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WPT Celebrity Shootout: Last chance!

You heard it here: this is your last chance to get in on HollywoodPoker.com’s astoundingly successful WPT Celebrity Shootout tournament. On July 31st, enthusiastic players from around the world joined their favorite Celebrities to soothe their itchy trigger fingers in the first of two WPT Celebrity Shootout tournaments. Of course, everyone was there to score a $100 Celebrity Bounty, a piece of the $10,000 guaranteed prize pool, a chance to win an all-inclusive paid trip to LA and a seat in the WPT Legends of Poker tournament at the Bicycle Casino – but players were also there to experience the much celebrated sense of camaraderie that’s set apart for being truly unique to HollywoodPoker.com.

The final WPT Celebrity Shootout tournament is Sunday August 14th at 2pm EST. This means you have just over a day to make sure you don’t miss out on the chance of a lifetime! With three ways to enter, you’ll be playing in no time.

Find out more about the final WPT Celebrity Shootout tournament!

More ways to use Poker Points!

The great thing about HollywoodPoker.com’s Poker Point promotion is that it rewards you for doing what you love - playing poker. You could already use Poker Points to gain entry into select HP tournaments and now you can also exchange Poker Points for tickets to the Speed Zone and Easy Money tournaments!

Learn more about how you can use Poker Points.

Michael Woods Celebrity Invitational: More Celebs!

There are more Celebrities than ever playing in the Michael Woods Celebrity Invitational – that’s why the recent introduction of a $100 Celebrity Bounty on the last Celebrity standing comes at a particularly profitable time!

Don’t forget that you can already cash in with the $20 Celebrity Bounties, the $20 Guest Bounties, the $25 Michael Woods Bounty and the $500 added to the prize pool. Combine the Celebrities and the multiple ways to win with an unparalleled player community and it’s easy to see why the Michael Woods Celebrity Invitational has quickly gained a reputation for being the most exciting online poker tournament on the web.

Be sure to join HollywoodPoker.com every Thursday at 10pm EST to experience the famed Michael Woods Celebrity Invitational!

Learn more about the Michael Woods Celebrity Invitational.

Check out the HP Girls!

The HP Girls are just another way HollywoodPoker.com adds a little glitz and glamour to the world of online poker. After looking through thousands of submissions and after months of deliberation, the finalists of the HP Model Search have been selected. You can see some of these lovely ladies on the site already and more will be available to see soon. Remember, once all the HP Girls are on the site, you’ll be able to vote for your favorite and the top 12 will be featured in the first ever HP Girls Calendar. Voting starts next week!

Meet some of the HP Girls now!

NETELLER limit increased!

Good news! NETELLER has increased deposit limits to allow you to deposit up to $1000 in a 24 hour period!

Learn more about NETELLER.

Hollywood Hills

She’s bright and peppy; firm and fair; professional and lighthearted. She’s Julie, HollywoodPoker.com’s Player Manager. Still, lying under her veneer of seemingly super-human poise and charm is a woman – a woman who had a secret; a woman who had a problem. Julie was addicted to a substance more powerful, more consuming than anyone could have ever imagined. Her kryptonite was versatile. It came in a can - sometimes, a bottle – and she could get it almost anywhere. That’s right my friends, Julie’s obsession with diet soda had become a serious issue. Worst of all, it was effecting her poker playing. Someone had to reach out and help this misguided youth. One day, someone did...

It happened during their bi-annual poker game. Joeunstable noticed that Julie was becoming unusually exuberant and a little edgy. Joeunstable also noticed that Julie had consumed a case of diet soda and was currently cracking open another. Her playing was haphazard and inconsistent. Her eyes looked like marbles in custard. Joeunstable decided it was time to speak up.

“Uh, Julie, don’t you think you’ve had enough?” he asked, nodding towards the freshly opened can she grasped in her shaky hand.

“I can stop anytime I want to!” Julie shot back, immediately on the defensive. 

Luckily for Julie, Joeunstable was not easily dissuaded. Not 3 years ago, he had executed a similar intervention for a friend who was obsessed with taking pictures of parking meters. Of course, that was easier – he’d had time to plan.

“Listen Julie,” he began, “I’m only saying this because I care, but I think you need help. Professional help.”

“I –I – I...” Julie trailed off. Her bottom lip began to tremble like a leaf in the wind and Joeunstable knew - he knew he had gotten through to her. Actually, it had been surprisingly easy. Little did he know the excess carbonation had so clouded Julie’s mind that she thought Joeunstable was Martha Stewart and the problem he was referring to was her living room motif, which tragically featured her predilection for plaids with floral prints.

Still, Julie voluntarily committed herself to a self-help program that very day and has since made a miraculous recovery. Everyone at the HP headquarters was delighted and inspired by her transformation – so much so, in fact, that the crew has taken it upon themselves to orchestrate an intervention to stop Dan from throwing cherry-pits at Anthony’s head during conference calls.

As you can see, nothing and no one is free from the oppressive tyranny of neurosis. Luckily for the residents of Hollywood Hills, they have one another to help in times of dire need.

Join us next week at Hollywood Hills when love is in the air! Vote for the storyline you would like to see followed up next week.

- HP Dan disastrously decides to combine his two loves: poker and Ginsu knives.
- HP Hollay takes HP Mike’s love life in to her own hands and signs him up for online dating.
- Love sparks across the table: 3 HP players find themselves in an unlikely love triangle.

