Ultimate Blackjack Tour takes the sweepstakes approach

(Credit: Rich Anderson) 

Last October's Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act dealt a losing hand to online gambling Web sites, making it a felony to operate anywhere in the US. But for the U.S.-based entertainment media company behind the CBS nationally syndicated TV show, The Ultimate Blackjack Tour, it provided the incentive to rethink how tournament card play is conducted online with its sister venture, ClubUBT.com.

Operating under the sweepstakes laws on a state by state basis, there is no purchase necessary to play ClubUBT.com's Ultimate Blackjack Tour's (UBT) Elimination Blackjack and poker tournaments online; players can simply send in a postcard to be eligible to play. With everyone having the same chances of winning up to $100,000 in cash and prizes that are awarded every month, ClubUBT.com's innovative sweepstakes approach to online card play is not gambling.

A $19.95 per month membership fee is also available, which enters consumers in the tournament blackjack sweepstakes automatically along with a chance to compete for a spot on the nationally televised version of the game. Other ClubUBT.com member benefits include a subscription to the company's popular blackjack/poker magazine ALL IN, over $3,000 in Las Vegas coupons and playing tips from their stable of card playing professionals.

Attracting poker industry heavyweights including Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Johnny Chan, Freddy Deeb and actress turned professional gambler, Jennifer Tilly, The Ultimate Blackjack Tour is popularizing the number one casino game of blackjack with its TV show (receiving a 1.4 Nielsen rating last season and starting its second season September 15), ClubUBT.com and PlayUBT.com Websites, ALL IN magazine, as well as its Elimination Blackjack tournaments held at casinos around the world.

"Some of the sharpest minds in the professional gaming community came together to make blackjack exciting for TV," said UBT founder, expert gambler and 1994 World Series Of Poker Main Event winner Russ Hamilton. "Now players at home can enjoy this new form of blackjack and poker without the risks inherent in gambling. You can win big and maybe even appear on television, but you can't lose."

In elimination blackjack, participants play up to 30 hands and the player with most chips at the end walks away the winner. UBT's brand of high-stakes blackjack incorporates three forced eliminations on hands 8, 16 and 25. Adding a bluffing component, a "Secret Bet" entitles each player one opportunity to outsmart the competition by concealing their bet. All double down cards are face down to increase suspense and the surrender option allows for creative play as contestants try to out-wit each other, survive the elimination rounds and take home hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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