point apiece per 10 hands

$0.10/0.25 - 1 point for each 5 hands

$0.25/0.50 - 1 point apiece per 3 hands

$0.50/1.00 - 1 point for every 2 hands

$1.00/2.00 - 1 point apiece per hand

$2.00/4.00 through $5.00/10.00 - 1.5 points for each hand

$10.00/20.00 and higher - 2 points for every hand


Limit

$0.01/0.02 - 1 point apiece per 20 hands

$0.02/0.04 - 1 point for every 20 hands

$0.05/0.10 - 1 point per 15 hands

$0.10/0.20 - 1 point apiece per 15 hands

$0.25/0.50 - 1 point per 10 hands

$0.50/1.00 - 1 point apiece per 5 hands

$1.00/2.00 - 1 point apiece per 2 hands

$2.00/4.00 - 1 point apiece per hand

$3.00/6.00 - 1.5 points for every hand

$4.00/8.00 and up - 2 points per hand


So, in essence, you'd have to participate in 22,000 hands of $1.00/2.00 no-limit poker within 60 days to be able to clear the total $1100 UB bonus. If you're playing for lower stakes like $0.10/0.25, you'd want to participate in 110,000 hands. If you think that you can do this, then UB clearly offers the best bonus deal for you. If you can only participate in, say 4,000 hands of $1.00/2.00 within that time, you'll probably only receive closer to $200 of additional money - which is still great. The especially excellent news is, because you get the bonus in $5 allowances, you can cash in as much as you desire and not need to worry about losing it. You just won't get as much free money as you could have made if you had done it the other way, but it's still a good option.

UB also regularly presents bonus dollars for other occasions, to keep you depositing money into your real-money account. As far as bonus programs go, theirs is one of the most comprehensive of all flash texas holdem sites.

Bet365 $50k Tournaments

Experienced hands at the best online poker sites know that there’s more to picking a good place to play than scouring the table list. The best sites will have extra promotions and offers to supplement their already excellent selection. Any regulars on the Bet365 Download will know what I’m on about. You can still win big money by placing in a tournament, but there’s even more to be won by competing in the $50,000 Scheduled Tournament League.

As soon as you’re opted into the contest, your tournament results will begin to place you on the leaderboard. There’s no need to be concerned if you have a bad run of results, the leaderboard only records your best 20 results from the month. You also needn’t be in the dark about your status, the Bet365 top texas holdem sites has a full list of the current rankings. If you find yourself inside the top 500 spots, you can expect to pick up some free cash.

If you do well enough to break the top 200, there’s a $2,700 Freeroll Token waiting for you to collect. Here you can put your obviously excellent tournament skills to the test against your fellow experts for even more free cash. Whether you’re competing on the download or flash texas holdem client, the very exclusive top 10 players are treated even better, with a $14,000 Prize Package Freeroll entry up for grabs.

The points you earn for each tournament vary according to a number of factors. The equation used to calculate your score is designed to reward those who play at a higher buy-in, without making it a competition of which download free poker player has the biggest wallet. It takes into account the total number entrants, the buy-in, and your finishing position to work out how much will be added to your leaderboard total.

There’s one more wrinkle in the calculation. A score multiplier is applied to your individual tournament total, which increases depending on which buy-in bracket you fall under. If you bought in for between $0.50 - $4.99, you’re total will be multiplied 7.5 times. The very highest buy-ins award a higher multiplier, with $100+ tournaments count for 20x your basic score.

The Bet365 Poker Download $50,000 Tournament League runs every month, rewarding the world’s best players for their tournament prowess.

Bwin Poker Rookie Challenge

Becoming successful in the world of poker is no cakewalk. There’s a thing or two to learn before you can really get to grips with the game. Not to mention to the potential pitfalls with numerous online bonuses. It’s tempting to put in some time with download free poker games, but you can only get so far without any light at the end of the tunnel.

The Bwin Rookie Challenge provides just that. This provides you the arena to get to grips with some serious poker tournaments against other new players. This is just one example of the kind of promotions that make Bwin one of the leading online poker rooms in the world.

The first step is a simple one, open an account with the Bwin Poker Download. Once you’re set up, you will immediately be given 10 free Tournament Tickets for the Rookie Challenge Sit & Gos. This gives you a load of chances to make it through the first level of the challenge. In the first two stages, the winner and runner up each win a few tickets to the next stage. Level 3 pays out a trio of tickets for the penultimate stage, which award the winner a single ticket to the heads-up final.