Go to the Hollywood Poker Forum and vote for which story-line you would like to see explored in next week’s episode of Hollywood Hills!

Questions or comments about Hollywood Hills? E-mail hollay@hollywoodpoker.com.

Player Spotlight: Devil_wolf!

The HollywoodPoker.com Player Spotlight gives players the chance to step into center stage! Not only do you get to share a little about yourself with the rest of the HollywoodPoker.com community, but if you are selected to appear in the Player Spotlight, you also score a HP tournament ticket.

Interested in being in the Player Spotlight? E-mail me at hollay@hollywoodpoker.com.

In this week’s Spotlight: Devil_wolf

Hi, my name is Samuel Porter and I’m currently living in North Carolina. I’m originally from Jessup, GA and moved up here from Florida.

In the 27 yrs I've been alive, I have seen and done a lot of things, but I must say that growing up in Florida was probably the most fun. I could swim in the ocean almost when ever I wanted, bungee jump, and I got to go to Japan in the military. Oh yeah – I also got to ride some pretty good bulls.
 
HollywoodPoker.com was one of the first sites that I tried and came back to.  The people here are great and I like that it’s so easy to make new friends here.  The staff also does a really good job, (Adam, Charles, Suzanne), and I thank them for it.
 
Some of my best records on here are in freerolls: 4th place and an 8th place.  I have also played in the Michael Woods Celebrity Invitational, but I didn’t do so hot in that one. I placed 184 but I’m coming back. Like they say, if you can survive the freeroll then you can survive anything!
 
I would like to be a pro player one day.  I think that it’s so cool to be able to make a living at what you like to do for fun.  I would also like to ride on the rodeo circuit full time here in the near future.  I remember my first ride. It wasn’t pretty but I covered my first bull here in North Carolina. I think poker and riding are a lot alike based on the rush that you get from winning.  Maybe one day soon you all will see me on TV riding or playing. 

Hey, I can dream right?!

~Devil_wolf

Write to Win

All that stands between you and a free HP tournament ticket is a little creativity! HollywoodPoker.com’s Write to Win contest asks you to compose an article, editorial, poem, story (whatever you want!) on our weekly topic and send it to julie@hollywoodpoker.com. Your submission, along with the other submissions, will then be posted in the Hollywood Poker Forums for your fellow players to vote for their favorite entry.

If your entry receives the most votes, you’ll win a HP tournament ticket! Plus, one lucky random voter will score HP gear! Share your words of wisdom and submit to this week’s Write to Win contest.

This week’s topic: Tales On-Tilt. Face it, we’ve all been there. Tell us about your experiences from the edge!

Congratulations to Chip, whose submission about his ‘Dream Table’ scored him a tournament ticket!

Read Chip’s winning entry:

My dream table would be the final table at the WSOP, of course.

Seat #1: Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson. (Way to play that 10-2 Dolly. You do know that it’s more than 10 to 2 against you of winning that hand don't you?)

Seat #2: Thomas Austin Preston. "Huh?", "Who's that?" He's better know as Amarillo Slim and an old running partner of Doyle.

Seat #3: "Treetop" Strauss - another old running partner of Doyle and Amarillo Slim. He has cashed in his chips now but who knows, he came back with a chip and a chair and won a WSOP event way back when. By the way, that’s where the saying came from.

Seat #4: Phil "The Brat" Hellmuth - just because I’d like to see him cry.

Seat #5: Phil "Poison" Ivey. "Doesn't he play golf?"

Seat #6: Jennifer Harman Traniello, because she’s so nice. She actually talked to me once on-line.

Seat #7: Howard "The Professor" Lederer. "Hey Professor", "try this, take a number between 1 and 10, multiply that number by 9, multiply that number by12345679."

Seat #8: Annie Duke. Howard’s sis, who whipped his butt once and can again.

Seat #9: Vince "The Man" Van Patten. It's a very short walk back to the booth Vince.

Seat # 10: Chip "Joan" Jett, because that’s my name too. Of course, my nick is "Chip". "Now why would you let them nickname you Joan?" Joan Jett is a country singer born here in Alabama who claims to be Hank Williams daughter. Hank Williams Jr. disputes that claim. I don't know Hank. You know how we is: From eight to eighty, blind, cripple or crazy, crawling on their bellies like reptiles, we don't care.
"Oh wait", "where am I going to sit?"

I'm the dealer of course.

As we say down here in Alabama, "Y'all take care now, you here"

~Stanley "Chip" Jett

Vince Van Patten’s Corner: Going pro!

Don’t be fooled, making the jump to professional poker playing is harder than it looks. It’s like when a good college athlete goes to the pros. It’s a different world.

To succeed as a professional poker player, you have to have discipline. This means you have to be smart with your money management and you really have to keep your ego in check. You really have to control yourself if you want to survive; this means knowing your capabilities and playing in the right games.

There are a lot of positives to playing professionally, though. It allows for a lot of freedom. You have no boss, no set hours, and you get to do what you love for a living. Like I said, it takes a lot of discipline but it’s not impossible.

~Vince Van Patten



Weekly Poll: Vote to Win!

Vote in our weekly poll and you’re automatically entered into a draw to win HP gear. Tons of players are already gracing the streets, showing off their new garb. This is one time when conformity is cool!

This week’s poll question:

What’s your favorite starting hand?

Go to the Hollywood Poker Forum to vote!

Hollywood Poker Extra Archive