UltimateBet, currently known as UB, is the main poker lobby of the new CEREUS Poker Network. Home of poker legends Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke, UltimateBet is played at by a large number of players. This includes American players as UltimateBet is one of the US friendly poker sites online today. UB had been under attack in recent years for lax security and bad customer support but has sworn to improve all aspects of the site since their union with the CEREUS poker network.
If you are looking for a large poker bonus, your search ends here because the UB Bonus is very impressive. With a whopping 111% return on all initial deposits up to $1100, Ultimate Bet proposes a great bonus for new registrants. Just use the UB referral code of FTR111 when you make your beginning poker deposit. As exciting as this sounds, it's first important to grasp the procedures behind the methods you will use to acquire your UB bonus.
First some simple info. First things first: use your computer and make a UB download. After you've got the software running, you have access to the cashier. When you make your first ever real-cash deposit, UB gives you bonus dollars equal to 111% of the currency you deposited, up to $1100. These extra dollars are not yet yours to keep. In order to release the bonus dollars, you need to earn Status Points. This will need to be done by playing poker hands in real currency games, whether it be cash or MTT poker.
Now for the nitty gritty of the UB bonus clearing. For every 20 Status Points you obtain, $1 of your bonus money is yours to keep. Each time you get 100 status points, you get a deposit of $5 placed in your account. If you make a beginning deposit of $1000 (and thus receive $1100 extra dollars), you need to earn 22,000 status points to release the full $1100. Be careful though: there are only 60 days to clear all of your additional dollars before you lose the ones that remain unreleased.
So how do you get Status Points? For tournaments, you get one status point for any $0.30 of entry fee (so in a $30+3 tournament, you'd receive 10 status points). For ring games, you receive Status Points according to the stakes you're playing. This is the chart they use to decide your Status Points:
No Limit
$0.01/0.02 - 1 point for each 15 hands
$0.02/0.04 - 1 point apiece per 10 hands
$0.05/0.10 - 1 point for every 10 hands
$0.10/0.25 - 1 point for every 5 hands
$0.25/0.50 - 1 point apiece per 3 hands
$0.50/1.00 - 1 point apiece per 2 hands
$1.00/2.00 - 1 point for each hand
$2.00/4.00 through $5.00/10.00 - 1.5 points apiece per hand
$10.00/20.00 and higher - 2 points for each hand
Limit
$0.01/0.02 - 1 point for every 20 hands
$0.02/0.04 - 1 point per 20 hands
$0.05/0.10 - 1 point for every 15 hands
$0.10/0.20 - 1 point per 15 hands
$0.25/0.50 - 1 point for every 10 hands
$0.50/1.00 - 1 point for every 5 hands
$1.00/2.00 - 1 point for each 2 hands
$2.00/4.00 - 1 point per hand
$3.00/6.00 - 1.5 points for every hand
$4.00/8.00 and up - 2 points for every hand
So, for instance, you'd have to play 22,000 hands of $1.00/2.00 no-limit poker within 60 days to be able to clear the total $1100 bonus. If you're playing lower stakes like $0.10/0.25, you'd have to play 110,000 hands. If you think that you can do this, then UB.com clearly offers a lucrative bonus deal for you. The good news is that because you get the bonus in $5 allotments, you can deposit any amount you want and not really have to worry about being unable to clear the bonus. You perhaps won't receive the maximum amount, but a little free money is of course better than nothing.
I will end with a word of caution: for new players especially, the temptation to try to earn these extra funds faster by playing higher stakes is always strong. Do not forget your bankroll management! At the lowest stakes the UB bonus will take a long time to earn, but attempting to gamble higher than your bankroll will allow will almost always harm you more than it will benefit you when it's all said and done.
