By
Dan
Ever since the scandal involving a piece of software that could be accessed to see the hole cards of other players erupted on UltimateBet, the site has made every attempt to reach out to its players. In addition to continuing to offer the $200K Guaranteed every Sunday,
Annie Duke, a PocketFiver and UB’s new Cardroom Consultant, has been working feverishly to redesign the tournament structure on the site. This week, Duke joined the
PocketFives.com Podcast to address UltimateBet’s new and improved tournament schedule as well as provide essential background information regarding the scandal. Duke has been extremely active on the forum recently and provides insight into her discussion with PocketFives members.
If you haven’t checked out UltimateBet in a while, now is a good time to. Sniper tournaments (essentially a bounty tournament) with guarantees ranging from $7,500 to $80,000 pervade the site’s tournament schedule. Winners of each Sniper tournament take home both cash and an entry into a seven person freeroll that awards entries into other Sniper tournaments. Duke explains her market research on PocketFives: “I think that on the whole, people are very positive on the changes we’ve made. It’s definitely an ever-changing schedule. This week, we are about to revamp the satellite system schedule based on suggestions from PocketFives. The approach I’ve taken is that this schedule is for the people who play it. I’m going to do my best to listen to people on the site who are playing and try to do what they want. That’s why I’ve used PocketFives as such a resource. PocketFives is one of the main places I go for input aside from the pros at UltimateBet itself. I’m very grateful for the community because I find that it is very helpful.”
One change you’ll see coming is additional tournaments during the afternoon hours in order to make UB’s schedule more even. The online poker room also offers $1.2 million in weekly guarantees and nightly $109 buy-in deep-stack tournaments where players start with 5,000 in chips. The site's main poker personalities include Duke and 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth (pictured at right).
Duke explains how the software that allowed players on the site to be exploited was developed: “When UltimateBet was first formed, there was a software company and a company that held the gaming license. Somebody associated with the company that owned the gaming license developed a piece of software that, if it were used, would allow you to see the hole cards of other players. As long as you had that piece of software, any account could access it [so in essence it wasn’t really a superuser account]. In March of 2006, the company was going public and it was going to be listed on the London Stock Exchange. The company that held the gaming license was bought out and disappeared. Then, the piece of software started to be exploited.”
In terms of the length of the investigation and UltimateBet’s responsiveness to the scandal when it first broke, Duke commented, “Someone said, ‘This account is out of range’ and UB looked at it. They investigated it and put out a couple of interim statements and, in the end, they refunded everyone. UB never denied it. When the management that screwed the Absolute Poker issue up was in place, I was looking to leave the brand. I was actually talking to other sites. Very shortly after that cleared up, the management changed. I was told by people I trust to give this new management a chance. The new management handled the UB issue much differently than the old management handled the AP issue. The new management had to go back and data mine since March of 2006 to figure out all of the transactions associated with the accounts [in question]. That doesn’t take a week. I feel like the people who are being negative put the company in a ‘catch 22.’ Had the company started refunding within a week, there would have been huge mistakes made.”
One question asked by MUPokerPlayer concerned whether the UB management actually turned over. Duke responded, “It’s a matter of public record. The company was held as a public company. When the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act happened, it could no longer be held on the London Stock Exchange and so was listed privately.”
Check out Duke’s responses to questions from other PocketFivers this week on the PocketFives.com Podcast.
Visit UltimateBet to scope out the new tournament schedule as well.