Ultimate Bet Review

Ultimate Bet Summary

Ultimate Bet is one of the largest poker sites on the net, sitting firmly within the top 5, with average traffic in 20,000-30,000 range. Backed by some big name stars, and some of the best promotions in the industry, the site has fought back from some controversy to regain its footing and continued to grow since.

Ultimate Bet Bonus

Ultimate’s main rewards system is their Raise program, in which players climb up through the ranks to greater rewards. Not only do further options for using their points become available at higher levels, but they also earn more points per dollar wagered. Their initial deposit bonus is a massive 111% match bonus up to a whopping $1100. If not the best initial offer available anywhere, it’s very close. Their current reload bonus is an impressive 100% match up to $600, which is actually better than most sites’ initial deposit bonus. The deposit bonuses at Ultimate are all but unmatched.

Ultimate Bet Promotions

The goodness doesn’t stop there though, as Ultimate doles out some great promotions and tournaments, including their satellites to the 2009 World Series of Poker, and weekly $200,000 guaranteed tourney’s. There’s also the bad beat jackpot, which was last awarded Sunday, March 15, 2009, as of the time of this review, for a cool $60,197.36.

Ultimate Bet Rewards

Another nice feature is their Ultimate Auctions area, where players can use their Ultimate points to bid on a variety of items, including signed poker themed collectibles, movies, and even private lessons with some of Ultimate Bet’s pros. The Ultimate website is available in over a dozen languages, another nice feature for non-English speaking players.

Ultimate Bet Banking Options

Banking options include the usual suspects of credit cards and checks for Americans, as well as online banking options like Moneybookers, Neteller, ClickandBuy, Click2Pay, and UKash, for those outside the U.S. Withdrawals require identity verification before they’ll be processed, in the form of photo I.D such as a driver’s licence or passport, copies of the front and back of your credit card (if applicable), and a recent document verifying your address.

Ultimate Bet Software

I like the clean interface provided with the software. I’ve heard others comment that it’s a little stale, and I guess I could see it from their perspective, but ultimately I’m looking for the best functionality and ease of use, which the software delivers. If I want graphical prowess I’ll go play my PlayStation 3. The software is also fully compatible with Poker Tracker and Hold’em Manager, two great poker software programs that really give you a leg up on the competition.

Ultimate Bet Games

Ultimate has great traffic, but that traffic is largely limited to Texas Hold’em, with Omaha and Seven Card Stud receiving decent but underwhelming numbers. The novelty games like H.O.R.S.E, and Razz usually only have a few rooms going at a time, so the chances of finding a good game with the settings you want may be slim. Texas Hold’em of course is packed at all hours, with games available in all shapes, sizes, and wagers. On the no limit end of things, there are rooms from $0.01/$0.02 blinds up to $200/$400.

Ultimate Bet Scandal

It should be noted that like Absolute Poker, Ultimate Bet was also caught up in a cheating scandal in 2007 and 2008. Like with the former case, it was also a situation where a former employee of the company used his knowledge of the site’s security to create accounts that had access to private information. Most notably they could see the opponent’s hole cards during games. What’s most distressing about the scandal is that it took place over a much longer period of time than the Absolute Poker case, while still remaining undetected, and was only uncovered by the investigations of other players and pros playing on the site. The loophole that allowed the perpetrator to cash out large sums of money without any type of internal audit by Ultimate Bet is that the account type was changed to a Professional account, which isn’t under the same restrictions as other accounts when attempting to make withdrawals. The Kawnawake Gaming Commission has since placed several sanctions on Ultimate Bet, which included the return of all monies to players affected by the cheating, and the implementation of stringent standards to ensure that this never type of scenario can never happen again, be it from outside or inside sources. While an occurrence like this is not pleasant for anyone involved, and Ultimate Bet’s traffic has seen a major reduction as a result, I don’t think this instance alone should flat-out determine your interest in the site. The responsible parties have been dealt with, the affected players have been reimbursed, and the potential security risks have been sealed shut. It’s just a sad reminder that wherever there’s money to be had, there will also be people willing to do anything in their power to get a hold of that money. If you can get past the scandal, you’ll find a good deal to like about Ultimate Bet. Great rewards, nice software, and the best deposit bonuses in the business simply can’t be overlooked.