UltimateBet bonus is gone

I logged into UltimateBet yesterday to begin another month of grinding FPP points. I usually work around 50 FPPs a month to maintain Player status and ongoing clearing my initial sign in bonus. I was looking forward a bit to this month because I was pretty close to clearing the next $5 increment and so with just regular play I would be able to clear $5 both this month and next.

I was surprised when I logged in though and checked my account. The remaining bonus was showing as $0. That's weird for it to seemingly just disappear. I contacted support to ask what was up, figuring it was a mistake [like when I wasn't getting rakeback for a couple of months]. Unfortunately it was no mistake. Support informed me that the bonus clearing time is only good for 90 days. My uncleared $70 is now lost. That's disappointing because I was about one session away from clearing the next $5.

This 90 day thing must be a new rule related to the Cereus merger. I joined UB last August and was slowly clearing bonus the whole time. So it was well over 90 days. It's disappointing because the UB bonus is well suited to people like me who don't have the long hours to put in and heavy multi tabling ability to clear a bonus in a limited time frame.

I guess I can't complain about the free money. This is the final tally on UB. I played around 4400 hands of limit hold'em. $0.25/$0.50 and $0.50/$1.00. I made only $7.52 at the tables playing. I cleared $30 of bonus. I also have about $10 of rakeback that I can cash because of new rules at thisisthenuts.

So on a $50 initial deposit I made about $40 on bonus and rakeback in 10 months. 80%, not bad really. I wish I had started out in LHE instead of 2100 hands in $10 NL because I would have been able to clear much more bonus.

In a way it's good. I don't have to do this UB chore any more of grinding another 50+ FPP each month to keep clearing bonus. Now I'm freed up to look into other things that may be more interesting.

I enjoyed playing $0.50/$1.00 LHE on UltimateBet and the tables are very good. However the bad beat jackpot tax is pretty prohibitive. Without getting paid to play from clearing a bonus then with just rakeback that would be tough to beat long term for very much.

I could just cash out my $86 I suppose. Or better yet do a swap with someone on 2+2 and convert it to PokerStars bankroll. But I enjoy playing on UB and still want to play there.

I'm going to check out the tournament scene on UB. I think this will complement tournaments on Stars as well. UB has a reputation for a good tournament structure that may suit my style. And I still get 30% rakeback on the tourney reg fees. They have $5.50 MTT, $2r, $1r, $3.30. Considering with my Stars bankroll together I can play in these events.