If you love online poker and the UFC, you might want to check out the new UFC Poker room. Then again, maybe not. While the room is a place to play free online poker, the room is lacking in many ways. As both a UFC fan and a poker nut, I was disappointed to see the room, which isn’t a ‘real’ poker room yet.
If you’re interested in playing online, why not play at the UFC sponsored site Full Tilt Poker instead? At Full Tilt Poker, not only can you play for real money (can’t at UFC Poker), but they also offer so many things that UFC Poker cannot.

Let’s look at the differences:
- Real money poker at Full Tilt, only play money at UFC Poker. Full Tilt Poker has free poker games as well, but also micro stakes up to high stakes games real money games. You can even watch Phil Ivey and other top pros battle it out for millions of dollars on an almost nightly basis.
- No ring games at UFC Poker, only tournaments.
- Full Tilt Poker has thousands of free tournaments running all the time, compared to just a few at UFC Poker. They also have real money tournaments that run every day, with prize pools as high as $1.5 million.
- Well over 100,000 simultaneous players during peak hours, compared to about 1000 at UFC Poker.
- UFC Poker software is slow, lacking in functionality, has hard to read buttons, and forces you to watch commercials periodically. Full Tilt has possibly the best poker software online, and of course no stupid commercials to deal with.
- UFC Poker only offers Texas Hold’em and Royal Hold’em, while Full Tilt offers Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo, Razz, HORSE, HOSE, and several other mixed games.
I could go on and on about the differences, but here’s what it comes down to. The UFC Poker room is not a ‘real’ poker room while Full Tilt Poker is arguably the best poker site in the world. There simply is no comparison. Hopefully UFC Poker will work on their software, prizes, and add cash games to their selection in the near future. We’d also like to see them offer real money poker of course. Even for free-play players, I can’t see any reason to play at UFC Poker over Full Tilt.
Download Full Tilt Poker
UFC Poker Review
UFC Poker is a new online poker site running on it’s own software platform. As a stand-alone site, players volume is very low. Add to that the fact that there are no real money games or ring game tables, there are few reasons to play here right now. As an MMA and UFC fan myself, I have no interest in bashing the UFC Poker room. However, this is a poker site and I have to be honest to our visitors.
I hope to be able to provide a more positive review of UFC Poker in the future. For now, this is my review.
UFC Poker Tournaments
Tournaments are all that are offered at UFC Poker right now. They are for play chips and some have small prizes available. Some are short-handed (5 players), some are heads-up, and some are full, ten player tournaments. There are also multi-table tournaments available as well.
Players earn points for winning, which can be used to buy UFC swag (once you’ve won a lot). The competition is absolutely terrible, so winning should be easy for any decent player.
UFCPoker.com Ring Games
No ring games are available for free or real money. This is a huge problem the room will need to fix asap. Otherwise, they’ll have a hard time keeping players around very long. I imagine the point is to keep players at the tournament tables so they can offer little prizes, but what about players who just want to learn the game? Yet another reason to sign up at Full Tilt Poker instead.
UFCPoker Room Game Choices
Texas Hold’em and Royal Hold’em are the only games currently available. No Omaha, Stud, Razz or other poker games are currently being run.
UFC Poker Software
The software at UFCPoker is similar to real online poker sites 8-10 years ago (an eternity in the online world). It’s difficult to see how many chips opponents have bet, and the action buttons are difficult to use.
While I wouldn’t say the software is ’slow’, compared to real online poker sites it is. There are very few functions, and none that really appeal to serious players.
The lobby is also a bit difficult to use. Figuring out what each type of tournament is can be tough. Also, terms not normally used in tournament lobby’s complicate things further.
Right now, this thing is a mess and I’m not sure what the UFC is trying to accomplish from the endeavor. Possibly the idea is to have a player base established for if & when the US market becomes regulated, or maybe it’s a way they’re trying to keep their fight fans loyal to the UFC. Whatever the case, with sites like Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars out there, I can’t see any reason to play here.