To play your best, you have to challenge yourself. Start now by joining in HollywoodPoker.com’s host of daily table games, poker tournaments and events, including our $10K Freeroll Week and our Celebrity tournaments, like the Michael Woods Celebrity Invitational and the Hollywood Poker Celebrity Classic. You have the passion, we have the games and the Extra can give you the information you need to play your best, every time.
Read the Extra to find how you can get in gear and get the goods!
In this week’s Extra:
:: $10K Freerolls: Earn, Play, Win!
:: Celebrity Spotlight!
:: James Woods on Celebrity Poker!
:: Hurricane Relief tournaments: Lets go for $30K!
:: Hollywood Poker Models Announced!
:: Player Spotlight: one eyed cat!
:: Write to Win
:: Vince Van Patten’s Corner
:: Weekly Poll
 $10K Freerolls: Earn, Play, Win!
We received such positive feedback from our first $10K Freeroll Week that we’ve decided to host another starting November 1st! You read that right: HollywoodPoker.com is dealing out $10,000 in prize money along with our famous Celebrity Bounties to players in the $10K Freeroll Week II. It doesn’t matter if you’re a new or veteran player, our $10K Freeroll can pay out BIG time and all you have to do to qualify is play. You have between September 30th at 5pm EST and October 31st at 5pm EST to earn as many Poker Points as possible, so don’t fold this winning hand –it’s time to go all in!
Find out more about the $10K Freeroll Week II now!
 Celebrity Spotlight!
Our first ever Celebrity Spotlight, which features Josh Malina, a stellar Hollywood Poker Celebrity Player and Co-Executive Producer of the hit TV series, Celebrity Poker.
The Celebrity Spotlight gives you the chance to interview your favorite Celebrity Players! Here’s how it works: I’ll use the Extra and the Celebrity Sightings section of the Hollywood Poker Forum to tell you when a new Celebrity Player will be appearing in the Celebrity Spotlight and all you have to do is send your questions for the player to hollay@hollywoodpoker.com. We’ll then choose a few questions to ask the Celebrity Player and if your question is selected, you’ll score gear from HollywoodPoker.com. It’s fun, simple and above all, rewarding!
Thanks to everyone who submitted questions for Josh – we’ll be hearing from him soon!
 James Woods on Celebrity Poker!
Want to see James Woods live and in action? Celebrity Poker Showdown’s first ever Million Dollar Tournament premieres on Bravo, Thursday, October 13, 2005 at 9pm EST and James’ will appear on the show on Thursday, October 20th at 9pm EST. Tune in to see James tear up the tables on this star-studded hit poker program. After all, James plays at HollywoodPoker.com often and you’ll have a better chance of knocking him out if you know a bit about his style first!
Hurricane Relief tournaments: Let’s go for $30K!
After raising $22,650 in September, we’ve decided to extend our incredibly successful Katrina Relief tournaments for another month in order to facilitate the ensuing hurricane disasters in the Gulf Coast area. Thanks to everyone who’s played, including our Celebrity Players, like:
James Woods
Vince Van Patten
Dennis Quaid
Wayne Gretzky
Lenny Dykstra
Larry Bowa
Gary Carter
Mimi Rogers
Tom McGowan
Ronny Cox
Michael Kane
Ricki Lake
Pamela Gidley
Yancey Arias
Andrew Hill Newman
Jimmy Van Patten
Michael Woods
Kane Hodder
Josh Charles
Tim Busfield
Norby Walters
Jonathan Baker
While there is still suffering, there is still a need to come out and support this worthy cause. All you have to do is what you love and join us Thursdays at 10pm EST for the Michael Woods Celebrity Invitational and on Sundays at 2pm EST for the Hollywood Poker Celebrity Classic – the newest in our line of star-studded tournaments.
Learn more about how you can help in Hollywood Poker's relief charity poker tournaments.
Hollywood Poker Models Announced!
