With a whopping 111% return on all first-time deposits for a maximum of $1100 additional dollars (with a deposit of $1000), Ultimate Bet for Mac clearly proposes a very worthwhile bonus opportunity for new poker players. Really, all you need to do is type in the UB referral code of FTR111 when you make your beginning deposit. It’s good to understand the mechanics behind how you’re going to get your UB bonus.

You have to be aware of how much you have to play to get that cash, what levels you get the cash in, and how much time there is before the bonus offer goes away, so you can measure it against the other money poker sites out there.

Here’s the simple info. When you make your initial real-currency deposit, UB gives you extra dollars equal to 111% of the cash you deposited, up to $1100. But these extra dollars are not yet “let go.” In order to use your bonus dollars, you need to get Status Points. You can only do this playing poker hands in real money poker games and tournaments, just like at all of the best us poker sites.

For each 20 Status Points you obtain, $1 of your bonus money is “let go.” Each time $5 of your extra currency is released, so each time you get 100 status points, you get a deposit of $5 placed in your account. If you make an beginning deposit of $1000 (and thus $1100 of extra dollars), you need to earn 22,000 status points to let go of the full $1100. Here’s the kicker – you only get 60 days to clear all of your additional dollars before you forfeit the ones that remain unreleased.

The next question is how do you obtain these Status Points? In contrast to some online poker sites, the algorithm Ultimate Bet uses is quite straightforward. For tournaments, you receive one status point for any $0.30 of entry fee (so in a $30+3 tournament, you’d obtain 10 status points). For cash games, you win Status Points according to how high stakes it is. UB Poker provides a chart for your use at http://www.ultimatebet.com/raise-loyalty/earn-climb/status-points, or you can just use this one:


No Limit

$0.01/0.02 - 1 point apiece per 15 hands

$0.02/0.04 - 1 point for each 10 hands

$0.05/0.10 - 1 point per 10 hands

$0.10/0.25 - 1 point for every 5 hands

$0.25/0.50 - 1 point per 3 hands

$0.50/1.00 - 1 point for every 2 hands

$1.00/2.00 - 1 point apiece per hand

$2.00/4.00 through $5.00/10.00 - 1.5 points apiece per hand

$10.00/20.00 and higher - 2 points for each hand


Limit

$0.01/0.02 - 1 point for every 20 hands

$0.02/0.04 - 1 point apiece per 20 hands

$0.05/0.10 - 1 point for each 15 hands

$0.10/0.20 - 1 point per 15 hands

$0.25/0.50 - 1 point for each 10 hands

$0.50/1.00 - 1 point for every 5 hands

$1.00/2.00 - 1 point apiece per 2 hands

$2.00/4.00 - 1 point for every hand

$3.00/6.00 - 1.5 points apiece per hand

$4.00/8.00 and up - 2 points apiece per hand


So, in essence, you’d have to play 22,000 hands of $1.00/2.00 no-limit poker within 60 days to clear the full $1100 UB bonus. If you’re playing for lower stakes like $0.10/0.25, you’d want to participate in 110,000 hands. If you think that this is something you can do, then Ultimate Bet clearly offers the best bonus deal for you. If you can only play, say 4,000 hands of $1.00/2.00 within that time, you’ll probably only receive closer to $200 of additional cas - which is still great. The really good news is, because you get the cash in $5 allotments, you can put in as much as you desire and not need to worry about losing it. You just won’t get as much free cash as you could have made if you had done it the other way, but it’s still a good option.

UBPoker also regularly offers bonus dollars for other occasions, to keep you depositing money into your real-money account. As far as bonus programs go, theirs is one of the most complete of all the best mac poker sites.