There’ll be just one rookie to crush in the final if you want to take home the gold. As one of the best mac poker sites, Bwin attracts in a lot of bad players, so your chances of victory should be pretty good. On offer are three real money tournament tickets worth $1.20 and three passes to the Rookie Challenge Freeroll. With these simple tournament passes you could build a fortune, but for even more incentives, you should check out the Rookie Challenge Freeroll.

Run every day at 19:00 (GMT +1), the freeroll is open to anyone who has registered a new account. To get your pass, simply make your first deposit and earn a single Poker Point at the real money tables. These are the same kind of points you need for clearing the bwin bonus code. Anyone who wants more than one bite of the cherry, will need to prove themselves in the Rookie Challenge.

The freeroll pays out around $300 in prizes. You’ll be battling other newbies for a selection of tickets to big real money tournaments. Winning one of these could be all you need to hit it big in the online poker world via the download or Poker Flash client. When you’re first starting out, the big leagues can seem like a lifetime away, but with the Bwin Poker Rookie you have a chance to fast-track the process and start winning big money immediately.

Bet365 Flash Poker

Bet365 is one of the biggest names in the industry. Along with a poker room, they operate free bet sportsbooks and a casino. Customers who decide to get the Bet365 Poker Download will find themselves on the iPoker Network, one of the world's largest. A $500 bonus will be awarded to persons who sign-up through our links. Additionally, we will send you monthly invites to our exclusive freerolls.

Initiating the Bet365 Download is easy. The first step is to click our URLs to Bet365. Naturally, you'll want to click on the yellow box that says "Download Now". The Bet365 Download box will appear. You’ve started on the road to making money at one of the best euro poker sites.

To download Bet365, save the file. Now, run the file. This is just like installing any of the top money poker sites. Next, you must decide which language you want before you begin the Bet365 Install. You'll be good to go after you confirm your understanding of the fine print. You’ll be played Texas Hold em hands in no time.

The installation should take a few minutes with a high speed connection. If you have a slow connection, you can always try out the download free poker version. A program will download Bet365 Poker to your computer and then load these up to date files on your computer. Bet365 Poker has completed the installation process when the lobby pops up.

Once the install has finished, it's time to create an account. This is also true for players using the poker flash version. Click the "Join Now" box and enter your e-mail and other information.

The next step is to log-in and make a lot of money! You were smarter than your friends and chose to download one of the world’s top texas holdem sites through our links, so you are eligible for a 100% match bonus on your first deposit (up to $500). On top of a big bonus, we host a $500 freeroll each month that you now have access to. Best of luck at Bet365!

Bet365 Flash Texas Holdem

Playing at top texas holdem sites is all about convenience and speed. There’s no question that it’s less hassle to log on in your pyjamas and the number of hands you can work through is dramatically increased with internet software. Plus you can beef up your play by using Hand Converter tools. However, you can’t deny that there’s something special about live poker. You can’t pick up on physical tells from a computer screen or get that real social thrill.

Bet365 are savvy, they know that real poker players want both options at their fingertips. They are one of the best money poker sites for live qualifiers. For just a few cents, pennies, or euros, you can start your journey to the biggest live tournaments in the world. One of them being the APT Macau. The most hotly anticipated event on the Asian Poker Tour calendar will attract the cream of the world’s poker playing crop.

You can join them at the felt to compete for massive prize pools, using their download free poker software. Super Satellites are held every week, each sporting a $7,000 package. It costs only $0.33 to get your trip underway. You can register for satellites using the download or Mac Poker online software right now. If you do achieve victory in a satellite, you’re in for some 5-star treatment. Included in your package is the $4,180 + $320 Main Event buy-in, money for 6 nights accommodation at the Macau Hard Rock Hotel and a sweet $1,500 for travel and expenses.

Bet365 staff don’t need to travel far to attend the GUKPT Blackpool. The Grosvenor UK Poker Tour is the premier poker tour in the United Kingdom and VC are looking to send along a group of top online players as their representatives. The Weekly Super Satellites are the golden ticket you need to win your passage to this texas hold em hands contest. You only need £0.48 to get started on this satellite trail. If you’re on the move, you can still take your shot by using the poker flash client. The £1,800 package covers your £1,000 + £70 Main Event entrance fee, along with a room at the Big Blue Hotel for four nights and £400 for flights and expenses.

For something truly exotic, try winning your seat on a plane to the Deep-Stack Open Marrakech. You could be winging your way to this mystical city, with the help of the Bet365 download. Satellites start at a measly €0.24, giving you copious chances to realise your Arabian dream. The package includes a €500 + €50 buy-in to the Main Event, which is predicted to have a prize pool of over €200,000. Way more than you’re average no deposit poker bonus. You also get a 4 night stay at a Saadi Hotels Group resort and €495 for flights and expenses.

