ClubUBT -- is there a future?

I posted this over at the LVA forum as well because Joe Pane, the main spokesperson for ClubUBT, does not post here, and there may be members of this forum who do not read the LVA forum.

While I was hoping there would be a bright future for ClubUBT, my initial impression during the first few weeks since its launch is that it has a long way to go. As I posted in another thread, I didn't think ClubUBT was a good use of my time and money. But when I read Anthony Curtis's post/article that all ClubUBT members would receive a subscription (and in my case a renewal) to LVA, it became a no-brainer to join. I had a half-price offer of about $60 for six months of ClubUBT. A renewal to LVA would cost me $50. So now that I have joined and played a little, here are my thoughts:

. There is very little for blackjack players like myself. The only things worthwhile playing for require at least 750 points. I won a blackjack tournament where 1st prize was $10 and 200 points. Whoop-de-doo. Playing sit-n-gos may yield a profit of 60 points, if you win; 10 points if you come in second. So I concluded that reaching 750 points playing blackjack is pretty near impossible. So...it was on to checking out poker. Oh! So that's how players are accumulating points. The games and prizes offered on the poker side are much more profitable. But...it's poker. So I imagine the players signing up for the larger blackjack tournaments have won their points playing poker. If this continues in the long run, it will be a losing proposition for ClubUBT to try to acquire new members who are strictly blackjack players like myself.

. When I have checked, I've seen that there are usually about 250 - 300 players logged in on either the poker or blackjack side. Is that all? bet21.com usually has 12,000 - 20,000. Now granted, most of those people are playing for free. But if ClubUBT has not been able to convert those players to paying members, that is a problem that does not bode well for the future of ClubUBT. We read that they had more sign-ups in the first few hours of their launch than their previous site. But...is a few hundred paying members (many at a discount) something to be proud of?

. I think offering freerolls to non-members is a huge mistake. What incentive is the club giving to these players to sign up, when they can win an entry into the Blackjack Tournament of Champions for free? It's the same problem bet21 had. Keep giving players a chance to win something for nothing, and they'll pay you nothing. And it's not good service for the paying members who have to play against hundred of non-paying players.

. It seems that successful players on ClubUBT (poker players), will continue to be successful...at least in the early goings. If you've accumulated enough points to play in the big tournaments, you'll be at an advantage to accumulate even more points, since the prizes in these tourneys can be huge. So if you are lucky enough (skilled enough?) to win 1,500 points to enter a tournament with a handful of players, your odds of winning 5,000 points or more goes up. But for the player who plays for hours to try to get 750 points, but cannot, they're stuck in the lower level tournaments -- maybe for months.

. The level of play at the blackjack tables is pretty much as it was on the freerolls at bet21.com. With very little at risk for club members, the all-ins and half-bankroll bets at the start of most tournaments are prevalent. That makes for a very unenjoyable game.

. It would be great if the site would post an overview of the monthly tournaments, so players can plan in advance to make the best use of their time and, in some cases, limited point totals.

. Every day, the site tops off player accounts so no one has less than 100 points. This is not fair to players who have accumulated more than 100 points. A player who decides to squander his 100 daily points by playing like a ploppy, knowing he'll get another 100 points the next day, is at an advantage over the player who has 200-400 points, who knows he won't get additional points unless his account drops below 100. If the site gives 100 points to the weaker players, they should give 100 points to everyone, every day. This way, everyone would have some chance at the larger tournaments at some point during the month.

. In order for the Club to be profitable, they need at least 5,000 full-paying members. They are not even close to this number, nor do I see them getting to it. Yes, they only launched a few weeks ago, but with freerolls, little in the form of blackjack, merchandise few people want or need, and the difficulty of accumulating enough points to play in the larger tournaments, they have a long way to go.

I wish them luck! They'll need some.

 

I have to agree with this comment. We are not enjoying the BJ nearly as much as at Bet21. It's tough always having to be on the side of the dealer.

And all the best tourneys seem to be on the poker side.

But I'll stick with the club for now...

 

Huh. As someone who plays both poker and blackjack, and got up to 750 points very quickly (it's nearly impossible to lose points in a poker tourney, even if you know nothing about poker except the ability to fold 8-3 offsuit), it never occurred to me that people would have a hard time accumulating points.

I agree...the 10-20 point tourneys are pointless, and I'll confess to starting off with half-bankroll bets in them, because I just don't care if I lose. (Then again, if the short stack is eliminated after hand #8, is it really that bad to try to start off with a good chip lead?) Considering I currently have nearly 9,000 points (and will likely top 10k by tomorrow's $5k poker tourney), what does it matter if I lose 10?

That's another thing...what's up with the big poker tourneys and little blackjack tourneys? I thought they were supposed to be a blackjack site first? And even the poker tourneys are poorly run...like they're an afterthought and their big draw at the same time, which is really bad. I mean , tomorrow's big (1,500 point) $5k tourney has the same blind structure as the 25-point satellites for them. And it's nowhere near good enough for a tourney of this size. They should do what they're doing for the $10k tourney at the end of the month and start everyone off with more chips. The same structure for a 1,500 point mega-tourney as for your 25-point and freeroll satellites is just ludicrous.

