In an e-mail sent by affiliate group Chipleader to its business associates on Monday, it was revealed that CEREUS, the merged player bases of Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker, would launch on Tuesday. The formation of the network was originally announced back in July, but has since been put on hold. In the background has been an ongoing legal battle between Excapsa, the former owners of Ultimate Bet, and Tokwiro, its current ownership group. A reliable source at Ultimate Bet also confirmed the launch of CEREUS on Tuesday.

On November 5th, a press release distributed by Tokwiro stated that Excapsa had been ordered to pay the company $15 million which would be used to “refund players who were affected by the cheating scandal that Tokwiro inherited when it purchased the business from Excapsa.” During the course of the investigation by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC), the organization that licenses Ultimate Bet, Russ Hamilton was identified as the main perpetrator behind the cheating scandal. Now that the legal battle has been settled, it appears that the green light was given for the launch of CEREUS, although no direct link between the two events has been made.

Information given by Ultimate Bet about CEREUS states, “CEREUS is the result of more than 12 months innovation and development to deliver a secure, responsive, and flexible online poker gaming experience for the entire UB community.” The player bases for Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker will be merged into one network, but players are expected to log on and play from their respective online poker rooms. However, player traffic will increase noticeably, as will promotions like the Bad Beat Jackpot, which the Chipleader e-mail stated will “double in size.”

On Saturday, an entry in the Ultimate Bet blog, which was generically authored by “The Card Room,” stated that CEREUS would be launching “very” soon. Right now, Ultimate Bet hosts a $200,000 Guaranteed tournament every Sunday. The $215 buy-in event nearly always sees an overlay, which means that the guarantee exceeds the actual prize pool of the event (the buy-in multiplied by the number of players). This weekend, 873 entrants flocked to UB for the $200K Guaranteed, meaning that the actual prize pool was $174,600. Ultimate Bet therefore covered a $25,400 overlay. The tournament was won by irishgirl08, who pocketed $45,000 for the win. Coming in second place was yellowhat, who scored a $27,000 payday. The top 90 spots paid out and the top five on the leader board cashed for at least $10,000.

Absolute Poker, which is also owned by Tokwiro, operates a $150,000 Guaranteed tournament every Saturday. The $530 buy-in tournament also consistently sees an overlay. This weekend, 250 players competed in the event, creating a $25,000 overlay. Emerging victorious from the pack was THEMESSS01, who scored $37,500 for the win. The top 36 spots paid out and the top four players banked at least five figures.

It’s unknown whether the major tournament schedule will change once CEREUS launches. For example, Tokwiro could elect to pool the resources of its two online poker rooms together and host a $350,000 guaranteed prize pool tournament weekly. This would be in similar fashion to how other poker networks structure their promotions. The largest weekly online poker tournament can be found on PokerStars, which runs a $1.5 million guaranteed event every Sunday.

The Bad Beat Jackpot on Ultimate Bet stands at $285,000 at the time of writing. It was last hit by hearts13 one week ago. The bad beat was worth $200,000 then. Special jackpot tables are available on Ultimate Bet. $0.50 from each pot is raked and goes towards the mammoth prize and in order to qualify for the Bad Beat Jackpot, four eights must be defeated and both hole cards must be used to make up the final hands. The hand needs to go to showdown in order to qualify and collusion is strictly frowned upon.

Ultimate Bet is expected to issue a formal press release later today outlining more specifics on the transition to CEREUS. We’ll have more information for you right here on Poker News Daily.

One Comment

  1. bobsay225 says:

    Yes it did launch and a lot of players cannot sign on I am one of them.

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