Phil Hellmuth leaves UB.com (formerly Ultimate Bet)

Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke leave UB (formerly Ultimate Bet)

First Annie Duke leaves UB
Annie Duke just left UB.com (formerly Ultimate Bet) in what she said was to "..explore other avenues of business and personal growth..". She had been with the company for 9 years and recently got engaged. So a change of pace was probably needed for the lady, plus it's also a good move for UB who is more or less re-branding their look to go towards a younger audience. Either way we are sure Annie Duke will be very successful in whatever she has planned.

Now the other big news: Phil Hellmuth leaves UB
Here is a post from Phil's blog:

December 30, 2010
     Over the last few months, rumors have been floating around that UB.com and I have parted ways.
     Today, I'd like to confirm yes, it's true.  I no longer wear the UB patch. UB.com and I have chosen
     to end our longstanding relationship.
     This was a mutual decision, and a difficult one for both parties to make. But I truly believe it's the
     right move for me and for the rebranded UB.com
     I sincerely wish everyone at UB.com-from management to the frontline staff to every player who
     loves this
     game as much as I do.
     -the very best.
     
     Phil Hellmuth


We think (and this is speculation only so far) that Hellmuth will probably be signed with the WSOP.com and be teaching classes. It would be a perfect fit for him, as he is a staple of the WSOP. We also believe he has made a deal with Aria Resort and Casino.
Either way we wish both super stars the very best!

"Durrrr" Challenge 2 done!

Ladies and Gents, it's over yes the Durrrr Challenge 2 is over, well at least as far as we're concerned.

Tom Dwan's "Durrrr Challenge" number two is on a break but who really cares anymore honestly. The play between Dwan and "JungleMan12" Cates never had a real schedule so you never knew when they'd be playing or for how long.  Remember the first "Durrrr Chanllenge" that took place against Patrik Antonius and basically never finished. Yeah that challenge started off pretty good but they never had a set schedule either and after awhile it just became lack luster; You could catch some of the hands played out on websites like PokerListings.com, but that's not what you wanted you wanted to see the live action not replayed hands.
Now with the latest challenge put on another break, we ask did it ever really have a chance? No not really. Dwan  probably over committed himself to various venues where he must spend more time at and trying to play here and there with poor internet connectivity is pointless anyway. The challenge may have stood a chance if they simply got out a calendar and marked all of the upcoming events they would be attending and then came together and said ok on this day of this month we can play for two hours and we'll let everyone know and then stick to it.  Maybe in the future two big names will do something similar and handle it better.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to ALL!!!!

Absolute Pokers UBOC6

Aboslute Poker has announced it's full UBOC6 schedule. below are the first 10 for the complete list got here.UBOC6 Full Schedule

Sunday, January 16th at 14:00 ET
Event #1: NLHE Deep Stack
$530 buy-in, $250,000 Guarantee

Sunday, January 16th at 16:00 ET
Event #2: Sniper NLHE Deep Stack
$320 buy-in, $200,000 Guarantee

Sunday, January 16th at 18:30 ET
Event #3: NLHE Deep Stack Ultra Turbo
$320 buy-in, $100,000 Guarantee

Monday, January 17th at 20:05 ET
Event #4: NLHE Four-Max
$320 buy-in, $100,000 Guarantee

Monday, January 17th at 20:05 ET
Event #5: NLHE Rock Star Bounty
$215 buy-in, $100,000 Guarantee

Tuesday, January 18th at 20:05 ET
Event #6: PLO Six-Max
$215 buy-in, $50,000 Guarantee

Tuesday, January 18th at 20:05 ET
Event #7: NLHE Deep Stack
$320 buy-in, $100,000 Guarantee

Wednesday, January 19th at 16:05 ET
Event #8: NLHE
$162 buy-in, $50,000 Guarantee

Wednesday, January 19th at 20:05 ET
Event #9: PLO Cubed
$215 buy-in, $100,000 Guarantee

Wednesday, January 19th at 20:05 ET
Event #10: NLHE Deep Stack Six-Max
$530 buy-in, $250,000 Guarantee

Rat Pack Poker News from Dec.6-12th

Ladies and Gents here is your poker news

• Rumors abound that PokerStars has slipped in and bought up the sponsorship for GSN's High Stakes Poker. Full Tilt Poker has been the sponsor for the past seasons and even though none of the players ever wore logo's or advertisements Full Tilt is still concerned that people would be confused as to which site their players are associated with. What does this mean for the new season..check back and we'll let you know as soon as we do
• Tom Dwan inched his way back to a $63k win in his "Durrrr" Challenge, that still puts him down around $500k for the challenge thus far against "Jungleman12".  Dwan was up $354k during the session but dropped some $200k in  a pot and then  had some more misfortune when he flopped the nut flush against the 'jungles' two pair and lost his internet connection forcing the hand to be checked down. No offense to Dwan but if you're playing pots worth $200k you may want to make sure you have a solid connection, yet we're sure this swing didn't affect him too much. He did tweet that he was a bit tilted after that hand.
• The PPA announced that unfortunately the bill proposed by Senate Majority leader Harry Reid was dead in the water. But We'll keep trying!!!
• Party Gaming co-founder Anurag Dikshit (yeah that's his real name) was finally sentenced to to 1 year probation and a $300 million dollar fine (yeah million) by a New York court.  Dikshit has also agreed as part of the sentencing to cooperate in an ongoing investigation with federal prosecutors. Dikshit had sold off his shares in Party Gaming, the parent company of Party Poker, and admitted to violating the Wire Act of 1961 two years ago. Party Gaming is currently merging with BWIN the Austrian online sports book and casino/poker site.

