UltimatePoker Deals 2 Millionth Hand
Sunday June 2, 2013 : GOOD PROGRESS FOR PIONEERING ONLINE POKER OPERATOR
2 million hands dealt in first 30 days of operations at Ultimate Poker.com
Ultimate Poker.com, the first Nevada-licensed online poker room to become operational just thirty days ago, is making good progress, according to an assessment by poker information site Quadjacks, which notes that the room opened its virtual doors on April 30 this year and has already dealt over 2 million hands.
Early hassles with cell phone geo-location verification (players have to be within Nevada's borders) have largely been resolved as more cell phone operators have come on board, and the Cyberarts software has been updated to fix relatively small glitches.
Although Texas Hold’em is still the only game available, some of the limits have been raised, and there are several new sit-and-go poker tournament formats, Quadjacks reports, noting that the multi-table tournament selection has also been expanded, with over 50 to choose from each day. Some events are now being capped at 2,000 players, ten times the maximum number allowed in the site's first tournament.
The benefits of licensing and legality have included widespread local television, radio and billboard advertising and promoting, including through land-based casino owner Station Casinos and Fertitta Interactive, parent groups of Ultimate Gaming. In addition Ultimate Gaming chief exec Tom Breitling has been active on the PR front, giving TV network and other media interviews.
The Quadjacks report quotes stats from the independent online poker monitor Pokerscout, which found that Ultimate Poker traffic peaked at 136 players on its first day, an impressive number considering the cell phone location issues. That number has now climbed to nearly three times that amount.
"Ultimate Poker is now the 33rd largest online poker room in the world in terms average cash game player counts based on the previous seven days. It is the 6th largest U.S.-facing online poker network, a notable accomplishment considering the top five accept players from most U.S. states and Ultimate Poker only accepts players in Nevada for the time being," the Quadjacks assessment notes.
The coming weeks and months will be interesting as competitor WSOP.com, backed by the resources of the Caesars Entertainment group, comes online for real money play in Nevada. The site is already offering play-for-fun and pre-registering players.
