Online poker room Ultimate Bet (www.ultimatebet.com) has hired top poker pro Annie Duke to be its new poker room consultant.

In that role, Duke will manage the room’s tournament schedule, the room announced in a press release. =A0 “Annie Duke has a proven track record of not only playing the game, but also knowing exactly what online poker players want to see in a tournament schedule,” said Ultimate Bet spokesman George MacLean in the release.

“We’re confident that her unparalleled insight will significantly enhance our poker offering and strengthen our online poker community,” he said.

“I opted to accept the poker room consultant position after spending time with Ultimate Bet’s new senior management team,” said Duke in the release.

“I am extraordinarily pleased with their commitment to wanting what’s best for the poker player and I have a renewed sense of enthusiasm in the future of Ultimate Bet,” she said.

Ultimate Bet’s is to launch a new tourney schedule on April 28, the room announced.

That schedule is to include new sniper tournaments with large guarantees, over a million dollars in weekly guarantees, nightly deep stack tournaments featuring longer blind levels, new short-stack satellite tournaments, qualifying events for the World Series of Poker (WSOP), $1 turbo rebuy $5,000 guaranteed tourneys, new sit-and-gos and a $200,000 guaranteed tournament every Sunday, the room announced. =A0 (E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)=A0