Hollywood Poker Review

Overview: 7.6/10

Hollywood Poker was established in November of 2004. It has grown at a rapid pace and is now one of the leading rooms in the industry. It has run a successful marketing campaign where you can play against celebrities. This has added credibility to the site and the fact that the WPT commentator Vince Van Patten fully endorses it is a major plus. Their punch line “where the stars come to play” is backed up by the bounty tournaments where you can knock out celebrities. This is a nice feature and along with the generous deposit bonus it is definitely worth checking out.

Hollywood Poker is on the Ongame network, which means it shares players with a number of other sites like Chan Poker. They offer some large tournaments with the solid traffic they have and provide a nice overall experience. Hollywood is one of those rooms where even if you don’t play there on a regular basis, you will always enjoy going there for a game. Hollywood Poker is one of the largest privately owned poker sites and you can always feel safe when you go there to play.

Software: 7.5/10

You can play up to 12 tables at once if you are a serious multi-table player. The offer 10 player cash tables which is nice, but they also offer 5-player shorthanded games. I don’t like this at all because I have grown accustomed to playing 6-player shorthanded. It may not seem like a huge difference, but with 5 players I feel that there isn’t enough action for my liking.

• Player Search
• Multi Tabling
• Resizeable Windows
• Hand History Text
• Hand History Graphic
• Heads Up Cash
• Heads Up SNG
• Mac Compatible

The hand histories are displayed in text but to access it you get redirected to a webpage. I don’t like this because it takes up too much time if you are playing many tables. The cashier and support buttons also redirect you to a webpage and just adds time to the already long process.

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The tables themselves are laid out nicely and they have all the features that you need. If you are a constant reader of pokershark.com.au you will realize that I’m not a huge fan of not having avatars. The silhouettes they have in place are is not my preference, because if a player gets up and moves you may not notice that a new player is there. This is especially true if you aren’t using any tracking software. The software that Hollywood provides is slick, functions well and is a good package overall.

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Promotions: 7/10

The promotions at Hollywood poker vary in how unique they are. The loyalty program is fairly average and doesn’t provide a great deal of value. They have the standard VIP loyalty program that most rooms have and offers nothing out of the ordinary. You can receive exclusive Freerolls and tournament tickets are offered like a lot of programs do.

On the other hand, they have some unique promotions that run all year long. These promotions provide great value for money and are well above the industry standard. We will keep you updated if there are any new promotions in this space. The current promotions are:

Top Set Payday – Every Monday, Friday and Saturday between the hours of 3pm – 3am EST you can win 10x the big blind of your cash game. If you get dealt pocket aces and you hit trips or quads you receive your payout which goes up to $100.

Quad Aces and Faces Jackpot – On Wednesdays between the hours of 3pm-3am EST. If you get quad jacks or better you will receive a payout. The payout is as follows:

• AAAA-JJJJ with one pocket card: pays out 25x the big blind
• KKKK-JJJJ with both pocket cards: pays out 50x the big blind
• AAAA with both pocket cards: pays out 100x the big blind
• The maximum single payout is $1000

Tournaments: 7/10

Hollywood Poker enjoys over $14m in monthly guaranteed tournaments and is the home of the 750k monthly Friday tourney. There is enough traffic on the Ongame network to usually get some sort of decent game. The tourneys aren’t as good as the top poker rooms like Poker Stars but they are decent.

Recent trends have seen more people start to play on the Ongame network. This means that they are offering new tournaments all the time and the guaranteed prizes are increasing. In the position that Hollywood Poker is in at the moment, I select the tournaments that I want to play in sparingly. There isn’t enough quality tournaments on at this point in time to keep you going for a whole session. For Aussie players, besides the select few tourneys, the can be minimal players in the tourneys. Personally I love to play in big tourneys and I don’t like to play a lot of tourneys with less than a hundred entries. I can see the numbers increasing and it won’t be long before rooms like HollyWood and (CHAN POKER) really start getting more entries in their tourneys. In peak times however, there is plenty of action and plenty of entries in the tourneys. If you don’t mind waking up early for a game, then you will enjoy the tournaments on offer.

