ONLINE POKER - SITE - UltimateBet

Hi Guys Paul Again, As a gambler we all no doubt recognize and accept the "laws of average" factor. It cannot and will not be denied. I play Blackjack at a local casino. I usually play at the $25 minimum table for hours at a time. I have seen dealers go on fantastic streaks of luck as well as players. Suddenly a reversal of fortunes surfaces and it goes vice versa. The same trends occur when I play in the casino's poker room, I can go an hour, sometimes more without getting involved in a hand, no viable pockets to even play loose with. While online I experience the same trends. I go bad and then suddenly I get a rush of winning pockets. As for the droughts occurring after money withdrawals from online poker rooms, it's just a coincidence. I would love to blame my droughts on rigged software. The other night there were over 80,000 players online at one time. Now just how in the world do you figure they singled you out? Out of the entire population of "players currently online" do you suppose any software can do that?!!! They can deliver weak pockets which I refer to as a "lags" because they delay your game as any good poker player will bide his time and wait, wait, wait and wait some more if need be for a viable hand.The community board may be a tad juiced as well, but then again it is going to lose for you and win for you in turn, as the "laws of average" kicks in again! Same thing at a Blackjack table when a player does the opposite move with his/her hand as he should and then the dealer instead of making a solid hand, BUSTS! Nobody wants to kick the lame player unless the dealer makes a 21. Same thing in online poker rooms. You seem to remember the "bad beats" more predominantly than the hands you committed the bad beat on yourself. Human nature, we are basically negative creatures. Some more than others, thus the constant complaining and finger pointing. A decent comparison for the online community boards would be looking back to when you were learning poker as a kid, remember when deuces were wild? That creates excitement and more possibilities for everyone's hand involved. Again, it works for you and against you within the guidelines of the "laws of average". It's how you play the winning hands that differs the winners from losers.Maximize your wins and minimize your losses. It's just that simple. Rigging? Yes. But not individual conspiracies! Well guys/gals that's the way I see it.

There's definately something up at Ultimate Bet. I've played hundredsof hours recently at both Ultimate Bet and Poker Stars, and I don't seethe goofy things that happen at Ultimate Bet happening at Poker Stars.I'm not saying it's rigged. It could be just another case of bad programming. In any case its been my experience that the turn and rivercards favor underdogs much more than they should. Personally, I thinkthis makes the play at Ultimate Bet more boring because if you want todo well, you are much less likely to go all in when you are convincedthat you're a big favorite. I've also noticed that all of the luckseems to go to one person at a table. Some people seem to be on to this. This has happened to me. I was once in one of their freerolltournaments (2500 players start with 1500 chips each) and within thefirst half hour I was down to 30 chips. So I started playing silly.Two and a half hours into the tournament I was in first place. Believeme, it took no skill whatsoever to accomplish this. Whenever I had adraw to make the best hand, I called and made it. Totally unrealistic.I still think it's a decent site because they have very good freerolltournaments. It's pretty easy to finish "in the money" in them. Youjust have to fold and fold and fold. And if you hit the top two pairon the flop against the player who seems to be having all the luck,DON'T BET HEAVY! That player will make their flush or straight drawmore than the numbers say they should. The good news is that it's notunusual for a tournament that starts with 2500 players to have only about half of them left after only one hour. Also, players who haveaccumulated a lot of chips tend to play loosely. If you get AA or KKand go all in they'll call and you can often double up. By the way,the mistake I see the most is when a player hits high pair on the flop, doesn't chase others out, doesn't improve, and then calls a big bet after the river. I see this again and again. Another one I see is whensomebody goes all in before the flop and somebody calls or evengoes all in with more chips. Then somebody with a pair of nines goesall in. If the first player has Kh Qd, the second Kc Ks, a 9d 9s hasonly an 18.91 percent chance of winning and a .32 of 1 percent chanceof a tie. It's very often worse if the first two players have other cards. If anyone else has any stories about mistakes they see playersoften make, I'd enjoy hearing them.

