When looking for an online poker site to play your favorite game, there’s a number of factors you should consider. It’s pretty clear that UltimateBet easily addresses most of those centered around playing very well from the moment you install their software. The software’s graphics and sound are fantastic and really manage to make the player feel as if they’re at a real table, playing real opponents. It’s nice to see a poker room address this basic need right off the bat, as a good deal of the competition have been coasting on a look and feel straight out of 1999.There’s PC and Mac versions available and while I tested everything on a PC, a friend downloaded the Mac software and said it was better than Full Tilt’s, which is saying something.

However, and let’s be frank, graphics and sound aren’t worth much if the action is poor. Because of the recent superuser incident and the subsequent cleanup and restructuring at UltimateBet, you’d think the action was sparse, but that’s not the case at all. The site joined the CEREUS online poker network recently and the tables have been hopping, even at higher-stakes cash games and tournaments. I’ve seen complaints that there’s not a lot of fish in the more expensive games, but there really shouldn’t be. Game selection is pretty good with the site offering all of the big games like Hold ‘Em, Omaha, and Stud but we did think it was odd that they don’t offer Five Card Draw. That’s one of our favorite places to fish playing in the cheap games!

Bonuses? They’re throwing them at you! You can get up to $1100 on top of your initial deposit when you use the bonus code AP500 when signing up, and they’re constantly offering reload bonuses. (Hopefully, you won’t need one, but you never know if you’re going to have a donkey kick your teeth in.) There’s also a really hefty referral bonus that pays you and the person you referred to the site. That’s a nice thing and I can see how it’s kept players loyal to them for the past few years.

Finally, it’s shockingly easy to put money in and get money out? If you’re in the US, you can use bank transfers, checks, Visa, Mastercard, MoneyGram, and ClickandBuy to put money in your bankroll. They can also cut you a check or transfer your winnings to you and while they can’t put money on your Mastercard, they can send funds to your Visa. There’s also a lot of deposit options for European players, some of which I’d never heard of before.

Overall, it’s well worth your time to check out UltimateBet. They seem to be working hard to win players’ loyalty and every experience I’ve had at their tables has been a pleasant one, even if I lost.