Ultimate Bet review

Overview

Ultimate Bet is one of the largest and leading online poker rooms on the Internet. Launched in 2000, Ultimate Bet is owned by poker legend Annie Duke and was designed by the top poker pros in the poker scene. Included in the website's professional team are topnotch poker players like Phil Hellmuth, David Ulliot and Antonio Esfandiari. Ultimate Bet belongs to the Excapsa gaming network, one of the largest online poker networks in the world. Ultimate Bet is also known to be one of the leading innovators in the development of online poker as an industry under online gaming.

Money

Ultimate Bet offers competitive bonuses and rewards for its members. Currently, Ultimate Bet gives out a 100% deposit bonus to players who join for the first time. The loyalty scheme of Ultimate Bet gives points to players for time spent on the game, for each racked hand, and for starting new games. Bonus money is also awarded for each racked hand according to a certain schedule and number of loyalty points. The loyalty points can also be used as entries to tournaments as well as for buying merchandise from the website's online store. The referral bonus system is also quite attractive, and people who refer other people to the Ultimate Bet website can gain as much as $100 in referral bonuses.

Deposits to Ultimate Bet are made through Visa, MasterCArd, NETeller, and FirePay. Wire transfers, bank drafts and cashier's checks are also possible. Cashouts, on the other hand, are only done through NETeller, FirePay and checks. Withdrawals can take around 24 to 48 hours to be processed.

Rating: 7

Interface and Customer Service

Ultimate Bet's online poker software is among the best in the online poker scene. Ultimate Bet is known to be an innovator, and they are among the first to start using mini-view versions of tables, which enable players to sit and play at multiple tables. The graphics are crisp and uncluttered, and the interface is pretty much customizable. Another pretty feature of the software is that the player can choose backgrounds.

Only email support is available at Ultimate Bet, but this email support is available 24/7, with a response time of under ten minutes. The support staff are known to be accurate and helpful in dealing with customer issues.

Rating: 8

Player Difficulty and Frequency

Ultimate Bet may be the home of some of the greatest names in poker, but it does have its share of decent and very poor players. Traffic is very high at peak hours, with 20,000 to 26,000 players flocking to the website, and the population evenly spread out through all kinds of games.

Aside from the standard poker games – Texas Holdem, Omaha, Omaha High/Low, 7 Card Stud and 7 Card Stud High/Low – Ultimate Bet also has a host of unusual poker games like Triple Draw, Pineapple and Royal Holdem. Most of these unusual games are unique to Ultimate Bet. Blackjack games are also offered in the Ultimate Bet website.

Rating: 8

Tournaments

Ultimate Bet offers seats and satellite tournaments to the World Poker Tour, Aussie Millions and the World Series of Poker. It is also the host of its own poker tour series: the Ultimate Aruba Freeroll Series and the Ultimate Bet Online Championships. Ultimate Bet is also the sponsor of the Ultimate Blackjack Tour.

Rating: 9