Club UBT survival

In my opinion, to survive, Club UBT needs to have at least 2 levels of membership in order to attract more then just freerollers and blackjack enthusiasts.

At poker for example: You can buy directly into a tournament for $109 or you can qualify at a $33 SNG qualifier.

Higher membership level(s) at Club UBT should allow you to skip tournament rounds and start at a certain level(s). In a 5 round tournament, elite members (whose monthly memebership would be $100 for example) could start at the quarter-finals.

Special tournaments could be held for elite members only.

This would require programming and an internal study as to the cost/valuation of an elite membership and any the legal ramifications, but I think its needed.

Just my thoughts.

felix215

 

If I were in control at ClubUBT I would form a high rollers lounge. If this format of " club memberships" is legal why not have a 200$/month fee with better pay outs, for example.

 

I like this idea.

Right now, playing 4 rounds to win $10 is tedious. And that's if you can make it past the 1st round with the ploppies betting $25,000 every hand and getting lucky with the dealer.

We have finally delved into the poker side and it's not much better.

 

old

unfortunately i had same idea around a month ago but seems more bullshite laws in USA stop this from happening as would not be counted under what ever law they have got this through under in most states although believe they still may be looking at other ways around it.

And talking of bull can you belive had 30% of my winnings taken for Tax at Venetian, Is ridiculous there is no tax on casino or Lottery winnings in UK, Horse betting used to be 10% on stake but even that i believe has gone now(online has definately) Thankfully Krazy K and Monica introduced me to there Tax Attorny who specialises in getting this back just as well they took Monica for $20k Tax.
Won't get it back until after Tax year but as the casinos are aware Canadians, Brits etc don't have to pay this is about time they stopped charging it as when travelling 1000's of miles and paying tons of travel costs ( fare to vegas in July not cheap) to make entering these tournaments cost effective for overseas players, Am sure some don't realise it can be reclaimed, If anyone finds themselves in same situation PM me and will pass on the phone number for the the Tax Agents, They have offices in Vegas and came to see me within 15 Minutes thanks again to Monica and Krazy K for getting this sorted for me.

 

When I travel in Canada as a visitor they charge me as a US citizen....GST and PST tax...not sure what would happen in Uk...so I say good for my Uncle...charge em the tax...whats good for the goose...blah blah...

 

Mace, I feel your pain, different though similar. The Venetian didn't withhold that 30% because they wanted to - it's the Infernal Revenue Service who mandates that action for non-U.S. citizens or for folks who cannot prove U.S. citizenship. You'll likely get it all back - eventually. It still sucks, though.

My pain - and a pain that will be shared by all of the online winners of Final Table seats - is that the winnings will be taxed as ordinary income. This means that I cannot write off this year's unusual video poker losses against it, because the IRS says the UBT winnings were not gambling income. It seems that the lack of an entry fee is the sticking point. :cry:

 

Interesting...since I won a satellite and didn't pay at least $600 for the entry, they are going to give me a 1099-MISC as winnings instead of a W2-G. From my understanding of the tax law, you can offset losses against a 1099-MISC, if you can prove that the 1099-MISC was generated by gambling (for example, a drawing that you earned entries from video poker points). But I think you might be out of luck on the freeroll, since no gambling is required there.

 

To my understanding, you are absolutely correct on all counts. With the possible exception of the $600 entry fee thing on the satellite - that one sounds mighty damn fishy to me. I bowled in tournaments for years, writing expenses off against earnings, and never once did I run into any mention of an entry fee stipulation.

 

well

we do all have to stick to the argument that it is SKILL and not gambling so I guess we are stuck with paying taxes on the earnings. HOWEVER, you could do a schedule C, call it a business and write off phone lines and etc. - wait - I am not giving you "legal" advice

 

One suggestion re: Club UBT survival

Building on my initial point:

Three unrelated (if necessary) entities:

ClubUBT web site (current fee structure)
XYZ club web site (higher fee structure)
Software provider (separate, if necessary)

In a similar fashion to "skins" such as Bet21 and UB, XYZ (for example) feeds players to the semi-finals through tourney or direct, whereas the regular Club UBT players work their way through lower rounds not accessable to Club XYZ members.

I believe that Empire Poker and Party Poker were completely unrelated at one time and shared the same software with their own player inventory. They also had some of their own tourneys inaccessible to each other as well as shared tourneys.

Again, I don't know the law and am not a lawyer, however, one thing I'm fairly positive is that the law in this area is unclear and unsettled.

 

weeeeeeeee

after getting 350 points for a final table on elimination BJ thought I'd try the $200 Poker Game 2 nights ago on clububt.
You have to bear in mind you can still count the number of tournament poker games i have played on 2 hands so although a fast learner am certainly not that good, But came 2nd so Won $50 and now have loads of points to play with.
One good thing with Clububt there seems to be action pretty much all the time, Where with UB i have to wait until 2 am( 9pm eastern) in the UK to play the first worthwhile tournament of the night now i will play a game on clububt beforehand, Think i will start a winners post

 

In the last few weeks, I played only events with 100$ or more (money or prizes) for both BJ and poker.

Eastern times for these are:

1 PM (100$ approx 3 times a week)
6 PM (Sunday)
7 PM (usually poker)
9:30 PM (approx 3 times a week, usually a big prize)
10 PM
11 PM (usually poker)
midnight (usually 200$ BJ)
1 AM (100$ poker).

