 POKER
ROOM REVIEW - HOLLYWOOD POKER |
 |
Hollywood
Poker is a relatively new poker room endorsed by the actor
James Woods and Vince van Patten. Hollywood Poker is a network
skin of the pokerroom.com network and uses same software albeit
with its own unique look and feel. Anyone familiar with Pokerroom.com
will recognise the user interface and player tables immediately.
Essentially the software has been lifted from Pokerroom.com
and rebranded with the Holywood Poker logo. The graphics is
top notch, server reliability has improved greatly and ranks
amongst the top now, and plenty of short-handed tables ranging
from heads up to 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10 players.
Excellent tools for the serious player like easy to use statistics
and player notes. Hollywood Poker offers great statistical
analysis of your game. With a Java applet facility, it is
an obvious choice for Mac and Linux users as no download is
required. Great player volumes although the majority of games
are currently at the lower end in ring games but excellent
traffic for the tournaments. 5,000 plus off peak and often
over 10,000 players online at peak hours.
Limited deposit and withdrawal facilities and we strongly
recommend NETeller or FirePay. So far the 24 hour help desk
has proved very good. As a summary, Hollywood Poker has great
graphics and software, rapidly increasing player volumes and
this has meant much softer games are now available. Great
tournament schedule, always tables available as new ones are
generated when the existing tables fill up. |
| HOLLYWOOD
POKER - FEATURES |
| POSITIVE
FEATURES |
NEGATIVE
FEATURES |
- Easy to use interface (see below)
- Excellent 24-hour Help Desk
- NO commission on any deposit methods
- Prompt payment of cash outs without any fuss
- Frequent multi-table and single-table tournaments
- No chat censorship and facility to increase chat
area
- Private Tables
- Player Note function
|
- High limit poker table volumes are still quite low
- Limited poker variations
- Good proportion are decent players i.e. easier rooms
exist where there are "easy money" games
- Rake is slightly higher than industry standard for
ring games (although lower for tournaments)
|
|
| Hollywood
Poker has a lot going for it. As with all sites, there are
good and bad players. The level of play at is relatively high
so there are far easier sites to make money. From experience,
the $5-10 No Limit tables contain the most bluffers and players
whereas the tighter games can be found amongst the $2-$4 No
Limit tables. All kind of weird stuff at the lower No Limit
tables. |
| HOLLYWOOD
POKER - POKER VARIANTS |
Hollywood
Poker supports the following forms of poker:
- Texas Hold Em
- Omaha
- Omaha Hi/Lo
- Seven Card Stud
- Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo
- 5 Card Draw
|
| HOLLYWOOD
POKER - INTERFACE |
| The
Hollywood
Poker interface is user friendly with quick responses. You
don't even have to download to play (real or play) as they offer
java-based applets, particularly useful if you have an Apple
computer; you will need to have a recent version of java. The
chat room function on the interface is quite popular. The layout
is user friendly with well organised areas of all ring games
and tournaments. |
 |
| You
can create your own private tables from the main lobby with
between 2-10 players. These tables can be open to anyone as
well as for invited players only. The creator has the option
to choose whether to allow a player to join his/her private
table.
The main interface also has a general chat room where people
can say all sort of things. However, it is particularly useful
if there is a problem or you have a question which you can
post in the chat room and generally someone has the courtesy
to answer. |
| HOLLYWOOD
POKER - PLAYER TABLES |
The
player tables are rather dark. The graphics is top notch with
interesting player avatars, and during Xmas they have come
up with a Xmas-theme. Easily accessible statistics and player
notes functions as well as easy to use player settings. The
only drawback really is for people who like to play at more
than one table simulatenously; some complain that the buttons
are located too close to each other which means that it is
easy to click the wrong button when you are struggling for
time. |
|
The
chat is for the players only. Although others can view the
play, they cannot chat with the players. Furthermore, if a
player is particularly annoying, it is possible to MUTE that
particular player or now even possible to vote that player
off the table.
