March 2008, Volume 2

Welcome to another scintillating edition of The Insider, HollywoodPoker's weekly newsletter for the latest on our celebrities, online poker news and promotions. Here are the headlines:

• There's no excuse not to try your hand at the Grand Tournament with $750,000 Guaranteed prize pool, find out why!
• Our fun and exciting weekly Celebrity Bounty Series round-up with over $300,000 paid out so far
• Let's hear it for the boy! HollywoodPoker's celebrity player Paul Wesley adds to the list of young and talented actors that blaze our screens
• Michael Ian Black, HollywoodPoker's chief comedian makes a run for it
• Catch celebrity player Michael Kelly in The Narrows and follow a young man's tale of self discovery
• Top ten sirens you've voted for to be in the running for a spot in the 2009 HollywoodPoker Girls Calendar beckons your continued support
• HollywoodPoker tidbits, we offer goodies you might have never known!

Hope you have a good read. We also welcome your feedback, so please send them to hollay@hollywoodpoker.com

To qualify for a place in the Grand Tournament, players can now advance through with our latest $50+4 daily Qualifier happening daily at 7pm EST, offering 1(one) ticket to the Grand for each $1040 in the prize pool.

HollywoodPoker's latest offering joins the $1+0.20, the $10+1 and the $100+8 qualifying tournament line-up leading to the Grand, giving you no excuse not to try your hand at getting a piece of our main event's $750,000 guaranteed prize pool.

The Grand Tournament played at the end of each month, uses the unique 3-day flight structure where the tournament is played over 3 days. Players will enter the tables with $10,000 in their chip stack and blinds increase every 30 minutes to allow players a host of opportunities to maneuver chips and make their way through the tournament.

For more information on the Grand Tournament and Qualifiers, swing by HollywoodPoker's Tournament section and take a look at where you'd like to join us.

Our weekly exciting celebrity bounty tournaments saw HollywoodPoker's stars battle it out with players at the tables.

March 4th's Canadian Poker Night saw our celebrities in superb form as only two players managed to cash in on celebrity bounty knock-outs. SHARPEIENx won $100 in bounties for taking out two celebrities, while WiseOne0x took home $250 knocking-out Stephen Rannazzisi (For Your Consideration) for his third celebrity bounty. Stephen Rannazzisi made a call on WiseOne0x's hefty raise, going all in at the flop, he revealed his K pair at showdown with help from the board's 4-5-K-2-9. However, WiseOne0x rivered a set with his pocket pair 9 cards to win the pot.

Other celebrities sighted at the tables were Tom McGowan (Everybody Loves Raymond), Ken Howard (Rambo), Shaun Toub (The Kite Runner, Ironman) and Billy Burke (Feast of Love). Head here next week and give our celebrities a run for their money!

The Michael Woods Celebrity Invitational on March 8th, saw celebrity players holding on tight to the reigns with Yancey Arias (Die Hard 4.0) knocking out fellow celebrities, including Rocky Carroll (Yes Man) for his third celebrity bounty cash in, winning $250 in total.

henderoosa80 was amazing at the tables, taking out 4 celebrities that made him $500 richer. His winning hand against celebrity player Ken Howard (Rambo) was a very lucky 10 pair which held up even though the board's 10-Q-3-5-A had AQ overcards. That was still good enough to blow away Ken's Ace high hand, having started with K-9 hole cards and was hoping to make his belly buster straight draw.

Some of the many celebrities spotted at the table on Saturday were Willie Garson (Sex and the City), Pamela Gidley (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) and Dean Cain (Superman).

At the March 9th HollywoodPoker Celebrity Classic, players' Goody_16, steve2zaf007 and Mr.Iacolucci each received a bounty of $100 knocking out two celebrities each.

Our champion at the end of the tournament was mulkvisti74. who knocked-out four celebrities, cashing in on a whopping $500! In his initial triumphant round, mulkvisti74. managed to knock-out celebrity player Mimi Rogers (Austin Powers) who had 10-A hole cards with unlikely 5-7 pocket cards but he made his straight on the flop with the board showing 6-4-8-Q-5 .

Other celebrities who joined the table include Boston Rob (Amazing Race, Survivor: All Stars), Vince Lozano (ER) Noah Emmerich (Little Children) and Tony Denison (Prison Break).

With over $300,000 won so far, get in on the celebrity bounty action to win big dollar bounties by visiting our Celebrity Tournament Schedule.

Paul Wesley takes it up a notch in the soon-to-be-released mind bending thriller, Elsewhere. Starting very early in his acting career, this young star has carved a spot in many hearts, having starred in spots on cult series' The O.C., Fallen and Law& Order: Special Victims Unit – to name a few.

Elsewhere tells the story of two friends from the small town of Goshen, Indiana who long to break free from the monotony of life in the suburbs, convinced their dreams cannot be contained in a town that small. Seemingly impatient, one of them soon disappears leaving only a cryptic video message sent from her cell-phone. In the frantic search for her, her friends soon discover Goshen's deepest, darkest secrets. The final revelation will send shivers down your spine. Embrace yourself for unexpected twists to the plot as things unravel. Paul stars alongside Tania Raymonde (Lost).