The votes are in, the wait is over and now you can see which poker-playing vixens made the final cut for the first ever Hollywood Poker Girl Calendar. See if your favorite Hollywood Poker Girl is one of the 12 finalists.
Check out the Hollywood Poker Calendar Girls today!
 Player Spotlight: one eyed cat!
E-mail me at hollay@hollywoodpoker.com, ask to be in the Player Spotlight and if you're selected, you win an HP tournament ticket! The Player Spotlight features a different HollywoodPoker.com player and every week, we get to learn a little bit about the people at our tables.
In this week’s Spotlight, meet one eyed cat!
A GRAND MAN
Ever wished you’d had a strong, positive role model to guide you during your young impressionable years? The answer is probably yes. We all need someone like that in our lives.
Okay, how about one who made and sold bootleg moonshine and was considered a “criminal” by the Federal Government? Would you still want that person teaching you (or your children) what matters most in life and how to treat others? If that person happened to be my Grandfather Lon, I believe your answer would still be yes.
I was born and raised in a small town in the shadow of the Great Smokey Mountains, and it was there that I was exposed to my grandfather’s “crimes” almost from the moment of birth.
Three generations of our family lived in a very large, two-story wooden house that was bought and paid for with the proceeds of his business. But that wasn’t where his business was conducted. There was an even larger building about a hundred yards up the hill from the main house that had served as a barn during its history, but the cows were gone before my granddad bought the seventy-five acre place, having been sold off to pay back-taxes by the former owner.
Shortly after we moved into our new home, all sixteen members of the family and several of my granddad’s “employees” got busy on the barn, With the exception of a few minor repairs, the exterior remained the same, but the interior was cleaned, disinfected, painted and renovated to suit my granddad’s needs. And it was in this barn where his product was sold and where I would learn about life.
But this was only the distribution point. The manufacturing process was hidden farther up the hill in deep woods close to a stream of cold, crystal clear water. The location wasn’t chosen at random. The quality of the water, and its mineral content, directly determines the taste of the moonshine that comes from the still and settles in the thump keg. It was widely known throughout our town and the surrounding hills that my granddad sold only the finest sipping whisky made. That fact, plus his jovial demeanor, ensured a steady flow of customers over the years.
But my granddad also understood human nature, and when he renovated the interior of the barn, he planned accordingly. Along one end he built a bar with stools, and on the other end a platform. His masterstroke, though, was in the middle of the floor, close to a wood-burning stove. That’s where he set up six tables with five chairs each. I spent most of my younger years in or around the barn earning pocket money by washing bottles and jars for my granddad and running errands for his customers. But it was those tables and chairs that became the focal point of my young life, because that was where an almost continuous game of poker was played!
I was absolutely fascinated by what went on at those tables. I witnessed first hand every emotion known to mankind. Not only did my granddad not mind that I stood beside his chair watching him play, he encouraged it, knowing better than I did that I would learn much more than just how to play poker.
One of the first things I learned was that alcohol and poker aren’t a good combination if you want to hold onto your money. My granddad never drank when he played, and he always won. (But he was also shrewd enough not to win so much that it discouraged the players from coming back.) He was content with making his money from the small rake he took and providing his customers with the product that attracted them to the barn.
The poker games came to a halt on Saturday nights, because that’s when the barn became a dance hall. Entire families came from every town around to play their instruments on the stage and eat the food my granddad provided free of charge. It was a very festive occasion and the atmosphere was wonderful. (I sometimes thought he only threw the bashes so he could show off his fiddle-playing and square dancing skills.)
I look back on that period of my life with great affection and sometimes wish it had never ended - but time and change are a part of all our lives. We grow up, attend school, get married and move on to other things and unfortunately, those we love die.
My Grandfather Lon passed on at the age of eight-two. He died peacefully in his sleep and is buried in the family plot beside the grave of his wife of forty-nine years. The church was packed for the service, and he would have liked that. He left many friends and loved ones behind, and while he was here, he provided for all of us. The pastor of our church summed up his life with five very profound and apt words, “He was a grand man.”
