Freeroll Tournaments

In the first three weeks of the CardPlayer.com freeroll tournaments, we gave away $3,600 to 90 winners. Hosted by UltimateBet.com, our tournaments were single-table, winner-take-all hold'em events. It was quite surprising how fast the tournament registration filled up, but I don't want to get ahead of myself.

I discovered how incredibly difficult it is to design poker software after spending nearly a year researching different online poker organizations. I visited online poker rooms in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Canada, and the Caribbean. In every case, I found hard-working computer and Internet operators – but very few poker players. In some instances, decisions regarding game play were being made by one outside consultant – if that. UltimateBet.com was different, though. The people there set out from the very beginning to get the input of top poker professionals – both players and tournament directors – to create the most authentic software available.

Along with authentic game play, questions regarding honesty and security were of top priority to me when searching for a site to host CardPlayer.com freerolls. Because Card Player has a reputation of integrity to uphold, we couldn't afford to have problems in these areas.

UltimateBet.com passed my tests of honesty and security. My research showed that players are able to make deposits and withdraw their winnings without problems or hassles. UltimateBet enjoys a great reputation for answering questions about security issues promptly, and does not evade the issues. It monitors for collusion, and has enlisted some of poker's top experts to help design the systems analysis that can isolate play that seems to be unusual and would indicate possible collusion. It was also most forthright about its shuffling method – starting with its use of secure hardware random number generating devices. Each card dealt is randomly selected from the cards remaining in the deck only as it is needed – and only freshly generated random numbers are used – further enhancing security. UltimateBet's three-tier process of qualification, whitening, and selection de-bias ensures that every deal is uniformly random.

Having deposits and withdrawal requests handled efficiently and professionally was another top priority. UltimateBet was at the top of the list for deposit options, and if people want to withdraw funds, its process is a breeze. Its software is easy to use and fun to play.

With the selection of poker software completed, it was time to go online and offer some tournaments to Card Player readers and CardPlayer.com users. We started with trying to give as many people a chance to win money as possible, and succeeded – 90 winners in three weeks is pretty good.

Come to CardPlayer.com and see what's in store for January. We've been working with our advertisers to give away tournament entries and hotel rooms, as well as cold hard cash in both freerolls and a sweepstakes.

In case you haven't checked it out, CardPlayer.com also has the most complete tournament schedules and results available when you want them – right now!