If the first tournament is any indication, the fifth Ultimate Bet Online Championship, or UBOC, is shaping up to be one of the largest ever. The kickoff $320 No Limit Hold’em Sniper tournament generated a starting grid of 903 entrants, which meant that a $243,000 prize pool was up for grabs.
UB.com, one-half of the USA-friendly CEREUS Network, guaranteed a $200,000 purse for the first event, meaning that the actual prize pool was about 20% larger than its guarantee. In the end, Joshua “pbdrunks” Van Duyn, a longtime member of the online poker community, trumped the pack and banked nearly $55,000. Two years ago, Van Duyn took down the PokerStars Super Tuesday for $71,000, his largest online poker cash to date according to PocketFives.com.
Heads-up, Van Duyn defeated longtime poker pro Felipe “improved” Montenegro, who walked away with $33,000. Montenegro is a three-time Triple Crown winner on PocketFives.com, which entails winning three $10,000 prize pool tournaments across three sites tracked for the site’s Online Poker Rankings in a one-week span. Montenegro owns the 51st spot in the aforementioned Rankings and has banked over $3 million in his online poker career.
Another brand name pro finished third in the $320 No Limit Hold’em Sniper event, the first on the UBOC 5 docket. Darren “darrenelias” Elias cashed for $22,000, adding to a tournament resume that includes a jersey in a $200 Cubed No Limit Hold’em event held during the February 2009 running of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series, or FTOPS. Here’s a look at how the final table of UBOC 5 Event #1 shook out:
1. PBDRUNKS – $54,760
2. IMPROVED – $32,792
3. DARRENELIAS – $22,309
4. MESCALIN8 – $15,726
5. MURIBE – $13,288
6. POOPLUS – $10,850
7. LUFTMENSCHEN – $8,411
8. 9BARELL – $5,973
9. MARIO_BASLER – $4,145
In January, UB.com member “AnteSvante” took down the PokerStars Sunday 500 to the tune of $90,000. Flash forward to Thursday, when he defeated Jesse “toohottotrot” Haabak heads-up in UBOC 5 Event #3, a $320 No Limit Hold’em Four-Max affair. “AnteSvante” walked away with a $29,000 cash prize, while Haabak boosted his online poker bankroll by $18,000. Others at the final table included “TIGGER2” and “eliasharris,” who took third and fourth, respectively:
1. ANTESVANTE – $29,079
2. TOOHOTTOTROT – $18,309
3. TIGGER2 – $11,847
4. ELIASHARRIS – $8,616
If you missed out on the first three UBOC 5 tournaments, don’t fret. A total of 19 will play out before the series’ $1,050 No Limit Hold’em Monster Stack Main Event on August 29th at 4:00pm ET. The final event, hosted by UB.com front man Phil Hellmuth, sports a $1 million guaranteed prize pool.
Running concurrently with UBOC 5 is MiniUBOC 5, which boasts the same slate of events, but with shrunken buy-ins. UBOC 5 events are open to players from the United States. Visit UB.com or its sister site, Absolute Poker, to enter today.