At the main interface it is possible to manage your player
settings such as the ability to choose whether to reveal a
won hand that has not been called, automatically wait until
the Big Blind reaches your seat when you join a table as well
as enable statistics (which is a useful function if you want
to analyse the randomness of the Random Number Generator). |
| HOLLYWOOD
POKER - RING GAMES |
There
are plenty of Texas Hold Em ring games at all times of the
day. However, there are few players of the other forms of
poker. In essence, pokerroom.com is primarily for those that
have a preference for Hold Em. Whereas there are often thousands
of players at any time of the day playing Texas Hold Em, there
are rarely over 50-100 players for any of the other forms
of poker. What sets Pokerroom apart from many other poker
rooms is that there are plenty of tables with various numbers
of maximum players. From heads up to 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10 player
tables. |
|
| POKER
VARIANT |
FORM |
STAKE
IN US$ |
MAX
NO. PLAYER |
| Texas Hold Em |
Limit |
0.25/0.50 to 50/100 |
2, 3, 5, 7 or 10 |
| Texas Hold Em |
Pot Limit |
0.50/1.00 to 2/4 |
2, 3, 5 or 10 |
| Texas Hold Em |
No Limit |
0.25/0.50 to 5/10
|
2, 3, 4, 5, 7 or 10 |
| Omaha |
Limit |
0.50/1.00 to 25/50 |
2 or 10 |
| Omaha |
Pot Limit |
0.50/1.00 to 2/4 |
2 or 10 |
| Omaha |
No Limit |
0.50/1.00 to 2/4 |
2, 5 or 10 |
| Omaha Hi Lo |
Limit |
1/2 to 25/50 |
2, 5 or 10 |
| Omaha Hi Lo |
Pot Limit |
0.50/1.00 to 2/4 |
2, 5 or 10 |
| Omaha Hi Lo |
No Limit |
0.50/1.00 to 2/4 |
2, 5 or 10 |
| Seven Card Stud |
Limit |
1/2 to 25/50 |
5 or 8 |
| Seven Card Stud Hi Lo |
Limit |
1/2 to 25/50 |
2 or 8 |
| 5 Card Draw |
Limit |
1/2 to 10/20 |
5 |
| 5 Card Draw |
Pot Limit |
0.25/0.25 to 2/2 |
5 |
|
| HOLLYWOOD
POKER - TOURNAMENTS |
Hollywood
Poker has a very strong daily tournament schedule. There
are daily $1,000 and $500 freeroll tournaments. There are
frequent $5, $10 and $20 multi-table tournaments as well as
single table tournaments ranging from $5 + ($0.50 fee) to
$100 + ($8 fee). Below are, however, a list of the main multi-table
tournaments: |
|
| TOURNAMENT
ENTRY |
ENTRY
FEE |
FREQUENCY
+ START TIME |
AVE. NO.
OF PLAYERS |
MAX. PLAYERS
|
| Lucky Dollar |
$1 + $0 |
Mon-Sun
09.00 EST/14.00 GMT
Mon-Fri
16.00 EST/21.00 GMT |
600-2,400 |
2,400 |
| $10,000 Guaranteed |
$20 + $2 |
Mon-Fri
12.00 EST/17.00 GMT |
600-780 |
2,000 |
| $20,000 Guaranteed |
$20 + $2 |
Mon-Thu, Sun
21.00 EST/02.00 GMT |
600-780 |
2,000 |
| $40,000 Guaranteed |
$20 + $2 |
Friday
21.00 EST/02.00 GMT |
+1,000 |
2,000 |
| $50,000 Guaranteed |
$30 + $3 |
Saturday
21.00 EST/02.00 GMT |
+1,000 |
2,000 |
| European Daily |
$50 + $4 |
Mon-Fri
15.00 GMT |
80-120 |
1,000 |
| US Daily |
$50 + $4 |
Mon-Fri
20.00 EST |
120-250 |
1,000 |
| Europe Grand Prix |
$100 + $8 |
Sunday
14.00 EST / 19.00 GMT |
100-250 |
1,600 |
| US Grand Prix |
$100 + $8 |
Sunday
18.00 EST / 23.00 GMT |
100-250 |
1,600 |
| Big Deal |
$300 + $20 |
Sunday
14.00 EST / 19.00 GMT |
150-300 |
600 |
| Grand Tournament |
$1,000 + $0 |
December over 2 days |
1,000 |
2,000 |
|
| HOLLYWOOD
POKER - DEPOSIT & WITHDRAWAL OPTIONS |
DEPOSIT
OPTIONS:
VISA, MasterCard, NETeller, Firepay, instaCash, ePassporte
CASH OUT OPTIONS:
NETeller, Firepay, instaCash, ePassporte, Check and Courier
Check |
| HOLLYWOOD
POKER - SUPPORT |
Hollywood
Poker has a 24/7 tollfree telephone number to their customer
support. In our tests the calls have been answered promptly,
courteously and by knowledgeable staff. So far so good. |
| HOLLYWOOD
POKER - LOYALTY PROGRAMME |
|
Hollywood
Poker runs a player points loyalty programme. Poker Points
can be used in a variety of ways. You can use them to:
- Gain free entry to tournaments.
- Win Hollywood Poker merchandise.
- Participate in daily, weekly and monthly cash rewards
and draws.
|
| HOLLYWOOD
POKER - MEMBER COMMENTS |
|
| MEMBER |
DATE
POSTED |
COMMENTS |
| Eurobonus
|
15 Feb. 2006 |
Hard to accummulate the player
points and clear the $1,000 sign up bonus but I am making
a valiant attempt at it. |
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