My take on UB is that it is definitely rigged, but only insomuch as to create action at the tables. There are certain times and days when they're obviously being observed by their oversight board, because in those games, there tends to be a whole lot of folding. When four or five hands go by (usually in the late morning) where the BB just gets handed the blinds because everyone folds, it gets boring. On a personal level, I would consider it sufficed to say that when you are at UB, you really aren't playing poker. Poker is a game of odds and strategy. At UB, what you're doing is trying to guess how rigged the hand is and to what extent. You're not playing poker against other poker players. You're attempting to forecast how the software has distributed the cards. Anyone who plays multiple tables for any length of time can easily tell how the cards are going to fall in any given period (especially between the hours of three pm EST and two am EST). Another thing UB does is put hidden cookies on your machine to determine when the last time you played was. The more often you play, the more likely you are to lose (and the more likely you are to catch bad beats). This problem can be remedied by a good cache cleaner. Ever since I began regularly scoping my machine for temporary internet files and deleting them (and not just in the "cookies" folder), I've found UB to be much more lucrative over the long term. Connecting to the internet via dynamic IP (as in dialup) also helps. If I'm getting particularly spanked, I've found that disconnecting from the internet, cleaning out my computer, and reconnecting generally ups my win rate by a good fifteen to thirty percent. The rest of the time, when I lose, it's because I'm an idiot and fall in love with a hand that is an obvious loser by the river (fortunately, the similar idiocy of other players is generally how I make most of my money).

PokerMom. . . . .good post and accurate as well. I found a trick to winning similar to your suggestion.But before I venture into that area, I want to express my regard for your astute observations.I found that re-booting at the conclusion of a sit or whatever you were involved in, does indeed help.I haven't tried cleaning my cookies yet though, but I will take a shot at that, thanks!I will not post in a public forum what I discovered, but you can e-mail me at the name up there and I will give you the trick I discovered by accident. I find my luck changes quite dramatically when I use this technique, I will let you in on it because I was impressed with your post and your willingness to take the time and effort to share your discovery with the public. E-mail me and I will explain.Regards,TexasHoldem@adelphia.net

I've been playing more at other sites. My play at Ultimate Bet has beenpretty much limited to their 5000pts freerolls. After spending so muchtime at other sites, the crazy turn and river cards really stand out atUltimate Bet. Too bad because otherwise I like the site. I've had todrop my rating on it.

I love the variety of tables. Great tourneys from cheap to expensive. I also like the display. Very easy on the eyes. UB doesn't give bad beats or stack the cards. Poker gives bad beats. People forget when you are online, you play A LOT more hands then you do in real life. You don't remember the boring hands, only the bad beats. My biggest complaint is that the last UB automatic update screwed the sight up for me. I can not get in now. I can get into every other sight in the world but not UB. Their tech support is sorry. Its been over a week and they will not admit the problem is thier latest update. I can't be the only one having this problem. I play on party poker and fulltilt with no problems. I prefer UB over the rest, but I can't even get in now.

Probably the best best site overall, especially if you're looking for educated players. There DOES seem to be a problem with pocket KKs, which seem to lose at an alarming rate.

I've played in many of their freerolls. In my opinion it seems bogus.I don't think I would ever deposit real money there.

UB is good. Ive won plenty over a year now so quit moaning. If u lose alot give it up your crap simple as that

I like it. I wish it would let you start your own public or private tables though. Then I could play for money with just my friends.Also, they should have higher buy in "sit-and-go" tournaments on their free tables (currently only 100 play chips needed). It is next to impossible to sit at a free "sit-and-go" table. You have to be fast. Some of us have millions of chips and would like the option of a 100,000 or 200,000 buy in play chip "sit-and-go" table.Better yet. Let us create our own tables, set the buy-in, set the limit, chose the table game type and UB can take the rake for hosting it. As for "fixed deals" you guys have to remember that you are playing so many more hands than you would at AC/Vegas. Hundreds more. The deal is faster, the shuffel is faster and you can play many tables at once. It is normal to see many more "notable" hands than you would in vegas. Also, you remember bad beats and forget the hundreds of "normal" hands.It would be interesting to see an independant statistical analysis of the cards though. It would be a very simple thing to do.Think about how much money they make a day on rakes. Why would they risk that cash cow on padded hands? They have a good reputation now. Why would that risk it?S-F

I have played many sites and always come back to UB for the overall quality of the site, the level of competition and most of all, because I consistently win. Yes I get bad beats but not nearly as many as I do on other sites, ESPECIALLY PACIFIC POKER. If I were to suspect ANY site of rigging game outcomes it would be them. Whoever said they are honest hasn't played there long. Very unrealistic numbers of flushes and straights that contribute to many of the bad beats. I had 4 in a row that were simply and absolutely unbelievable. One of the things that hasn't been mentioned here is that UB, like Full Tilt and Poker Stars have world class players endorsing and playing on the site. You want to sit down with Phil Helmuth or Annie Duke or Antonio Esfandiari and see how you match up, you can do it on UB. My point is, I doubt these players are going to lend there names (and reputations) to a site that is ripping people off. You think Annie Duke is a crook? She could be a dupe too and it doesn't mean shady things aren't happening but it makes me much less suspicious of UB and Full Tilt than sites like Pacific Poker who have no celebrity endorsements. Bottom line, you play at your own risk and until there is some entity overseeing the honest operation of online gaming sites (like the Nevada Gaming Commission oversees Las Vegas operators) it is going to be the wild west out there. I don't truly trust any of them but so far UB has been the best of the bunch and the proof is in the bankroll. I make money there nearly every day.