Absolute Poker Christmas Freerolls and Low Limit Buy in's

Poker Ladies and Gents be sure to check out Absolute Poker's Christmas Poker Promotions

$200K GTD Freerolls
When: December 12, 19 & 26 @ 12pm ET

$200K GTD Rebuy Satellites
When: December 12, 19 & 26 @ 13pm ET

Sniper $80K GTD Freerolls
When: December 15, 22 & 29 @ 5pm ET

Sniper $80K GTD Rebuy Satellites
When: December 15, 22 & 29 @ 6pm ET

They'll be awarding 40 seats to two of their biggest tournaments every Sunday and Wednesday!

And be sure when you sign up to use promo/bonus code RATPACK for a 150% sign up bonus, freerolls and RatPackPoker.net gear and merch!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

CardRunners "The Micro's" cartoon

We're still loving this vid by the guys at CardRunners.com

Rat Pack Poker: Poker News Dec.5-Dec12

Ladies and Gents here is a bunch of poker news for you from Dec. 5th-Dec12

• Antonio Esfandiari wins the WPT Five Diamond Poker Classic ($870)! and his known running buddy, and someone we've been a fan of for a long time, Andrew Robl places 2nd($549k)! your top five were as follows (Big Names)  Esfandiari, Robl, Vanessa Rousso, John Racener, and Kirk Morrison. 
• UB.com and Absolute Poker start Christmas Freerolls. win seats in to the $80k Sniper and the $200k Super Sunday Tourney's by playing the daily freerolls and low limit buy in tourneys from now until Dec.29
• WSOP.com offering Academy packages, each package includes round trip to Las Vegas, a 5 night stay at Caesars Palace, a "Master Class" with a WSOP Pro, VIP style hospitality and a $1,000 Tourney.
• Gus Hansen takes down the Poker Million IX for a very cool $1million. The tourney sponsored by Full Tilt Poker, had some big players at the final table. With the likes of Patrik Anotnius, Howard Lederer, James Bord, and Tony Bloom
• CardRunners turns 5 and offers a waiver of the sign up fee and gives away prizes, they also debuted a new video series entitled "The Micros" which airs via youtube.com you can see it here http://tinyurl.com/The-Micros   check out www.pokernewsdaily.com here for the article on how it came about http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/web-poker-series-the-micros-debuts-17188/
• 
  

Absolute Poker Bad Beat JackPot Busted

Thats right ladies and gents. This morning around 3:15am December 5, 2010 user VANDERAN333 took home a nice $54,109.84

 

Rat Pack Poker News & Reviews: Nov.30-Dec. 4th

Ladies and Gents here is your Poker News & Reveiws for Nov. 30th- Dec. 4th

• The WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic kicks off with 391 players footing the $10,000 buy in. Some of the bigger names in the event are Victory Poker pro Antonio Esfandiari, newly inducted hall of famer Erik Seidel, well known cash player Chau Giang, "Mr. Ace on the River" Barry Greenstein and his peer/apprentice the high flying, dice throwing Phil Ivey.
• CardRunners.com turns 5! and to celebrate if you sign up between December 6th-12th you can sign up for free (save $100) and for just $30/month you can have full access to the site! They will also be giving out free gifts during the promo period, of which you could win the likes of an Xbox Kinect, 2011 WSOP buy in!, MacBook Air, iPad etc. Just sign up! check out www.cardrunners.com for more promos
• Dusty Schmidt aka "leatherass" is back with a new book, this time entitled "Don't Listen to Phil Hellmuth: Correcting the 50 Worst Pieces of Poker Advice You've Ever Heard" and while the verdict is out if the title could be a backlash or a spring board, the information inside is worth reading. The title may be a little confusing as the advice he is talking about isn't all Phil Hellmuth's. He even corrects his own advice, and yes there is a lot of Hellmuth's advice corrected too so you won't be disappointed if that is indeed what you're looking for. Be sure to check his book out!
• IHateJuice (the unidentified poker player on Full Tilt's high stakes tables) took down the likes of well know Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius. IHateJuice racked up a nice $225k via some $2000/$4000 Limit Hold'em HU play
• Patrik Antonius took another beating by Urindanger for a $280k lost
• Full Tilt Poker is running it's MiniFtops Event during December, http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/mini-full-tilt-online-poker-series use bonus code SINATRA for a nice 100% dep bonus and RatPackPoker.net merchandise!
  

Poker Security Token! ??

Well ladies and Gents, if you ever had doubt about Absolute or UB.com's security measures, feel free to feel relieved. The network CEREUS (Absolute and UB's network) is offering a Security Token in the UB and Absolute Point's store for 6,500 points.  That's actually a really good deal especially considering how quick you can rack up points on the two sites via their power hour and it pays to play with both the RAI$E and FAME programs they offer.

Now what is a Security Token you ask.  it’s a small device that generates a numeric code. When you log into your UB.com or Absolute Poker account, you’ll need your user name and password along with the code generated by the security token. If you don’t have all three pieces of information, then you won’t be able to sign in. The code randomly generates and will be different from login to login. Just press the button located on the device, which is synched with UB.com’s servers, to see what the code is. (via PokerNewsDaily.com)

Back arond 2009 CEREUS had already started offering a SecureID pin number service, which is basically a 5 digit pin you enter into the site when you log in. The SecureID can be used in conjunction with the new Security Token.

Good luck at the tables and keep it cool.
Be sure to use bonus code RATPACK when signing up to receive the deposit bonus plus RatPackPoker.com merchandise comming soon! to you