It’s 6:45pm. I just got off Marta, the Atlanta public transit. Today, I had class from 9:00 in the morning until 2:30 this afternoon. I always like to get a quick workout and some hoops in before a big tournament session. I logged about 30 hands of 2-7 triple draw during Civil Procedure before the UltimateBet UBOC Event #2. I had to figure out what made a winning hand. I fire up my computer while I get the shower running:(6:49:55 PM) I Pay Ur Rent: yo, can you hook me up with any FTP? I have PS.
(6:49:59 PM) threatnasty: I can trade a lil if that helps
(6:53:31 PM) rmpltiltskin: hey threat, would u want to buy half my action in the 320 uboc?
(6:54:57 PM) threatnasty: are you gonna win it?
(6:55:13 PM) threatnasty: sent. Alrite, I gotta shower.
(7:00:32 PM) I Pay Ur Rent: nice seat 75nl. Thanks again
After a shower during which I cleanse myself of all possible bad beats, I sit in at my 7pm tables, and the grind begins. Thank God for UBOC! I don’t even know why I’m excited. Well, to be fair, I get excited every time I fire up an MTT session, but whenever an online series “comes to town,” there’s just a little added enthusiasm. What’s not to be thrilled about?As if Wednesday night doesn’t already get the blood flowing, all I have to do is cash 11/18 tournaments in the next 11 days, and UB makes me a millionaire. If I cash 8/18, they will ship me to Aruba. Even better, all of the other tourneys are going to be that much bigger. All of the bust hands will be that much more devastating. In the next 11 days, I’m going to lose like $30,000 on the internet. It’s awesome!
But I might just win the high roller NLHE event. This is what it’s all about!
(8:33:16 PM) tdomeski: gl tonite. Bday miracle possibly?
Yeah so Thursday is my birthday… another good reason to be excited for UBOC and MTTs in general. Everyone knows you get like a seven day window to win whatever you want. But seriously, I’ve won a tourney on or within two days of my birthday for three out of the past four years. I doubt that’s coincidental. It wasn’t even on UB either (bad attempt at a rigged joke – sorry mattg1983, Patrolman35, etc.)
Nah, but I hardly ever play on UB. Aside from the $215 on Wednesday and Sunday, and that $320 on Saturdays, who does, right?
(8:39:52 PM) Stoweski: UB is fun. what options and tbl view you got ?
(8:45:05 PM) threatnasty: dunno. What should i have?
(8:46:56 PM) Stoweski: dunno think the distant view and all sounds on. Fold option. Disable lobby to front. Etc.?
See! People don’t even have the options set on the dang site, but they come out of the wood-works to play the UBOC. How awesome is that? For 18 people on UB who win their respective titles; instant glory.
What about the countless other tourneys: the 18 miniUBOC events, the $320 on PokerStars, the $100 rebuy 6-max on Full Tilt Poker, the Fifty-Fifty, the $100 Cubed (1 rebuy + 1 add-on), the $100 Turbo… heck, even the $3 rebuy? For the guys that win tournaments tonight, those wins are that much sweeter. When I’m reminiscing my win in the Stars Nightly Seventy Grand (completely hypothetical), it’ll be the time I ran so good I shipped a tourney on one of the first nights of the UBOC. For the guy that finally wins a tournament this Sunday, it’ll be the sad tale of the day that he bubbled the $2,500 NLHE event in a chip-lead pot with aces.
For those of us that endlessly grind away at MTTs, the UBOC marks the opportunity to start 2010 off with the confidence building score to break through this year. It invokes a sense of excitement that has 30% of my buddy list asking for UB swaps. It’s an 11-day, must-play, for all of our peers to put in a little extra volume. More than anything else, the UBOC, like its counterparts the FTOPS and WCOOP, reminds us all why we put in the countless hours mastering the game: so that when we finally do make a deep run in that bigger, potentially career-changing tournament, we are not ill-prepared.
The series brings much needed life to the often mundane life of the tournament grinder. After all, it’s not every day that I remember to send $0.02 to the entire P5s leader board for a little run-good, but God save me if I forget during UBOC. And it’ll be no-one’s fault but my own if I swap for unlucky money during this pivotal time.
(10:51:12 PM) I Pay Ur Rent: ur $ hasnt been lucky yet
(10:51:35 PM) threatnasty: ha, mine never is, probly shoulda put a disclaimer
(10:53:03 PM) threatnasty: that’s why i sent theczar19 12 cents this morning tho
All jokes aside, as I sit 28/108 in the money of UBOC-1, and 238/240 in UBOC-2, it’s hard not to notice the different feeling of playing online poker during a large series. UB has done a brilliant job to promote this series. The satellite schedule has been phenomenal. They are even offering MTT regulars the opportunity to play the $2.6k event and a bonus $215 for a total of $2000. See this thread for more details.
For all of us who spend countless hours examining the EV of particular plays, the free $815 in equity is like a gift from the poker gods. Even if the $2,500+100 event is slightly out of your bankroll, how could you possibly pass up the free equity?
When it’s all said and done, UB’s UBOC offers amazing value to MTT regulars. While UB clearly has an interest in increasing traffic to their site, the series serves the broader function of re-instilling excitement into online tournament poker, and it’s not often that you find $320 buy-in fields where people are folding AK suited face-up to a 10bb shove (I wanted a call. How could T
9 lose?).Don’t miss out on this gift to the online poker community. Thank you, UB.com. And when I do blank this entire series, there’s a February FTOPS.
- Brett threatnasty Switzer
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