I couldn't agree more with the last post. After playing at numerous sites I have found only 2 that (in my opinion) there isn't something fishy going on within the site. UltimateBet and Pokerstars seem to be the best. I chose UltimateBet simply because of the lower amount you can withdrawl. I never complain when I lose or take bad beats because it is a natural part of the game, however, the frequency that I see bad beats on some of these other sites is just laugh out loud funny. CONSTANT AA vs. KK, full boat beat by a higher full boat, flop a set only to be beat by a flush caught on the river (All while i was betting hard on the turn and river, mind you). Now the frequency that these occurences happen on UB or Pokerstars is once in a while. On other sites it's basically every 6 or 7 hands...give or take. Espcecially BODOG...worst site ever..stay away from there!!! In general there is no fairness with these other sites..there is no trust. They generally are just entertainment for a lot of amateurs not serious about the game, who love the constant action. The sites know this and so they feed lots of good hands knowing you just cant resist playing them out of the pocket. Anyone who has played poker and knows the game knows there is no such thing as constant action on every hand, like these sites have. It is hours of boredom capped off by moments of action. That is in a fair, well played game at least. These sites are businesses (we have to keep that in mind!!!) They are HERE TO MAKE MONEY!! The smaller sites which coincidentally everyone seems to complain about need money to survive!! So those in turn become the action sites. Where everything is set up. Larger sites like UB and Pokerstars are so huge already, they have enough money so they can offer a fair game. They will get their rake anyway. Smaller site's need the money, but no one seems to understand this.

This may have been mentioned earlier- I agree that the bi1ching about bad beats is silly. All of the major sites have their software audited by big independent auditing firms, many of which do all kinds of business outside of online gambling. All of the sites have these reports on-line- they're complicated and mathematical, but pretty obviously legit (and can also be accessed from the auditor's sites, lending further legitimacy). Someone mentioned above that you see more bad beats on UB because you see more hands- this is exactly right. As for the guy who did a test on 10 hands, that is just an incredibly insufficient sample. You'd have to do 1000s or millions of hands on UB to get any kind of real evidence of randomness/lack thereof- the 'law of averages' that someone mentioned. Gamblers sure are a paranoid and superstitious lot.

What the hell?Is every single site cheating? This is ridiculous. As a developer (thinking I'll fix this shit up and clean up!) I can't help thinking there is a reason. Sounds to me like all these sites are spending more money on promotion and less on anti fraud.Fix the anti fraud and you have the best game in town.

The main problem I see with UB is like what everyone else has said... The turn and river DEFINITELY favor the underdog 8 out of 10 times. I love playing at UB, but realize that I am getting nowhere.. Just got done playing in a game and lost 100,000 to someone calling every bet I made, and catching good hands with the garbage he had. That's one other bad thing about UB. People are too free with the money that they have. They don't care if they lose it, cause they're going to get more when they go broke.

I've been playing at UB for over 8 months and have lost about 8k. I've email UB asking them if they have a third party auditors and they have not replied to my email for the last month and half. Does anybody know if UB have their randomizer audited??? and by who?? All in All, its probably the best site around compared to all the other, its one the fastest. I'm slowing making my money back and all the suggestion and advice from various blog seem to have worked... I think most of the complianers are correct about the site having flaws in their random generators. It's programmed or set to maximize rake in one way or another... so your strategies really has to accommodate for this fact.. you can't play poker on UB or any other site for that reasons. You have to play distribution, you have to clean your system files, removed and re-install UB often!!!!, play on different computer, and most important of all (Don't Withdraw Money!!) Keep it in until you reach a certain bankroll and then withdraw.. close the account and create a new one. There are guys on UB that's making a killing....Btw UB along you to examine Hand History...make use of this facts before you play. You can look at the hand history of a table to see how other have played in the last 200 games and form your strategies to play them. UB give history away...be very careful...these history are goldmine to really good players.

UB used to be my main site. I turned 65 into over 600 in a matter of a couple of weeks playing a couple of hours a day playing no higher than .25 .50 blind no limit holdem. Then I started taking the bad beats. Every other idiot who called pot sized bets with a straight or a flush draw hit. I am not going overboard when I say that every 5 out of 10 hands won with a straight or a flush. I thought that I was playing Omaha. All that being said I still play there do to the fact i can always find a game without a long wait which is not possible with other rooms like Doyle's Room which I like but is lacking in full 9 handed action despite the fact that straights and flushes don't seem to come up nearly as often(which isn't hard for anybody who as played at ub to understand.)

