Hollywood Poker.com Overview
is where you can play with the stars! Literally. Well, maybe not stars but people who you might have seen on TV. HollywoodPoker is powered by Safepay Int. S.R.L., a company incorporated under the laws of Costa Rica. It runs on the same network as PokerRoom.com (OnGame) and uses the same software and traffic. Hollywood Poker does NOT accept US players to play for real money.
If you're used to the old and haven't played there for a while, be prepared for a lot of changes. They have switched networks a couple times and seemed to have finally found a home with the OnGame network. The software has changed drastically since it ran on its own network, which is both good and bad. The traffic is now very solid (a nice tradeoff). For cash games, you can find Hold'em (No-limit, Pot-limit, Limit), Omaha / Omaha Hi/Lo (Pot-limit, Limit), and 7 Card / 5 Card Stud. With the greater amount of traffic finding a game is easy. There are always (yes ALWAYS) tables of every limit running, especially during peak hours. Even Stud and Draw games have a fair number of tables available off-peak.
Tournament and Sit & Go action is quite popular as well, although not as much as cash games. You should usually be able to find a game for your bankroll. Sit & Goes range from $1 + $.20 up to $500 + $25, and they offer regular/turbo, 10 max, 5 max, heads-up, multi-table (up to 5 tables), and deep stacked. They also have a unique SnG tournament called ‘MAD Tilt ALL-IN’, which starts you off with 60 chips and 10-20 blinds. You can play these with up to 50 players (with 3 places paid) if you really feel like gambling! They also offer specials, such as ‘King of the Hill’ tournaments, which are like STEPs. The grand prize is $2500 if you can work your way up to the top! There are a good range of MTTs as well, offering $14 million guaranteed every month. Their most popular guaranteed tournaments are the $22 ($10k and $20k guaranteed) and $33 rebuys ($30k guaranteed). On the last Sunday of each month there is a tournament with a $1000 + $40 buy-in which has $1,000,000 guaranteed! There is usually an overlay and it is definitely worth playing if you have the bankroll.
Speaking of tournaments, they have some interesting regular events. Every Saturday night they have the ‘Michael Woods Invitational Tournament’. This is a $10+1 tournament that anyone can enter. A number of celebrities play, and they have $20 bounties each. Knocking out celebs will also net you 2 Bounty Hunter Points for their leaderboard. Here is a partial list of celebs from the leaderboard: Vince Van Patten; Michael Kane; Mena Suvari; James Woods; Ricki Lake; Kato Kaelin; Scott Baio; Mimi Rogers; Tim Busfield; and Michael Ian Black. It looks a lot like Bravo!'s ‘Celebrity Poker Showdown’, doesn't it? They also have an ‘Easy Money’ tournament where it's a $5+$1 buy in and 50% of the entrants will win money. For first time depositors, you can enter the ‘Red Carpet’ tournament, which is free. They only throw in $2 per entrant, so it’s not necessarily a big prize pool, but it's something. They also have freerolls throughout the day.
This site does have some neat things to entice players. The celeb factor is interesting. Recently, Michael Woods, Timothy Busfield and Ricki Lake were all hanging out in the chat room. But, again, unless you were a fan of ‘Thirty Something’ or daytime talk shows you might not care all that much. Still, it’s a fun place to play regardless.
Now that Hollywood has found its home at OnGame, it has joined in with their newest promotion, the ‘Value Back Player Program’. This program is great for any players out there who prefer receiving cash back instead of tournament entries and other non-cash prizes. Based on the amount of Player Points accumulated each calendar month, (earned by participating in real cash games and tournaments) you will be designated as either a ‘Club Hollywood Poker’ Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Titanium, or Walk Of Fame Medalist. Then, depending on your Medalist level, you can qualify for anywhere between 8% to 40% cash back!
Hollywood Poker.com Software Interface/Usability
's software has some very cool features, but it has one MAJOR cosmetic issue. If you look at the picture above, that is what every table looks like - exactly. The same people; sitting in the same chairs. You get no choice, so you might be the busty babe in red. Or you might find yourself pictured as the grandma in Seat 10. You can turn these avatars off if you prefer. The lobby has a nice layout and is standard for OnGame. You can select Cash Games or Tournaments and then find a table or tournament that suits you. One annoyance with the cash games is that you can't view them all at once. You have to select between Micro, Low, Medium or High stakes from a drop down box. Also, the stakes indicator can be confusing. For example, it lists $1-$2 in the lobby when the game may actually be $.50 - $1. We’re unsure as to why this is.
Expanding the game window to full screen really shows the impressive detailed graphics (for a poker room anyway) but obviously you wouldn't use it if you play multiple tables. It does have some really useful features. The note taking is more detailed than on other sites. You can also classify people and tag them with a little colored button that will go next to their name. You can determine which button stands for what. So you can label one Tight/Aggressive and then tag someone with it. So once you have the table pegged you can just look at the button you placed next to each player to see how to play them. This is a useful option in our opinion. You can also write notes on each player as well.
