Molly's Online Poker and Sportsbook Guide

Molly Rating: 4.9/5.0
Guest Rating: 4.3/5.0 (4 votes)

Review Date: March 20, 2005

While playing at UltimateBet that Beach Boys song Kokomo keeps running through my head

Aruba, Jamaica, ooo I wanna take you
Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mama
Key Largo, Montego, baby why don’t we go

The main theme of UltimateBet is a poker room in the tropical paradise of Aruba. Anyway, behind the all the Aruba promotions is one of the finest poker rooms on the Internet. Besides the standard menu of online poker games such as Hold’Em, Omaha, and 7-stud, you will be able to play in a couple oddball games, Crazy Pineapple, and Triple Draw. Here is a description of Crazy Pineapple that I got from the UltimateBet site.

Just as in regular texas hold’em, there is a betting round after you receive your hole cards, and another betting round after you see the flop. However, in Pineapple a very important change happens here. AFTER betting on the flop is completed, you must discard one of your hole cards.

For example, if you start with a hand of (8h-8s-Jh) and then see a flop of 10h-9h-8d, you have a pretty big decision to make. If you want to keep your open-ended straight flush draw, you’re going to have to discard one of your trip eights (a pleasant dilemma, but a dilemma nonetheless). If you want to keep the trips, you need to throw away the key card in the straight flush draw.

The lobby layout is very nice with easy column based sorting of tables. The lobby’s table list shows, for each table, the table name, the stakes, number seated, number on the wait list, the blind structure, the average pot, the percent of players seeing the flop, and the number of hands per hour. As seems to be epidemic among most online sites this information is on some kind of delay. (Do we have Janet Jackson to thank?) You will commonly open a table with one or two empty seats shown in the lobby, but when you arrive at the table it’s full.

Playability is excellent, however, if you are used to the overhead table view, UltimateBet’s first person view may be a little disorienting, at first, but you’ll get used to it. Just like every site, you have the standard menu of next move buttons. Play is smooth without hesitations that I’ve seen at some other sites, which I’m guessing means they have servers which can easily handle their loads.

An exceptional feature for those who like to play multiple tables at the same time is the table mini view. The mini view is a narrow window, about 200 pixels high, so that you can stack many of them on your screen at the same time without obstructing each other. The typical screen resolutions will support 4 or 5 of these windows easily. Play is linear, rather than circular, progressing from left to right then back to the left side.

The table also supports the standard stats window and the ability to take player notes. This stats window is laid out much better and provides more information than any other site I’ve reviewed. You can keep notes on all you opponents, however there is no indication that you have notes for the player. What’s missing is an icon or symbol next to the player’s chair that would indicate that you’ve taken notes on that player.

For the beginners and those on a tight bankroll, UltimateBet offers the ultimate in micro limit tables with the rake free $0.01/$0.02 tables in all games. On the other end of the spectrum, the high rollers can enjoy the thrill of $80/$160 tables available for all games, although the action is light. As always, there is more than enough action on the Hold’Em tables. The limit tables over in Omaha are a little light on the action, but the pot/no limit Omaha tables has good action.

The icing on the cake is that UltimateBet is partnered with some of the top pros as you can see from this taken form the UltimateBet.com web site.

UltimateBet.com has been developed with the assistance of many of the world’s leading poker players and authorities. Russ Hamilton, Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott and Jack McClelland all have given us their expert advice as we develop what we feel is the best online poker experience available on the Web today.

New faces at the Team UB table include “Magic” Antonio Esfandiari, Tournament Ambassador KrazyKanuck, and News Ambassador John Vorhaus.

Go grab a Pina Colada, put on a Beach Boys CD, and head down to Aruba for some serious online poker action.

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