Probably the best site as far as tourney's go. Lots of freerolls if you like that sort of thing. However it is by far the WORST site for cash games. STAY CLEAR OF CASH GAMES. Very weak players chasing flushes, str8's or just calling with one overcard and catching on the river. It's weird because in tournament play this doesn't happen nearly as often. Just beware of flopping sets and being sucked out by someone chasing a river str8 or flush. They'll catch a good 70-80% of the time, Stay clear of cash games and take advantage of the good tournaments.

I really thought I found a good poker site. Then of course the bad beats start to begin constantly again. I'm starting to believe every poker site on the internet is set up the same.Once you start on a new site you seem to win by playing solid poker. Ya know going all in with a set or str8. Raising with top pair or top 2 pair and 90% of the time your hands hold up. Then after a while, even though your style doesn't change, the results do. 4 Tournaments in a row no I've lost with top 2 pair and facing a set. A couple of examples me with AQ I slow play and just call the BB. No raisers. Flop AQ4 rainbow. I check everyone checks. Next card 9spades. I bet pot get reraised go all-in and low and behold the guy has pocket aces. I lose. Next tourney almost the same thing I have KJ suited I raise standard raise of 4 times big blind, get called, flop K8J two hearts I bet pot get called next card J of spades. I'm all in get called guy has KK. Happened two more times in a row. Not to mention how many str8's and sets I've had cracked on the river in cash games. Every site I've been to seems to go like this. Party Poker, Pacific Poker, Paradise Poker, Empire Poker and now Ultimate bet. Guess I should just stick to card nights with the guys and casino's. At least if I lose there I know it's not because of the supposed "random" card generators. It's amazing how in a casino if I have the best hand after the flop I win about 90% of the time, yet on line I struggle to win after having best hand on flop. Best hand on flop seems to win maybe 40% of the time.Internet players also go to casino's and you can tell them right away. They bet poorly, play mediocore hands and chase flushes and inside str8's constantly however in a casino they'll catch and inside str8 maybe 1 in 25 times which is about the average they should catch. Not the 4 out of 10 you see online or a good 75% when chasing a flush online. If anyone knows of a CONSISTANT poker site please let me know.I love the game but don't live near a casino and enjoy playing. Just can't stand the incosistancies that go along with the internet poker.

for the truest games try paradise and true poker. The reason why there are so many bad beats is because there are not enough randomly generated decks from which the programme can choose, and effectively the same 8% o hands will be dealt over a certain period of time.Paradise and true have over a million decks plus from which to deal and the chances of seeing repeating patterns, are almost negligible. And no, I don't work for any site. Am just a regular player, who has noticed repeated patterns on sites such as party, ub and vegas.

I referred 4 friends to this site and did not see any bonus money at all. They have no phone number just an email so they will never get back to you when you have a legitimate gripe. One of the WORST sites on the net. Constant chasers always catch river straights or flushes. I was just knocked out of a tournament when I had JQ flop came 10 J Q I bet pot guy to me left raises, I go all in he calls with K 6. Turn 4 River Ace. Happens 8 out of every ten 10 times on this site, making it impossible for good poker. Most every internet poker room is the same. I believe simply because they are hiding behind a computer so bad calls and chasers cannot be chastized face to face. Not to mention the shit that goes on with the ridiculous bad beats on line doesn;t happen in real life 90% of the time. Someone said it above. In real life if you're ahead after the flop you have a great chance of winning on line it's a coin flip that most often does not end up in you're favor. Ultimate Bet is probably the WORST online poker site there is as far as true poker goes. Party Poker is better. At least you can contact them by phone. They may not give you answers you like but at least they respond to you unlike those PUSSIES at Ub. Don't waste time or money on this piece of shit site. It's worthless. On another note. The bonus dollars are the most ridiculous of all the sites I've played on. For every Ultimate point you earn you get .10 of you're bonus dollars. So in order to collect .10 Ub must rake in at least $1.00. That's a crock of shit. It should be like all other sites. Play a certain amount of raked hands and get your bons money. UB SUCKS!!!!!!!!

In terms of graphics and ease of use, I haven't found any site comparable to UltimateBet. I haven't played long enough on other sites, but the bad beats on UltimateBet are so unreal. I've been trying to figure out how the program works, but there is a definite flaw in the program which I think "helps" the big stack/aggressive type player to catch cards on the river. Time and time again, I see it happening. People argue that we see them more because that we play so many hands online and that it's faster play than in real life poker. But that doesn't hold true because of the ratio of bad beats. I'd really suggest having someone actually playing and taking records of their games. Then you'll see how UB cheats...

