Going for a Perfect Play on UB.com
UB.com is running a promotion called The Perfect Play for the month of October. There are several ways players can take advantage of the promotion, and the path I've chosen is the $3+0.30 tournament route.
In this tournament series (as well as a $10+1 version), UB.com offers 10 multi-table tournaments a day. Players are given tournament leaderboard points based on their performance in a block of 10 tournaments (they do not need to take place on the same day). Once you've played 10 tournaments, your 11th tournament starts a new block, and if your total score eclipses the previous one, you move up the leaderboard. The tournament leaderboard calculation is a little complicated, but the bigger the prize pool, and the better you do in the tournament, the more points you get.
The player with the most tournament leaderboard points at the end of the month in the $3+0.30 series nets a cool $2,500 in bonus cash, and the top-50 all cash in for at least $200. If you play well, that's not a bad score for $33 in tournament entry fees. The first-place finisher in the $10+1 series takes down $7,500, with 50th earning $500 in bonus cash.
I'll be honest – I'm a huge underdog to do well. I don't play in many multi-table tournaments; I usually don't have time to sit down and play for four or five straight hours, so I generally stick to sit-and-goes and cash games. Add in the fact that I'll be joining a new tournament every hour, and I could be playing at as many as four or five tables at once (assuming I run well and play my cards right). I know there are a lot of online grinders out there who play as many as 24 tables at a time. I'm not one of those guys. Trying to keep track of the action in four multi-table tournaments could get pretty intense.
But even with these factors going against me, I've decided to dedicate a day to this and see how I do. If you want to follow my progress, look for me ("ATODDPOKER") in the Perfect 3 tournaments on UB.com all day. There's a tournament every hour, on the half hour, starting at 1:30 p.m. ET and ending at 10:30 p.m. ET.
The first tournament starts in a little less than 30 minutes, so it's time to make my last-minute preparations before this marathon session begins. I'll be back with a Bill Simmons-style retro diary recap of my experience tomorrow. Wish me luck!