Ultimate Poker Deals Historic First Hand in the US

Well the wait is finally over and after well over a year in the making the first real money online poker hand in the US regulated market will be dealt. The Nevada based company Ultimate Poker will take the honors and the date of April 30th will be etched into US poker history. A very important note is that Ultimate Poker will only be available to Nevada residents aged over 21. As expected this is just the first step and it's a very limited product both in player availability and game offering. There's no welcome bonus but there is a $10,000 freeroll, a chance to win a stay at a Station Casino property and Station Casino staff freerolls. As far as the rest of the tournaments go you'll find a $10,000 Guaranteed tourney each Sunday for a $100 buy in a $1,000 nightly tournament too. For cash games you'll find games ranging from $0.01/$.02 up to $10/$20 stakes at Texas Hold'em tables. Remember that this is version 1 and there will be more added over the course of time, the most important thing was to get going and it's not a bad start. The software looks OK and again there's plenty of time to make improvements as the player base grows.

Words From Those That Made it Happen

Ultimate Poker Chairman Tom Breitling said that, "We are proud to be the first company to deliver legal and secure real-money online gaming to poker players, we have worked closely with state gaming regulators to demonstrate our unique and compelling poker platform that, above all, players know they can trust. Ultimate Poker is dedicated to being the players' choice for online poker." As has been widely documented, poker pro Antonio Esfandiari signed up as an ambassador for the room recently and he's clearly delighted that things have got going saying, "This day has been a long time coming. Online poker in the United States is finally here and totally legit, I signed on to be the ambassador for Ultimate Poker because I knew the people behind this company would do it right. I signed on because UltimatePoker.com is where I would come to play. Now we all can." Lastly Ultimate Poker Chief Executive Officer Tobin Prior had a few words with, "We feel our technology is a major advantage. Ultimate Poker's proprietary software is completely owned and operated by parent company Ultimate Gaming, allowing for continuous investment and product development," The US will have to wait a while longer until interstate compacts are in place that boost liquidity and player numbers and this will take time. Until then poker players in the states will continue to play their game in the many regulated offshore poker rooms. For those players that are not based in Nevada but are of a legal age to play online poker then there are plenty of options available such as Bovada Poker, Black Chip and BetOnline Poker.