Ultimate Bet

Summary (6.5)

You're looking at the home of Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Antonio Esfandiari and Dave Ulliot. Ultimate Bet is a great poker room with a generous sign up bonus and a decent loyalty system. It looks strong with all of its tournaments and qualifiers plus all the promotions. The competition softness is a bit tight, especially at medium to high stakes, but the large number of high stake players make up for this flaw. We particularly like the improvements Ultimate Bet forced into the software to get back in the action with the big competition. Most of the traffic is concentrated to Texas Hold'em, although this is hardly a big deal to most poker players. All in all, Ultimate Bet receives a recommendation if you're looking for some good action even at high stakes and a sturdy sign up bonus.

Software (9)

In our previous Ultimate Bet reviews, we spent much time criticizing the poor lobby software. The complaints have been heard and the necessary improvements have been made. Ultimate Bet has gone from being an average poker room, now blossoming as state of the art software. Sadly, there are no proper lobby filters available, which is setback since Ultimate Bet accommodates quite a few players. The poker table is where the real fun begins. This is one of the best table we have seen. It sports a 3D perspective and captures the true feeling you get when you play real life poker. We adore the mini table function - which is not unique in any way - but so simple and so much better than what is offered at other sites. There's also a buddy function, very good statistics and a plethora of options. The only real miss here is in the full table which lacks a numeric pot size counter.

Traffic (9)

Ultimate Bet is one of the largest poker rooms on the internet. During peak hours we sometimes see 25,000 simultaneous connections. Approximately 40 % of the connections are ring game players, the rest is tournament traffic. Most of it is concentrated to Texas Hold'em, but finding a good game of Omaha and 7 Card Stud should be easy.

Tournaments (8)

The most promising part of Ultimate Bet is the tournament schedule. You can join the World Poker Tour qualifiers as well as the World Series of Poker qualifiers. Either way, you're up for some tough competition. There's also a bunch of freerolls, but you will have to be pretty quick to get a spot. There are some regular multi table tournaments as well, ranging from a $1 buy-in to $200. There's also a big bunch of direct entry and entry chip satellites, starting at $3. Most of the tournaments are leveled at $20.

Game Variety (9)

The variety of games at Ultimate Bet is well above the average. Besides the regular Texas Hold'em games (No Limit and Pot Limit), you can play Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo, Triple Draw and Pineapple. Tables stakes range from micro at $0.01/$0.02 to $150/$300.

Soft Competition (4)

The competition at Ultimate Bet is about average. In low stake games, approximately 40 % of the players view the flop. In mid stake games, this drops down to about 35 %. If you want softer play, then you have plenty of rooms to choose from. We are not implying that there is no fish here, only slightly tighter than the type of play you get at sites like Full Tilt Poker and Titan Poker.

Sign Up Bonus (4)

By using our Ultimate Bet bonus code you will receive a 111% first time deposit bonus on up to $1100. The minimum deposit is $25. You receive $1 in bonus cash per 10 raked hands.

Loyalty Rewards (4)

If you want to become an Ultimate Bet regular, you should know that with every raked hand comes one Ultimate Point (UP). In addition, you are awarded one point per table per hour. The UP:s can be used for purchasing Ultimate Bet branded clothes and accessories, but most importantly special freeroll tournaments.

Promotions (7)

Ultimate Bet has one of the best refer a friend promotions in the world. You get $100 added to your account as soon as your friend has cashed in at least $100 to his. In addition, your friend will receive $50 added to his. Ultimate Bet also award the top four hands every 90 minutes. Freerolls are launched several times a day, limited to non-depositors and/or depositors. If you've ever wanted to play at World Poker Tour or the World Series of Poker, you might want to give all your best at the Ultimate Bet WPT/WSOP qualifiers.

Support (5)

The e-mail support at Ultimate Bet is top notch and the response times are probably the fastest in the industry. Our tests showed that some e-mails were answered in less than 5 minutes! Unfortunately, there is no telephone support nor any live chats.

Deposit & Cashout Methods (6)

Deposits: credit card, Neteller, FirePay, Citadel, wire transfer, bank draft and check.

Cash-outs: Neteller, FirePay and check.