First Regulated Online Poker Site Launches in Nevada: Ultimate Poker

History was made on April 30, 2013, when Ultimate Poker opened its doors and started accepting real money customers from the state of Nevada, becoming the first legal real money online poker room in the U.S.

In a rush to be the first to market and to also have the product ready for the World Series of Poker, there are many things lacking in their software.

Despite any issues, however, traffic has been growing in the past few weeks and the site is currently listed as 39th worldwide on PokerScout, which isn’t bad considering the state of Nevada only has three million residents.

You don’t have to be a resident of Nevada to play on Ultimate Poker, however, as anyone over the age of 21 visiting Nevada can sign up for an account and be legally in the action.

While the sign-up process for Ultimate Poker is rather easy, playing for real money has proven to be a tad difficult.  You need to have a cell phone in order for Ultimate Poker to verify you are within the borders of Nevada.

Funding your account and withdrawing are simple.  Players who are near Las Vegas can deposit at any Station Casino location.  If you are located outside of the Las Vegas area, you can still easily deposit via instant check, bank wire, or check by mail.

There have been many complaints about the software itself; however, I would expect this to improve over time.  Since it was important for Ultimate Poker to be the first to market, the software inefficiencies are to be expected.  While the game play is pretty smooth, the site does not come with all of the bells and whistles that would be expected from online poker software available for play outside of the U.S.

Some of the software issues include:

· No ability to resize tables or lobbies.  For those who want to multi-table or do something else on their computer at the same time as playing, they will find the lack of this feature to be very frustrating.

· No ability to save hand histories or view hands via a replayer.  Since most serious poker players like to review their action after the fact, this will hamper their ability to do so.

· Only Texas Hold’em is currently available.  This isn’t a major issue since it is doubtful that any other game would get much action immediately.  I'd imagine as demand is there for other games, Ultimate will quickly add them.

· No ability to take notes on players within the client.  You can still keep notes manually with a pen and paper, but nothing beats having notes on your history with certain players in your poker client to view.

· Cosmetic issues such as no simplified card deck or the ability to disable animations.  This shouldn’t be a major downside if not improved upon, as it will be easy to get used to.  Since the animations are attractive to recreational players, it shouldn’t be a major complaint from pros.

· The ability to buy in for only 50 big blinds.  This short-stacked play might not be attractive to Nevada residents who are used to buying in very deep in live cash games.

While the software is very barebones, there is still quite a bit of excitement surrounding the launch.  If you have been dying to play online poker and are living in or visiting Nevada, you now have a chance to get into the action.  As more sites become available, there will be more competition and the software itself should also improve.

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