Especially interesting is that you can vote people off of a table if they are being abusive or obnoxious. The current bet, pot size, and rake are all clearly visible at the bottom of the screen. The chat window is easy to manage. You can simply click on the options to the left of the chat window to decide if you want dealer chat, table chat, both. You can also make the chat window external and bigger to fit the side of the game screen. Last, but not least, you can have a stats bar open up at the bottom of your screen to keep a running tab on your current session. You can also choose mini-view, which shrinks the table down a lot, although it does not allow a custom resize. You can only choose tiny, big, or HUGE.
Hand histories are instantly available at the table, and you can also save them to your computer automatically. Then you can use Poker Tracker/HUDs to help while playing.
Hollywood Poker.com Poker Room Action
has some decent action. They have a lot of tables and a large number of players. There always seem to be tables with 1 seat open just waiting for you. The players are pretty similar to most poker-only sites. A lot of people learning the game, but here some are also drawn in by the Hollywood factor. You'll see some money thrown around mindlessly. Most players are at the no-limit tables, but you can find some limit and Omaha donks sitting around. They don't accept US players so the peak time for the most action is late/early Eastern Time. They have a fairly consistent number of players connected, around 15,000+ during peak hours.
Hollywood Poker's Ease of Game, Ease of Making Money, Fish Rating
The games at low levels seem pretty friendly to the bankroll. The people here are the ones who watch ‘Celebrity Poker Showdown’ and want to play like Mimi Rogers. These are not people who watch the WPT or WSOP and aspire to be the next Doyle Brunson or Phil Ivey. Making money is fairly easy as long as you keep yourself disciplined. You won't experience a ton of bad beats here, as it seems most people are passive and know when to fold.
OnGame is known for being one of the fishiest sites out today, kind of like the good ole Party Poker days. Throughout all limits you will find donks who play way too many hands, and seem to like donating money. The tables offered are 10 or 5 max, and most people don't know how to adjust to this if they're used to 9 max and 6 max (play can be quite different). If you like shorthanded you should be able to destroy the games.
Hollywood Poker.com Bonuses and Promotions
Here's another part of that is interesting. They have a total of 8 different initial deposit bonuses you can choose from! Pick the one that suits your bankroll the best. None of these bonuses require a bonus code, so make sure you sign up through the links on this page.
We will review how to earn them first, making it easier to choose which one you like. All of these bonuses require between 8-20 points per bonus dollar and are released in different increments based on the bonus you choose. They all expire in 90 days, so if you take the large ones make sure you will be able to clear them in time. They can take a LONG grind! For every $.10 you pay in rake, you earn fractions of points. They start at $.10 - $.19, which is worth .1 points, $.20 - $.29 .2 points, $.3 - $.39 .3 points, and so on up to $3+ for 3 points. You also earn 5 points for every $1 in tournament fees.
First off, they have a MASSIVE ‘Professional Player’ bonus of 1000% up to $5000 on your first deposit! This bonus comes with 4 tickets to new player $100 freerolls. You also will have the benefits of the ‘Club HollywoodPoker’ Titanium level. This gives you the chance to play heads-up against a HollywoodPoker celebrity, receive a ticket for a $5,000 exclusive freeroll, and entrance to the HollywoodPoker store. The bonus is released at a rate of 20 Player Points per $1 in bonus, in $1700 increments. In total, you would have to collect 100,000 Player Points for the entire $5,000 bonus. (Note: This bonus requires you make a deposit with WebMoney, Moneybookers or NETELLER.)
Next they have a 1000% up to $2500 ‘Poker Maniac’ bonus! With this, you receive all of the benefits from the Professional Player bonus. This may be better for those who don't have as much time. The bonus is released in increments of $700 and requires 15 player points per $1. You can use any deposit method for this bonus.
If those two are too large, you can also take advantage of their 400% up to $1000 ‘Poker Enthusiast’ bonus. As with the other bonuses, you will get all of the benefits of a Club HollywoodPoker Titanium member. This bonus is released in $300 increments, at 10 Player Points per $1.
The fourth bonus offered is a 200% up to $500 Tournament Poker bonus. You will receive all of the benefits from the other bonuses. This is released in chunks of $50 and requires 9 Player Points per $1.
There are 3 smaller bonuses offered ranging from $50 - $250, but we wouldn't recommend them. These are smaller and it is worth building up your bankroll until it is large enough for at least the fourth. All of these require 8 Player Points per $1.
The larger bonuses are all great and have their own advantages- some of the best offered anywhere. The only downside is they can take a LONG time to complete. Obviously, it makes more sense for the serious player to take up one of the larger bonus options because there is an opportunity to walk away with a lot of free cash. For the smaller stakes player, just looking to test out this room, one of the smaller bonus options would be perfect.
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Hollywood Poker.com Customer and Technical Support
's support was great. We used their live chat function built into their website and came away satisfied. We were chatting with a representative within seconds and they always had a quick answer to anything thrown at them. They even offered to help us setup our account and make our initial deposit, going over with us which bonus would be best. They also have e-mail support, which tends to be slower but still decent. We recommend using the live chat if you have a quick problem.
E-mail: support@hollywoodpoker.com
beware of hollywoodpoker!! by grith on 09 Sep 2006
Action: 
Fish: 
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