Flash Poker History

Poker has taken the world by storm in the past decade.  It has quickly become the world’s most popular casino game.  Poker’s history, especially Texas Hold ‘Em, is an amazing story.  The game’s simple rules make it easy for beginners to quickly pick up but its inner complexities is what makes it a true game of skill.  There are numerous free poker training videos available online to teach everything from beginner to advanced tactics. The game’s popularity comes from the notion that large sums of money can be won just by playing a game.  Poker is available at all times of the day online.

Texas Hold Em Hands are the most popular poker variant in the world.  Little is known about the beginnings of the game, but Texas State Legislature recognizes Robstown, Texas as the game’s birthplace.  A group of gamblers introduced the game to Las Vegas in 1967.  This group of gamblers included poker legends Roscoe Weiser, Doyle Brunson, Crandell Addington, and Amarillo Slim.  The World Series of Poker was introduced at Binion’s Horseshoe by Benny and Jack Binion in 1970.  The main event was a no-limit Texas Hold ‘Em event and it started out quite small.  Eight players registered for the 1972 main event.  By 1991, this number grew to two hundred.  Twelve years later, poker would experience another popularity boom. New players would soon flock to their computers to access Download Free Poker sites.

Two events in the past 15 years has helped poker reach the popularity it sees today.  Rounders, a movie starring Matt Damon, pushed Hold ‘Em into the mainstream.  Two important events pushed poker even further into the spotlight.  The first thing that helped poker was the implementation of pocket cams.  Pocket cams allow the viewers at home to watch the action with full knowledge of the players’ hole cards.  ESPN’s telecast of a poker amateur, Chris Moneymaker, winning the2003 WSOP title over a field of 839 entrants was the next event. Moneymaker qualified for the WSOP Main Event via satellites at the best online poker sites. After players realized that they can be the next poker champion, poker’s popularity boomed.  At the 2004 WSOP main event, 2,576 players gave it a shot.  The 2005 WSOP main event would double that number with 5,619 players looking to win fortune and fame.  With this, poker had officially been thrown into the mainstream.

The game of No Limit Hold ‘Em is a fascinating one.  Its rules welcome beginners since they are rather easy to learn. All players are given two face-down cards.  Five community cards are shown which can be used by all players.  Players then go through four rounds of betting and the best five-card poker hand wins.  Unlike its rules, Hold ‘Em’s theory is very complex.  Creative bet-sizes can be used since there is no cap or standard to the bet-sizes.  Also, players only have small pieces of information to judge their opponents’ hand.  Unlike draw poker where the only given information is bet-sizing, Hold ‘Em players have the information of the community cards but are kept in the dark in terms of their opponents’ hole cards.  Incomplete information means players must gain information elsewhere to the true essence of their opponents’ cards; players use stack sizes, bet sizes, and poker tells to gain an idea of the cards they are up against.

Using the Internet is the most popular way to play poker in the new digital era.  Online poker is cheaper to play since online poker companies have low overhead costs.  Moreover, online poker allows players to remain anonymous and put in hands from the comfort of their own home.  Online poker became famous with WSOP main event wins from Chris Moneymaker and Greg “Fossilman” Raymer.  Both players qualified for the WSOP through the PokerStars Download WSOP satellite tournaments.

Since its start in 1998, online poker has grown by leaps and bounds.  Many innovations have helped its growth.  One such innovation is flash texas holdem.  This allows players to play poker directly from their browser without the need of downloading a software client.  This makes it easy to play away from home, such as at work or at school.  Players are usually limited to one or two tables while using poker instant play.  Also, players generally cannot join tournaments through their browser.  The Party Poker instant play program is one of the better ones around.  Party Poker instant play works perfectly for the Mac Poker as well as Linux.  Unfortunately, Party Poker instant play does not allow for table filters, private tables, or table resizing.

Poker has taken huge strides in the right direction in the recent past.  Poker is very welcoming, especially online poker with its low stakes. With the added boost of a no deposit poker bonus, even the smallest bankroll can be enough to get started. Players should take some time to learn the theory behind the game.  Poker is a game that can quickly become a source of income.  Poker can be especially profitable for especially talented players.  New players should start at the nanostakes and work their way up.  As players get better and their bankrolls grow, they can climb the ladder to bigger games. Making money at the top texas holdem sites is not easy, but there are plenty of opportunities to be exploited. Good luck on the felt!