I learned a lot more from him than how to play poker, and there isn’t a day that goes by without something reminding me of him. “Criminal” or not, he was my role model and I still love him with all my heart and soul.
He was a grand man, indeed!
~one eyed cat
Write to Win
HollywoodPoker.com’s Write to Win contest rewards players with tournament tickets for sending us their thoughts and opinions. All you have to do is write on the week’s specified topic and then send your submission to hollay@hollywoodpoker.com.
This week’s topic: Your favorite poker pal.
Congratulations to MinnesotaRon, the author of last week’s winning entry about the popularization of poker! Read his article below:
Why has poker become so popular? Here is a question for the times. It's not like you need a degree in sociology or psychology to know the answer to this question. 99.999% of the population didn't become the next Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, or Tiger Woods. This same percentage never made the honor role, never got an A+ on that science project, or never became the Home Coming King or Queen. So here we have established a demographic of people who continue to turn on their television, buy this weeks issue people magazine, or run to their local fantasy sports event in the hopes that living vicariously through the idols and icons of day, that they to can be the object of affection by their peers.
One August evening in 2003, this demographic turns on their TV, as they have done a million time before, and see this over weight, early nineties goatee wearing, beer drinking, accountant on national TV, become the next WSOP World Champion winning 3.5 million or so. Is he some athlete or handsome stud? Is he some genius? Some mental giant with mad skills for the game of poker? Or is it that his last name is Moneymaker? No matter, because just like 99.999% of us, he is just some average Hun-yuck who is now rich, in the national spotlight, and the object of everyone’s affection and jealousy. BINGO! So long vicarious living, hello shroud of poker fame. We no longer need to be pretty, smart, or athletic to be rich and famous. Poker promise of fame and fortune only requires that you have the money to buy in.
Is it Kathy Lieberts beauty, Annie Dukes hair, Hellmuth's social savvy, Scotty Nguyen’s mastery of the English language that makes them popular?
I'm going to guess no. It's the fact that they once won a big one and now have the money to continue to enter TV tournament after TV tournament. And the media machine loves it. Who knows what really goes on behind the scenes with buy-ins and TV contracts, but as long as we are watching and dreaming to be the next (Mike the Mouth?), then the media beast will continue to display and promote the poker promise.
So back to the question at hand. Why has poker become so popular? The answer in a nut shell is because there are so many that are unpopular.
As usual though, many are finding out that to be rich and famous, there is always a price. Poker fame is no exception and I dare say the cruelest to those who dare seek its treasures. But this is a question for a different day. Like: Do you think poker will remain popular?
Vince Van Patten's Corner
My father, Dick Van Patten, is hosting the first ever Celebrity Poker tournament on October 22nd and 23rd at the Fantasy Springs Resort and I’d like to invite everyone to join me there. My dad has invited 30 of his friends to compete in this professional event and it will be a great time! There will be stars playing against pros and amateurs alike! The celebrities will have $100 bounties on their heads and the prize pool is guaranteed at $50,000. What’s more, the good people at the Fantasy Springs Resort will be donating funds to the Marine Corps Salute.
I’m inviting everyone in Southern California and beyond to enter the tourney, mix it up and have great time! There will be tons of media at the event as well as some of the Celebrity Players from Hollywood Poker! We’d love to put faces to the names we see on the site, so come on out!
Entry and registration starts at 9am on the Saturday morning and the final table is on Sunday. For reservations and information, visit www.fantasyspringsresort.com or call 1-800-827-2WIN.
Hope to see you there!
~Vince Van Patten
 Weekly Poll: Vote to Win!
When you vote in the Weekly Poll, you are automatically entered into a draw to win HollywoodPoker.com gear.
This week’s poll question: Do you use the pre-action check boxes when playing online poker?
Go to the Hollywood Poker Forum and vote!
Hollywood Poker Extra Archive
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