Find out more on Paul and other celebrities at the Famous Faces section of HollywoodPoker's online magazine The Green Room.

HollywoodPoker's celebrity player Michael Ian Black continues to cause comedic chaos in Run, Fat Boy, Run, a romantic comedy directed by David Schwimmer, famed pal from cult sitcom Friends.

A veteran comedian, Michael has written many a Comedy Central skit and starred in numerous sitcoms, he now lends his comic genius to crafting the hilarious script for Run, Fat Boy, Run, working together with British actor cum writer Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead)

The movie revolves around the pathetic love life of Dennis Doyle (Simon Pegg) who almost marries Libby (Thandie Newton), his pregnant fiancee, but gets cold feet and runs away right before the wedding, leaving his life in a whirlwind ever since. A few years pass and Dennis discovers that Libby has started seeing high-flying go-getter Whit (Hank Azaria) and realizes it's now or never to make a move or regret losing the love of his life and mother of his child forever.

Run, Fat Boy, Run starring Thandie Newton (Crash, Mission Impossible II) and Hank Azaria (The Simpson) is scheduled to be released on 28 March 2008. Will Dennis get the girl? We'll have to wait to find out…

There's more on Michael Ian Black our poker faced comedian, along with many other celebrities at Famous Faces exclusively at HollywoodPoker.com.

When Mike's photography portfolio wins him a partial scholarship to NYU, he struggles to find a balance between his tight knit Italian family in Bay Ridge and the opportunity to burst into the sophisticated world on the other side of the East River.

Juggling the ever increasing pressures of adulthood, Mike not only has to balance work with his academic assignments, he has to deal with matters of the heart that comes in the form of a beautiful young woman, Kathy Popovich (Sophia Bush) and his commitment to his long term, girlfriend Gina (Monica Keena) that he's already promised to marry. The stakes grow higher as he faces consequential choices in turning his back on all he knows and pursuing a new life.

Catch Michael Kelly and other high rolling celebrities at our Celebrity Exclusive tables or learn more about them at our Famous Faces section, exclusively at HollywoodPoker.com.

Last Monday, March the 3rd 2008 marked a milestone for the World Poker Tournament (WPT) as Van Nguyen blazed her way and beat 444 players including poker professionals and celebrities at the WPT Celebrity Invitational. She was crowned the queen of the tables, making history as the first lady to ever to win in an open tournament.

Banking in a total of $100,000 in prize money and the opportunity to try out her fabulous skills at the WPT World Championship in April, it was indeed a memorable day for the industry. HollywoodPoker celebrity players seen at the tables were, Mena Suvari (Dawn of the Dead), Jason Alexander (Seinfeld), James Van Patten (Saw IV), Brande Roderick (Baywatch), James Woods (Shark), Josh Malina (Big Shots), Eric Palladino (Suspect), Mimi Rogers (Austin Powers),and Ronny Cox (RoboCop) among a host of others.

As we close in on our search for 12 lucky beauties that will grace our 2009 HollywoodPoker Calendar, we want to thank you for making this process a whole lot easier for us. As you know it's been quite a task narrowing down this selection of brains, wit and beauty.

The top ten most voted-for beauties from the host of entries in February are Hillary Fisher, Colleen Kennedy, Shana Marie, Tanya Jane, MaginLee, Kristina R, Sexy Minako, Melissa Paz, Lindsay Bryan and Tarrah-izer. These ladies will continue to be in the running for a chance to be a 2009 HollywoodPoker Calendar Girl, as voted by you!

We leave it in your hands, as you choose the HollywoodPoker Girls who will represent the site at both live events and online, where players can find them in a selection of games, including HollywoodPoker's three weekly Celebrity events; Canadian Poker Night, the Michael Woods Celebrity Invitational and the Hollywood Poker Celebrity Classic.

Keep voting for your favorite leading ladies as things spice up closer to the finals. Check out our 2009 HollywoodPoker Girls Calendar to find out more on these sexy ladies.

HollywoodPoker also offers you an impressive range of Casino favorites, all at a click of a button. What's more exciting is you might be playing with some of the biggest names in Hollywood right from your living room couch! So be prepared to be star struck!

An all-time favorite that we bring you at our Casino is none other than good ol' BlackJack. Played with 2 standard decks of 52 cards - minus the Jokers, the objective of the game is to get your hand as close to 21 as possible, without 'busting' or having your cards amount to more than 21, and beat the dealer's hand. A tie returns your bet and a winning hand pays the made bet 1 to 1. What's special about HollywoodPoker's BlackJack compared to other BlackJack games is we make it possible for you to play up to five hands per round against the house.

Some of the basic rules that you need to know before getting started at BlackJack is;

• The two decks of cards used must always be shuffled before each round
• When the dealer gives out two cards to each player including himself, one of his card's must be dealt face up and the other face down with player cards both facing down
• All picture cards have the value of 10, while number cards ranging from 2-10, count as face value with Aces valued at either 1 or 11.

To find out more on the dos and don'ts of BlackJack, visit our House rules.

There's no better explanation for this Casino favorite other than trying it out for yourself! So head over to our HollywoodPoker's Casino selection and start cashing in!