Before signing up to a specific online poker room, players should read as many reviews as possible about the site theyre about to join. Reviews help online poker players compare the quality, presentation, support, and overall experience of various poker rooms available on the web. Before you start funding an account with an online poker room, its a good idea to take the time to educate yourself on what a particular site has to offer, and how it relates other online poker room options.

Ultimate Bet is a popular online poker room that is part of the Excapsa network, one of the biggest networks of poker rooms on the web. Ultimate Bet is known for its stiff competition, so beginning players may want to hone their skills on other sites before trying to compete at Ultimate Bet.

If no-limit Holdem is your game, then youll definitely want to check out Ultimate Bet. The site offers no-limit Holdem games starting as low as $.01 to $.02 blinds and going up to $50-$100 blinds. The higher the limits, the stiffer the competition gets. The low stakes no-limit games and micro-stakes games feature competition thats clearly less formidable. Tournament buy-ins start at $1 and go all the way up to $1000. Available tournaments include single and multi-table Holdem, 7 Card Stud, Omaha and Omaha hi-lo. Other poker variation games are also offered as ring games. These offshoots include interesting games like Crazy Pineapple and Royal Holdem, although there are considerably fewer amounts of players that enjoy them.

The software offered by Ultimate Bet is first-rate. The program wants quickly and the graphics are smooth. If youre playing at multiple tables at the same time, youll find that the MiniView feature will come in handy. If you want to monitor your performance, the statistics functions will be a helpful to your game.

The bonuses at Ultimate Bet are also pretty decent. Players get a 40 percent bonus up to $200, but it might take you awhile to earn it. The frequent-player bonuses are pretty sweet as well. Ultimate Bet pays quickly (a NETeller account typically funds within one or two days), and has multiple deposit options (NetTeller, Firepay, SFPay, Citadel, Visa, MasterCArd, wire transfer, cashiers check or back draft).

One of the biggest drawbacks to this site has to be its customer support. Communications via email are not that speedy, to say the least, and there is no phone or live chat support whatsoever.

Ultimate Bet is endorsed by many professional poker players including Annie Duke, the more-than-capable sister of poker great Howard Lederer, and a poker star in her own right. Ultimate Bet is full of skilled players, smooth game-play, and a variety of games. So if you like a challenge, or you just want to play Triple Draw, Ultimate Bet might be the site for you. Beginners, however, should keep their distance.