Online Report
UltimateBet.com held a series of tournaments over a ten-day period in December, each of which had a guaranteed prize pool of at least $40k. This series was called the UltimateBet Online Championships (UBOC), and many of the internet’s best players turned out for most or all of the events.
The two biggest events of the UBOC were the Sunday NLHE tournaments on December 3rd and 10th. On the 3rd, there was a $250k guaranteed tournament, and several top-ranked tournament specialists made it through the field to the final table, including second ranked BeL0WaB0Ve. The main event on the 10th was a $1million guaranteed tournament with a buy-in of $530, and it was won by another top 10 player, t soprano, who has been striking fear into his online opponents for years.
Overall, UltimateBet is starting to give online players a lot of reasons to open up their console on a daily basis. They’re now holding daily $100 rebuy tournaments with a $25k guarantee, and there are three different $200 tournaments and a $500 tournament every week. Each night has two different guaranteed prizepool $100 freezeouts as well, which attract many of the top players on the net.
In other site news, the Sunday Million on PokerStars continues to get bigger every week. The number of entrants is approaching 7,000 in the weeks when the buy-in is $215, making this tournament an online version of the World Series of Poker Main Event every weekend. Satellites run throughout the day every day for the Sunday Million, and more and more people every week are getting a chance to compete for a six-figure first prize.
There are a few relatively new online names to look out for. BKiCe has been constantly moving towards the top of the rankings, having now achieved a spot in the top 20. He was a relatively unknown player until a few months ago, but he’s really starting to make a name for himself, putting up very consistent results.
Atimos won the November PocketFives Leaderboard (PLB), much of which was due to his $250k win in the Sunday Million, when he beat fellow online pro apestyles heads up. He’s now ranked in the top 20, and the players who challenged him the most for the November crown, dipthrong and mr. menlo, are both also rising quickly in the rankings.
Stay posted next month for all of the latest news in the online poker world.
William Jenson aka Huey
My name is William Jensen, or “Huey,” as I’m called by my friends. Before I started playing poker, I used to travel the world playing another card game, Magic: The Gathering. Around the time the movie Rounders came out, lots of us would play very low limit Hold’em during downtime and after Magic tournaments. Participating in these games were some names you might recognize: Eric Froehlich, Brock Parker (t soprano), and David Williams. Still, back then, nobody took poker too seriously, and I ha
d no idea it would become my life.A few years later, in 2001, I started attending college at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts. Around this time, I began taking poker much more seriously. I was doing okay in small stakes cash games online and was very happy with my new hobby. By the start of my sophomore year, I was doing extremely well and decided that I would be happier playing poker than finishing school. So I dropped out of school and moved to Maryland to live with Brock, who was also playing poker professionally.
Having close friends and roommates who are poker players is extremely useful in improving your own game, in that you are able to spend a lot of time watching them, discussing things, and having them watch you. It would be very hard to become a good poker player without being able to share ideas with others. My parents, although initially very upset with my decision to drop out of school, have been very supportive of my poker playing, and that has been really important as well.
My poker idol is definitely Phil Ivey. I haven’t played with him personally in a tournament, but just from watching him it is obvious that almost every single read and play he makes is spot-on accurate. He is fearless and has an incredible amount of natural talent.
I prefer tournaments over cash games because I think there are many more strategic aspects, as well as the chance for a big score with relatively little risk. The swings aren’t as huge, and you know you can never lose more than the buy-in, but you can certainly win a lot more.
When I’m not playing poker, I spend almost all my time with my friends. I very much enjoy watching sports, especially the NBA, and I like to attend sporting events whenever I have the chance.
Despite any personal success I might have had, my favorite poker moment is still when I watched one of my best friends, Eric Froehlich, win two World Series of Poker bracelets in 2005. My own goal in poker is to win a bracelet, and seeing one of my best friends achieve that was amazing.