The great news for Aussie players is that there are two great tourneys each night specifically targeted for Australian players. See below for details and for the major tournaments that Hollywood Poker hosts:

• $100+8 Aussie Daily 6k Gtd. Weekdays 7:00 pm AEST.
• 50+4 Aussie Daily 7.5k Gtd. Weekdays at 8.30pm AEST.
• GRAND Tournament – $750,000 Guaranteed- $1000+40 buy-in on the last Friday of each month. The tournament starts at 2pm EST.
• BIG DEAL MANIA- Awarding tickets to the $150,000 Guaranteed Big Deal, Big Deal Mania events run every day at 11am AEST, leading up to Sunday’s big tournament. Buy-in for the main event is 300+20 and the satellites are $20+2.
• $70,000 Euro Grand Prix- Euro Grand Prix Mania Qualifiers: Weekdays at 9.35am EST, Saturdays at 2am EST. Euro Grand Weekly Final: Saturdays at 1:00pm 4am AEST. Satellites start at $10+1.

Traffic: 7/10

The Ongame network now has the 5th largest pool of player in online poker. You will never struggle to find a game at your limit, even in off peak times. The tournaments can be a bit bare at times, but if you play a mixture of both cash games and tourneys you won’t have any problems. If you are familiar with the Ongame network, you will realize that the traffic is fairly constant, without having masses of players online at once. It is still far from competing with the very top poker sites in the industry, but it is well on its way.

• Hold Em
• Omaha
• Stud
• Razz
• Horse

Bonuses: 9/10

The bonuses that are provided at Hollywood are right up there with the best in the industry, if not the best. If you are into trying out new room and clearing huge bonuses, then look no further. At Hollywood poker you can get a massive 600% on $250 which is exceptional value for money. The bonus can be very slow to clear as you only get awarded player points for hand that you actively played in. You can use the points that you accumulate along the way to buy merchandise and participate in Freerolls, and other standard VIP deals. In my opinion, the mid-range bonuses provide a good opportunity to take advantage of the bonus because they are easier to clear. Here are the details of the bonuses:

• 600% match on your deposit (max deposit $250 = $1500 bonus). 90 days to clear with a rate of 12 Player Points per dollar
• 500% match on your deposit (max $200= $1000 bonus). 90 days to clear with a rate of 12 Player Points per dollar
• 300% match on your deposit (max $200= $600 bonus). 60 days to clear with a rate of 10 Player Points per dollar
• 300% match on your deposit (max $100= $300 bonus). 30 days to clear with a rate of 8 Player Points per dollar
• 200% match on your deposit (max $250= $200 bonus). 30 days to clear with a rate of 8 Player Points per dollar

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This is the best bonus in online poker currently available. To download the software go to Hollywood Poker.

Fish: 8/10

The quality of play on the Ongame network varies, but overall it is pretty soft. You get your fair share of fish that you can easily snap up and take their money to play many profitable sessions. I have seen some ridiculous plays on Hollywood Poker so that might make my opinion biased, but a lot of players seem to be loose aggressive type players. The Tournament play is quite soft and you can have some nice pay days if you play well. In comparison to the iGame network, I would say that the Ongame network offers softer competition, purely because they are more aggressive with their lack of experience, which allows you have some really profitable sessions. You will of course endure a lot more bad beats, but overall you will enjoy taking the money off the fish a lot more if you play well.

Customer Support: 8/10

The support at Hollywood Poker is above industry standard. They offer a 24-hour live chat service that can help you with any of the problems that you may have. In the dealing that I have had with them through email, they have responded in an average sort of time, and generally answered the questions that I have had. The service they provide here is generally quite good and receives an above average score, because they are just that.