HollywoodPoker.com

Hits

• Home site of and endorsed by several big celebrities including James Woods
• Mac compatible
• Supports completely automated import of Hold'em tournament and ring game data to Poker Tracker
• Offers WSOP bubble insurance
• Features an online poker lifestyle magazine plus the Hollywood Poker girls

Misses

• No bank withdrawal
• Updates sometimes load poorly
• Doesn't accept U.S. players

FULL REVIEW - HollywoodPoker (8.41)

Due to U.S. legislation preventing credit card companies from collecting payments for wagers made by U.S. residents, HollywoodPoker has determined to suspend all real-money gaming business in the United States.

Hollywood Poker is a very popular poker room endorsed by many big name celebrities - including real Hollywood icon James Woods, who can be spotted at the tables frequently.

There are lots of special promotions as well, including regular 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 always a favorite, and well over $200k was paid out in 2007 in celebrity bounties.

Hollywood Poker uses the Ongame network platform and draws its traffic from the network's shared player base. The Hollywood Poker software has a unique design and good functionality and there is both a download version and a Mac compatible Java client; the downloaded version contains a more robust set of features, but with recent updates the Java client is virtually identical.

The software is one of the best choices for Mac users, who can play the Java version without any special installs. Hollywood Poker also offers great statistical analysis of your game and an open database of the hands played at the site.

The variations offered at Hollywood Poker include Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven-Card Stud, Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo and Five-Card Draw. Hollywood Poker focuses on six-handed tables more than most other top rooms and the games vary between No-Limit, Pot-Limit, and Fixed-Limit. Full-table games, short-handed, and heads-up tables are all available.

Real-money player statistics as of November 2008 show 9,000 ring-game players at peak hours and 45,000 tournament players at peak hours.

Overall, Hollywood Poker features great action, good game diversity and software that plays very well. The software is updated frequently to ensure safety and stability with very little downtime as a result.