Me again... also, I suspect that the bad beats happen to the short stack and help the big stacks in order to help end games faster and save bandwidth. Just a thought.

Recently playing at UB, I have found out when you send a message to UB, they do not respond like they did before the lastest software went in.

I have never played at a site where just about EVERYONE gets a piece of the flop until, that is, I played at UltimateBet. Doesn't matter how many people are playing. If 3 people are playing. Someone gets some of the flop, 2 people same thing. It doesn't matter. Don't even try to pull off a good bluff here because someone ALWAYS has the cards to call it. Pokerstars is the ONLY site i have come across where you can pull off a well calculated bluff. Any other site, especially UB, don't even try it. I mean i used to love this game of poker. Ever since i started playing online poker the love of the game has dwindled down so much. I still love to play in the casinos because i can still win there consistently. Anywyways, getting back to UB. It is always the case that someone is ALWAYS holding the 1 damn card that can beat me, CONSISTENTLY. It really is a joke. If i have a low end straight someone has that high card to make the higher straight. If i flop 2 pair, someone flopped a set. Believe me these are not some bad beat stories. This is consistent. I can't stress that enough. Almost as if it is programmed to happen. hhmmmm. Then again i guess we'll never know. So have fun with the online poker, but I won't be suckered again. See you in the casino!!

Does the world live in a bubble or something? After playing at a lot of these sites i have come to a conclusion....They are all set up and fixed to make more money. DUHHHHH!! Are You people that stupid? I love how one person said, "Party Poker and UB are already big sites. None of these online poker sites would put their reputation in jeapordy". That was the funniest. Hey, one word....ENRON!!! Yes they may be big companies with good reputations, but GREED always wins in the end. They prey on stupid shits like you people who say, "Oh they're all legit". WAKE UP.

All I can say is the two so called "big" sites of Ultimate Bet and Party Poker have so many players because of advertising. Both of these sites will tell you their RNG is legit and unfortunately there is no way to prove otherwise. If they can ge away with it, why wouldn't they deal and flop cards that induce big pots to increase the rake? Anyone would do it. To the person above. I also love playing in a casino because at least if I take a bad beat there (and maybe that's 1 in 15 or 20 not the 1 in 3 it happens online) at least I know it's legit because it's happening right in front of my eyes. I can see what's going on. On line nobody can see this RNG and therefore nobody will ever know if it's legit or not except the people running the site. You'll see more flushes, straights, boats, quads and even straight flushes on line in one hour than you will at a casino in 12. People will say you play more hands per hour online than in a casino and that's true but thats no excuse. Play online at your own risk and expect the unexpected to be the usual.

This may be the worst and most unrealistic site of them all... I was playing heads up and lost 4 hands in a row where i had Ace and a higher kicker vs. Ace to his lower kicker. Lost all 4 to lose the tournament. Bad beats do happen but the odds of this happening are probably in the millions. You can't even say that it's because of the quantity of hands because it was 4 times in a ROW. Very unrealistic...PLAY AT YOUR OWN RISK. Don't say i didn't warn you.

I just deleted UB from my computer after suffering a series of bad beats that were nothing less than sickening. I play No Limit tables, I am not a pro, and I have played successfully in brick and mortar casinos. With that said, I was playing very tight and waited 45 hands to get my money in pot. I was dealt AK suited and made a 10x BB raise and get a caller. He had AA of course and he takes my money. Next table I play I get AK again and push. I lose to pocket Kings. Next table, I flop nut flush. I need to milk it a little to make back some of my losses so I don't push too hard. Well, I end up losing on the river to a A4 offsuit who hit a 2 outer on the river. Imagine that. Finally, down to my last $20 out of $150 for the day. I get dealt AA, so I push hard as to not get outdrawn. Well I get called by a guy with AJ offsuit. Now what do you think could happen now? Well I go all in after the flop which is AJ4 and he calls. The next two cards come Jack, Jack which gives him quads. WTF? I don't know the odds of those cards coming in succession but it is enough to make me a quitter. ONLINE POKER IS RIGGED.

The above post is just an example of 2 hours of play. I won when I first started playing on UB, Empire/Party, Pokerstars. But eventually over several months the same thing happens on every site I have played. The string of bad beats comes and wipes out all I have made. Weird patterns of cards develope and it seems that those who fish for gut shots and two outers get the best of me no matter how I bet. I have read too many similar stories for this to be coincidence or simply bad play on my part. Beware of UB!!