By Joe Zusman | December 10, 2009

While many online players are currently preoccupied with the Mini Full Tilt Online Series of Poker (FTOPS), which kicked off Wednesday night, others may be eager to look ahead and set their sites on the 4th annual UB Online Championship (UBOC), another online tournament series which will run from January 20th thru the 31st.

In total, the series will offer 18 different tournaments, two of which will feature guaranteed prize pools of more than $1 million. Buy-ins for the event range from $100 + $9 to $2,500 + $100 and the series will offer everything from No Limit Hold’em to HORSE to Heads-Up to PLO8.  Each event will be hosted by a different UB or CEREUS pro. Annie Duke will take on hostessing duties for the $2,500 Deepstack No Limit Hold’em 6-Max event while Phil Hellmuth will be the headline pro during the UBOC Main Event.

“With UBOC heading into its fourth year and Aruba coming up to year nine, UB now has two amazing series. Whether you are a diehard poker player or a weekend warrior, UBOC and mini UBOC offer something to excite everyone”, Duke commented in an official press release from UB. “Just as Aruba awarded millions in tournament prize money, UBOC 4 is about to break records again, and this year you don’t even have to make a final table to cash big.”

Like the FTOPS series, the UBOC will also offer “mini” versions of its tournaments, with the exception of the two $1 million guaranteed events hosted by Duke and Hellmuth. Each mini event will feature the same structure and game as the UBOC tournament, but the buy-in will be 1/10th of the price. Unlike the Mini-FTOPS, the Mini UBOC will run concurrently with the bigger buy-in series.

In addition to the tournaments themselves, UB is also offering a series of contests in tandem with the UBOC. The Bubble Buster Contest offers cash and prizes to the players who cash in the most UBOC tournaments. Should a player cash in 11 or more of the 18 events they can win a $1 million cash prize. Any player who cashes in 2 or more events will be compensated with either entry into a freeroll tournament, cash, or prizes that include a trip to the 2011 UB-sponsored Aruba Poker Classic or the World Series of Poker Main Event.

The site is also offering several other contests involving the steps and satellite tournaments on UB. The Single Event Satellite Contest rewards players who are able to satellite into the same UBOC event multiple times. Players who win multiple seats into the UBOC Main Event will be rewarded with entries into up to three different $5,000 online freerolls courtesy of the All-U-Can Satellite contest.

Finally, there is a Super Step Contest, which awards players who won their way into UBOC events via UB’s Steps Satellites with entries into the Aruba Poker Classic and the UBOC Main Event. If a player wins an UBOC event they gained entry to via the Step satellites, they earn a free entry into the UBOC Main Event. If they cash in the event, they will earn an entry into a freeroll which will offer 25 seats into the UBOC Main Event. Should a Steps qualifier win the UBOC Main Event or the $2,500 Deepstack tournament, they gain a free entry into the Aruba Poker Classic. If they cash in either of those two events, they will be entered into a freeroll that is offering three seats to Aruba.

In total, the UBOC will feature more than $4 million in guaranteed prize money, plus the various prizes being doled out in each of the four UBOC-related contests. Those fortunate enough to take a tournament down will also receive a commemorative championship watch. The winners of the UBOC leaderboard and the Mini UBOC leaderboard will receive watches as well.

Satellites for the UBOC events are already underway and the tournament series kicks off on Wednesday January 20th with a $300 + $20 Sniper No Limit Hold’em event hosted by Joe Sebok.

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