In short...I want this to work. I really do. (The $100 or so I've already won will attest to that.) I just fear that they'll probably not get near critical mass.

 

As I expected...the poker tourney was a joke...the table was the tightest I've ever seen until the first break...at which point it became nothing but a push-fest as everyone only had 10x BB's after that.

Or maybe I'm just bitter because I bubbled out of the 1,500 point payout to a runner-runner flush.

 

Okay, I'm not sure where the proper place to ask this is (probably not this forum, but I don't know anywhere else to post about ClubUBT), but I brought this subject up in my previous post, so here goes...

Did they change the structure for the $10k poker tourney when I wasn't looking? A month ago, I could have sworn it was listed as having 2,500 starting chips and longer blind levels...I went to double-check today, and it lists 1,000 chips and 8 minute levels. Was that always the case, or was this a desperate attempt to shorten the tourney that was up to, at last check, 916 players?

In either case...so much for skill. After an hour or so, this is just gonna be another push-fest. Only worse this time, since there'll be nine times as many people, which just means you have to survive three times as many coinflips. I guess they really don't intend for anyone to take this seriously.

 

I remember seeing 2500 starting chips also. But I did not take note of the minutes per levels though. And, you are correct. One probably needs to win at least six races to make the final table.

 

Well, I can't speak to the poker issues, since I don't play the game much and have little understanding of the nuances. But you're sure right about the big poker and little BJ tourneys. Nobody there has offered up any solid reasoning for that. There has been some speculation that it was done because there's more poker than TBJ players out there, but when I scan through the poker game results, I sure see a lot of folks that I'd also seen for months on the old PlayUBT site. And why shouldn't they play the poker side? There's one whale of a lot more to play for in the poker games - something that wasn't revealed when they were promoting it to everyone on the PlayUBT email list.

I want it to work, too, as does most everyone who posts in these forums. But, dang it, they've got to quit intentionally deceiving people.

 

Looks like they are trying to include those in the no-no states. There are freerolls listed with the prize of points. Top ten places pay 100 points.

 

Well, that would be great news - except that I cannot find them. I found a number of events that cost 100 play chips to enter, but nowhere can I find that the chips awarded can be used for anything.

 

I think they were only on the poker side. I can't check, cause I am at work.

 

they are on poker side and open to members only according to details, They start tomorrow every 4 hours

 

My bad. Sorry for getting the hopes up. It was very early in the morning when I was looking.

I guess this is to help out all the donks who blow through their points in the first hour of the day. We haven't had any problem with needing points. I think we are up to 8,000 now.

 

Now THAT freakin' figures. I never thought to check the poker side, because
it's supposed to be a @#&#%&# blackjack site!

 

Hmm...actually, looking at the number of tournaments, the two sides have about the same number of larger tournaments (100 + 200 daily, 400's/750's about every other day, 1500 every couple weeks), but there are many, many more smaller tournaments on the poker side. What appears to be the current daily schedule (minus the 400+ TP ones):

Blackjack
11:45 - 10
01:00 - 100
02:15 - 20* (occasionally replaced by a 2:00 50)
04:00 - 10
04:45 - 20* (occasionally replaced by a 5:00 50)
05:45 - 10
06:15 - 10
08:00 - 20
09:00 - 10
11:15 - 10
12:00 - 200
02:00 - 10

Poker
10:00 - 10
11:00 - 10
12:00 - 10
01:30 - 20
02:00 - 50
03:00 - 20
03:30 - 10
05:00 - 50
05:30 - 20
06:30 - 20
07:00 - 200
07:15 - 10
07:45 - 20
08:15 - 20
08:30 - 10
09:15 - 10
10:15 - 10
10:30 - 10
10:45 - 20
11:00 - 100
11:30 - 10
11:45 - 10
12:15 - 10
01:00 - 100
01:45 - 10

Okay, so I didn't realize that poker got a second 100.

Another thing worth noting is that many of the tourneys give out prizes and not cash, so they end up being winner-take-all. In fact, there are a grand total of eight blackjack tourneys on the schedule right now for all of next week that are not winner-take-all, for whatever it's worth.

 

So now that members have had a few weeks to play at The Club what do you think?

Are we thrilled that we could win a gerbil watch?

- a kayak

- a travel alarm clock

- keyboard holder

- woofers

- points?

 

Oops I forget that great grill they offered for only 20 points! What a bargin! :joker:

It's GREAT to play for prizes isn't it?

 

I really want the Scooba! Really, I do!!!

 

Remember, though, it's a UBT Scooba. So be careful what you leave lying around for it to vacuum up.
If it runs across some hard questions, it'll likely choke up and shut down. :laugh:

 

But in the meanwhile, because it IS a UBT Scooba it plays two songs:

Where can you play
for pennies a day?
there's very little risk and
you can get around the UIGEA!

On the second song it sings

Roses are red
violets are blue
HD and team UBT are great
but we won't play against you!

The model that chokes when asked hard questions: The JP tourney edition!

 

My wife wants one of these. The only question is: When the charcoal is burning and "gas" is passed, does it explode?