Summary (Rated 7 out of 10)
Being around since 2004, Hollywood Poker has established themselves as one of the premier poker rooms on the OnGame Network. The key to their success? Perhaps it was their endorsements from celebrities such as James Woods and Vince Van Patten of World Poker Tour fame, their wide tournament availability, or their unique bonus scheme which allows you to choose the bonus to your own requirements. Overall, Hollywood Poker is a solid site to play on, with large traffic and various promotions to increase your profitability.
Game Selection (Rated 8 out of 10)
Hollywood Poker offers a ton of game options including Limit/PL/NL Hold'em, Limit/PL/NL Omaha, Limit/PL/NL Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo, and 5 Card Draw! The table sizes are available in full ring (10-handed), 5-max, or Heads-up. The 5-max is an unorthodox choice as most other sites tend to offer 6-max, however you can create your own public or private tables at Hollywood, so you can always make your own 6-max table if you can't stand the 5-max tables.
For Sit'n'Goes, Hollywood Poker offers some very unique games, such as the MAD TILT ALL-IN SNG's where you get 60 chips and blinds start at 10/20! They also offer multi-tabe SNGs, Turbo SNGs, Heads-up SNGs and some qualifiers to bigger tournaments.
They run a wide range of tournaments to suit everyone's needs from guaranteed prize pool tournaments to Short-handed or Re-buy tournaments. Some special tournaments also exist such as the Michael Woods Invitational where you will receive a bounty prize for knocking out the participating celebrities!
What makes Hollywood Poker even more special is the option to open Private tables, customized to your own requirements (such as number of players, blind levels, prize structure, re-buy options etc).
If you're the casino gambling type, Roulette and Blackjack tables are also available.
Quality of Players (Rated 5 out of 10)
There are a diverse range of players in the network. There are the regular money makers who play solid poker, and also a lot of fish that probably learned how to play cards by watching Celebrity Poker Showdown. Overall, especially at the lower levels, you will see a lot of chips being thrown around. Perhaps it's the Scandinavian influence (OnGame Network advertises heavily in Scandinavia), but a lot of players tend to play Loose-Aggressive. Therefore, tighten up! The players are by all means beatable if you know how to adjust (which is tight in this case). And don't be too scared of their min-re-raises!
Software (Rated 6 out of 10)
Hollywood Poker definitely does not have the best software around. The most annoying feature is the fact that you must sit out to reload your chips, meaning that occasionally you end up missing hands (and if you were next to be blinds, you'd miss a whole round). Note that the 'sit out to reload' issue is slated to be fixed by June 2009.
Furthermore, the cashier, the tournament details and a lot of other important information must be viewed from your internet browser, rather than a new window within the software. This can cause a lot of inconvenience while playing.
On the upside, you can play poker without having to download the software. The Java Platform the online version runs on is just as smooth, and replicates the software to its every detail. If you are on the go and tend to use a computer other than yours a lot, Hollywood Poker is definitely the place you want to be playing at.
Furthermore you can view your statistics as the software keeps track of all your hands in a database (not available in the no-download version), and create private tables.
Graphics (Rated 7 out of 10)
The software has a very nice clean view, and you can see where the action is very clearly.
Hollywood Poker has an excellent mini-view feature. Although it is hard to find, press the small icon on the bottom right corner of the tables to toggle the mini-view on/off. It is definitely one of the nicest mini-views around (to see ugly, go to any Microgaming site).
As for the avatars, if you have played in any other OnGame network sites, you will realize that the avatars are unique. They can be distracting at first but you’ll get used to them and won't realize they are there after a while.
Some players will not like the red color scheme of the graphics. It can start to hurt your eyes when you play too much. Nonetheless, the upsides of the software graphics and the outstanding mini-view outweigh the downsides such as the color scheme and the avatars.
Profitability (Rated 8 out of 10)
There are eight options to choose from for the initial deposit bonus. Depending on your bankroll, and the amount of time you will play on the site, you can choose different bonuses.
For example, the lowest of the bonuses is $50 plus entry to a few freeroll tournaments and clubHOLLYWOODpoker Bronze Players' Club Rewards Membership. The bonus amount is small, but you only need to earn 8 Poker Points per bonus dollar, which is paid in $5 increments. The largest bonus is $5000 plus access to the new player freerolls and clubHOLLYWOODpoker Titanium Players' Club Rewards Membership. It sounds great, but you need 20 Poker Points per bonus dollar, and you only have 90 days to clear it and it is paid out in $1700 increments. If you are a high stakes player and expect to stay at Hollywood Poker for a while, the largest bonus is the way to go. Otherwise, pick what you deem clearable.
Hollywood Poker doesn't offer reload deposit bonuses, but you can use the Poker Points to buy a bonus. Hence if you play at a certain level, you can continuously clear the bonus and then buy a new one with the points earned, so you will always be clearing a bonus!
Hollywood Poker also offers additional promotions such as Happy Hours four times a week. On Mondays, it's the Top Set Payday, where if you hit a set of Aces, you can win 10 times the big blind up to $100. On Wednesdays, it is Quad Aces & Faces. Hit quad Aces/Kings/Queens/Jacks and win between 25x to 100x the big blind, up to $1000. Finally, on Saturdays and Sundays it is the Flush Frenzy. Catch an Ace High flush to win 5x the big blind, a Straight flush to win 50x the big blind, or a Royal flush to win 150x the big blind!
Playing at these happy hours will definitely help boost your bankroll!
