Ultimate Bet Review

The recent problems at UB have been well documented and the naysayers have been tolling UB’s death knell ever since, but taking a moment to look beyond the past it becomes clear that UB’s time in the poker world is far from up.

The first major change that UB have undergone is to break ties with their previous controllers and align themselves with the newly formed Cereus network. New head honcho Paul Leggett has done everything in his power to make UB as transparent as possible, including the creation of a personal blog in which he regularly details the inside activities at UB and any security issues that arise.

Phil Helmuth, arguably the biggest name in poker, has stuck with UB throughout the turmoil, as has fellow superstars Annie Duke and Adam “Roothlus” Levy. Indeed, one major benefit of the site, and something all logical poker players should hopefully understand, is that the new security measures should be some of the toughest in the industry; once bitten, twice shy would be a phrase that springs to mind.

Though numbers may have dropped at UB the quality of the software certainly hasn’t and players can expect industry leading quality across the board. The heart of the game client is the lobby which UB have made simple and easy to navigate through various filtration options. Hold’em hounds can save wading through the throngs of tables by refining the lobby to only display HU, 6 or 9 player options, as well as turbo and non-turbo tables. Indeed, this is one feature lacking on the other large sites and contributes to a much slicker and efficient playing experience.

This ease and efficiency is transposed onto the tables and UB’s built-in hotkeys allow multi-tablers to expend even less energy than normal and control all their moves with a few simple keys. For example: the nits favourite key will be F1 = fold, while the maniacs red hotkey will be F8 = all-in. Running AHK (Auto Hot Key) scripts is something many serious players have been using for a long time but up until now they have only been available through third party programmers, this move by UB signals their intentions to make their software the best option for regular online grinders.

If all online players could wish for one thing I’m willing to bet it would be fully resizable tables. The ability to cram ten tables on one monitor and maintain legible quality is something many players crave but despite this technology being common on many of the big sites some of the other providers still fail to provide this option. Thankfully UB is in-tune with the poker community and their table set-up is very good.

The tables maintain excellent quality, something many sites fail to do, even at the smallest dimensions. Personally I was never a fan of UB’s original table-eye view (although I appreciate it is a unique style) and while this view is still available UB have also added a birds-eye option, complete with customisable avatars. This improvement certainly opens up the site to players more accustomed to other, more traditional layouts.

For those players looking for something more than high quality aesthetics and functionality, UB have added a rabbit cam option. Online sites are increasingly incorporating more elements from the live poker arena into their software and rabbit hunting is something many players will have seen in various televised tournaments and cash games.

The inquisitive amongst you can answer the “what ifs?” be taking a peak at what the remaining undealt cards would have been. While features like this don’t necessarily improve the flow of the game they do make for a much more enjoyable and realistic gaming experience.

Possibly the most impressive feature available on UB is their downloadable application, Ultimate Buddy.

This desktop application can alert you to any upcoming MTTs, find your fishy friends instantly and even automatically seat you at the table of your most profitable buddies. The application can also manage your waiting lists for any STTs and MTTs that you are registered for and the beauty of this is that you don’t need to be logged into the main UB client for all of this to happen.

So players can browse the net, check emails or watch a DVD on their computer and relax knowing that they’ll never miss a golden opportunity at the tables.

If players are willing to approach UltimateBet with an open mind, they will find a room that offers some of the highest quality services in the industry. From their advertising and promotions to their tournament guarantees and polished software it is clear to see that a lot of investments have been made and with the past firmly behind them it should definitely be a choice for any aspiring players.