 

ClubUBT still sucks for BJ players

And I'll continue to say that until something changes. Oh, right! We'll be playing for cruises. I can't wait to see the structure of how one qualifies for these cruises. Will it take 1,500 points to enter (a point total that is pretty much only attainable through playing poker)? Or will there be multiple freerolls and satellites so the final tournament will have 200-500 players per cruise?

Sorry, but for BJ players, ClubUBT still leaves a LOT to be desired. I'm looking for a challenging EBJ game right now -- PRIMETIME on Sunday evening -- and this is what I have to whet my appetite:

Sunday BJ - other than the numerous freeroll fests:
7pm: nothing
8pm: $20 tny
9pm: $10 tny
11:15pm: $10 tny
Monday BJ:
12am: $200 tny (1st place: $75)
2am: $10 tny
11:45am: $10 tny
1pm: headphone
2:15pm: $20 tny
4pm: $10 tny
5pm: $50 tny
5:45pm: $10 tny
6:15pm: $10 tny

So covering a 24-hour period, there is ONE tournament with a prize package of $200, ONE with $50, ONE for a headphone, and a handful of $10s & $20s.

Right now the Club has about 1,000 members. What happens when the Club gets the 5,000 members they need to get close to break even? Will the $10 tournaments get filled up the moment they open? Or will there be more $200 tournaments? Ah, but how can there be? The Club will still only have $100,000 per month in prizes. Will they then finally move some of this $100,000 to the blackjack side? I can't wait to find out.

 

weeeeeee 2

Just won the $20 4:45pm $20 and lots more points, Got to say in the last 3 days now i have actaully played a few games on clububt am getting an amazing return on monthly fee, lol $9.99 in and have won $130, and thousands of points Good final table rate 100% on poker and 75% on BJ, was a shame i lost on 2nd elimination on the $500 Tour 2 days ago but am looking forward to the end of month $5000 game next Sunday.

 

hmm

To be honest Ted, neither of us or going to waste our time playing $20 or $100 prize games when big tournaments are on at same time on UB, But i have no problem watching tv, etc earlier on at night and having a game of clububt BJ or poker running on my laptop.
Poker yes is easier it seems to get points but then have also got over a 1000 points from Bj last few days,
Whatever i get is a bonus and playing players of different standards is always good practice, especially as UB seems to have gone very loose lately and seems to be encouraging bad play lol or maybe is just looser players whilst a lot of pro's were tied up on wsop, BJ Cruise and Venetian etc. I intend to build my point base up so am well stocked when clububt goes full promo in sept which will lead to a lot more bigger bj tournaments.
To be honest for us to compare sites at moment would say is unfair, As I'm guessing playwise you probably pay the same as me around $6000-$8000 of entry fees a month at UB And would guess you make around 40-100% profit on that with ev fluctuations, On Clububt if your on the 6 month 1/2 price deal then $9.99 in entry fees a month lol so making a over 1000% in 3 days (could say 10,000% a month but won't count chickens lol) as i have done a lot of people who play lower stake tournamnets then us would be astounded by.
As i said b4 the times i have to play on UB are awful for us in Europe so Clububt earlier is really money for dead/bored time before and for people who only play the $1/$5 stuff on UB must seem like a God send.

The $5000 tournamnet i noticed as is more or less at top of list at moment as entry is open already, will see what sats there are in week but worse way have my 1500 points ready Nice to see this tournament which now UB has stopped it's monthly biggie is i guess the biggest EBJ online Tournament on any site

 

Last night I decided to play a poker tournament while waiting for a bet21 blackjack tournament to start. It was a no-brainer to enter a tny where 100 players got paid, when there were only 97 players. So I was guaranteed to get my 100 Tournament Points returned. But I didn't realize I'd be playing for 2 hours and 22 minutes! I came in 2nd and received 900 points. That's a whole lot of playing time to win 800 points. Oh, and first place was a $119 iPod radio thingy + 1000 pts. I just hope I can turn those 800 points into something worthwhile on the blackjack side real soon.

 

Congrats Ted Nice win, says something for poker players when 2 nonplayers like us can come away with 2nd's, Mine was the $200 one so actually won $50 and i think 1500 points, would be great if we get somewhere in the $5k with these points, Guess Phil Hellmuth better look out for us 2 up and coming Poker stars in the making :joker:

 

I found the "satellites" for the 5K BJ tourney. One at 6PM, 11PM, and 1AM EST.

Here's another oddity, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Since I'm only allowed to play the "free side" of the site, I have noticed that there is a $10K poker tournament that paying members can buy into for a measly 100 TP chips. Anyone can win their way in, however, by winning poker satellites that are run a few times per day. So, if I get amazingly lucky (because I suck at poker!) and win a satellite, I can play in the $10K poker event. Right?
However.........
For the $5K BJ tournament (half of the poker event!!!), you have to spend 25 TP's to get in a satellite. Since I'm not allowed to obtain TP's due to that retarded "don't ask, won't tell, it's a secret" problem with my state of residence, that means I can win a spot in the 5K poker event, but not the 5K BJ event.

Now, before those of you who can pay-&-play start in about allowing freeroll players into these, chew on this. The $10K poker event is 100 TP's buy-in. The $5K BJ is 1,500 TP's. Huh??? Yet another example of clubUBT treating the TBJ players a whole lot differently than they treat the poker folks.

 

easy

think thats an easy one Leftnut looks like the bj one will have a lot less entrees then the poker one, so really you answered it youself, the 100tp sat is the easy way into it, the freeroll a battle lol, With over 800 in the poker already there is much likel better value for points in the Bj