Hollywood Poker

Hollywood Poker bills itself as "Where the Stars Come to Play" and is endorsed by many big-name celebrities, including real Hollywood icon James Woods and the "King of the Hollywood Home Game" Vince Van Patten.

Special promotions are the real draw here though, including big money-added tournaments, Top Set and Quad Aces payouts, Celebrity Invitational tournaments and regular qualifiers to big live poker events. The weekly Celebrity Classic Bounty Tournament is also a favorite.

Hollywood Poker uses the Ongame network platform and draws its traffic from the network's shared player base, meaning steady action 24/7 and plenty of active tables to choose from. The Hollywood Poker software has a unique design and good functionality and comes in both a download version and a Mac compatible Java client. The download version has more features overall, but with recent updates the Java client is virtually identical and one of the best choices for Mac users.

Game variations include Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven-Card Stud, Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo and Five-Card Draw, and Hollywood Poker also offers great statistical analysis of your game and an open database of hands played.

If there is a downside to Hollywood Poker, it’s probably that there are lots of really good European players on the network making action pretty tough at certain games and stakes.

Real-money player statistics as of February 2010 show 9000 ring-game players at peak hours and 45000 tournament players at peak hours.

Visit Hollywood Poker | Back to top

Bonus Code and Promotions (7)

All players who sign up at Hollywood Poker through a Pokerlistings link can choose from seven exclusive bonus offers. Each bonus includes a free ticket to Exclusive Celebrity Bonus Tournaments.

Exclusive Hollywood Poker bonus code for PokerListings players: Sveral options; see Hollywood for details.

Exclusive Reload Bonus: Available only to PokerListings players -deposit $50 receive a $500 reload bonus.

The reload bonus is cleared at 8 points per dollar and paid in $50 increments. Players that clear the entire bonus will also receive entry into HollywoodPoker's exclusive Celebrity Bounty Tournament - a $22 bonus value.

Referral Bonus: Hollywood Poker's referral program is one of the most lucrative online, with up to $2,000 a month for successful referrals. Limit is up to 10 friends per week at $50 each, with each friend needing 800 Poker Points in 30 days to be considered successful.

Each referred friend also gets a ton of perks, including an easy-to-clear $100 referral bonus, four RedCarpet freeroll tickets and more. If you do successfully refer 10 friends in one week, Hollywood will also build a "Custom Player Referral Program" just for you.

Loyalty Program

Players are rewarded for real-money ring-game and tournament play with Hollywood Poker Points, which can then be used to enter tournaments, win merchandise or collect daily, weekly and monthly cash rewards. Poker Points are awarded for playing in hands in which the rake taken is 10¢ or more, ranging from 0.1 to three full points, depending on the total rake.

Five poker points are awarded for every dollar paid in tournament entry fees.

> Sign up through a PokerListings link and receive a $1000 bonus at 200% deposit match

Visit Hollywood Poker | Back to top

Tournaments and Freerolls (8)

Hollywood Poker offers a wide selection of daily and weekly tournaments, with buy-ins as small as a couple of dollars and ranging up to a couple of hundred dollars.

Tournaments overall are very busy and fast with a decent amount of skilled players. Competition at all stakes is probably on the tougher side compared to the average room, but as always low-limit Hold'em games are soft as marshmallow.

The biggest network guaranteed tourneys - the $1 million Grand Tournament and the $150k Big Deal every Sunday - obviously draw a higher level of competition, and can be downright hard at the later stages.

For the average player though, Hollywood Poker runs dozens of small- and medium-sized guaranteed tournaments - especially the weekly $25k and $50k events - that offer very good shots at getting paid.

Hollywood Poker also runs very regular qualifiers to big live and online poker events, like its own Canadian Poker Night, the World Series of Poker, the EPT and so on.

Hollywood Poker doesn't run a ton of freerolls, but the ones they do are well visited. Most of them are large, multi-table events, usually in Limit or No-Limit Texas Hold'em, and typically award relatively small prizes.

For new players, HollywoodPoker hosts a Red Carpet Welcome Freeroll every Monday night with a prize pool of $100. Every player that makes their first-real-money deposit automatically gets four free entry tickets to these.

Occasionally, freerolls with larger prize pools are offered as part of bigger promotions or as invitational tournaments for players with a lot of ClubHollywood points.

Visit Hollywood Poker | Back to top

Software and Graphics (8)

Hollywood Poker runs on the Ongame network software, known for its great playability, security and stability. The 3D graphics are nice and clean, running in a deep red, and the software features some nice added features including player classification, a session browser, in-game hot-keys and all-in stats at the table.

Games run smooth and quick, even when multi-tabling. The download version has a sleeker look, 3D features and somewhat better response, but the no-download version is very competent. Overall, one of the best in the industry and a great playing experience.

The latest update of the Ongame software introduced a long-awaited mini-table feature and now allows for play on 12 tables at the same time. Multi-table play usually runs smooth and problem-free, as long as your computer can keep up. Tables are also well-suited for it with easy-to-follow game play and customized notification options.

The Hollywood Poker software also offers some great special features, highlighted by the action replay and the session browser, real-money mobile poker and a nice quick seat feature to get you to the tables quickly.

The lobby in particular is good, with drop-down menu filters for cash games and a chat window that tells you when celebs have logged in to play.

Visit Hollywood Poker | Back to top

Soft Competition (7)

There are lots of soft games at Hollywood Poker, but they're mainly in the low-limit cash games and smaller buy-in tournaments. The Ongame network is a favorite of lots of solid European players, so you can't look at the mid- to high-stakes games for soft competition.

Still, if you look around the lobby you'll find some $5/$10 No-Limit Hold'em tables with a viewed-flop percentage of 35-40%. Overall, many Hold'em games have a viewed-flop percentage in the 40s and 50s.

Visit Hollywood Poker | Back to top

Support (7)

Hollywood Poker offers e-mail support that is very fast and provides good quality answers. The support staff is knowledgeable and friendly.

Visit Hollywood Poker | Back to top

Deposit Withdrawal Options (7)

Deposit Options: Click2Pay, Visa, MasterCard, Neteller, Moneybookers, ClickandBuy, WebMoney and Instacash.

Withdrawal Options: Click2Pay, Visa, Neteller, Moneybookers, Instacash, ClickandBuy, check and courier check ($30 fee for withdrawals less than $1,000 through courier check).

Visit Hollywood Poker | Back to top