My Experience at Hollywood Poker (PokerRoom) thus far

[DavidC]

Just found out that the DB that the downloadable client uses to store your hand histories (the db that pt uses to import hands), doesn't appear to store opponent stack/sizes, or even your own... so, even for limit play, but mainly for no-limit play, this blows! Stack size is often a big indication of how you should play, and thus, should be a factor in hand analysis.

--Dave.

[DavidC]

2k to 2.5k hands in, playing mostly 2/4 and 3/6, I'm getting totally killed. Actually, I'm only down maybe $100, but it feels like a really difficult game. Much of this is variance, quite a bit of it is tilt (sad, but true, I'm not used to dealing with this, but I'm sure I've tilted several times in the last few days).

Tonight, in the evening (Tuesday, but still evening), while Party was whirring away in bonus whoring mode (Empire: PLAYAUG), it was still better than PokerRoom. At Poker room, it took me a long time to get 4 tables open (1 table only for about 10 minutes). Once i got them open, I had to close a few of them quite quickly, because their VPIP dropped to like 20 (literally 20). So, eventually I was left with one table that was playable at 2/4 and 3/6. Some of the tables were good, but my seat sucked. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

The NLHE game doesn't appear to be too bad, but in the daytime, it's pretty tight and a tad tricky.

I'm almost clear for $100 of bonus, so I'm going to take a peek at how much rakeback I've generated (shooting for $50+ for this month) once I hit that $100 in bonus, and probably stop playing this site soon afterwards.

The only exception that I can think of is if the games in PokerRoom become better on a Friday night than Party games. This would be really weird, but would basically be the sole exception to me not playing this site any longer.

Who knows, though, if I run super-awesome while trying to clear the last bit, I might stick it out for a bit.

Also, something funny: one of the players chatting in the main lobby told the support guy (live chat) that he had just cleared the $1k bonus. The support guy remarked with surprise that he'd never heard of anyone doing that before. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

If I can think of anything else to post about this, I will (just so that it stays in one spot), but I'm probably giving up on this site after tonight...

--Dave.

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Does anyone have anything good to say about this site? I'm not really complaining about the beats, but the table conditions are attrocious.

[Dr_Colossus]

Hi David, I opened an account with them over the weekend and have put in about 1,500 hands at the $1 ante $100 NL tables. I opened the account as I read a posted on another forum stating he cleared the bonus in one week at these levels (yeah right) I've only gained 510 points to date so it looks next to impossible to clear it all.
However at the start I was playing the short handed 5 max tables as that is what I'm used to and most suits my game. In general I found the tables very tight and the pots small therefore I wasn't collecting many points. I contacted the initial poster who apparently cleared the bonus in a week and he advised to play the full ring games as the pots were alot larger and you could pick up points without even being in the hand. Since trying that I have collected a larger proportion of points per hand but it is still minimal in comparison with what is needed to clear the full bonus.
One point regarding the site however is that I find it incredibly difficult to mulitable due to the graphics and the way it interchanges between tables. One favourable point however is regarding the tournaments. I played a tournament last night and when a player is all-in and the cards turned over it gives the winning percentages per player. Nice touch that I haven't seen on other sites. It doesn't help however to see that you loose two hands as an 80% favourite followed by a hand as a 60% favourite to knock you out of the game.

[TobDog]

[ QUOTE ]
Does anyone have anything good to say about this site? I'm not really complaining about the beats, but the table conditions are attrocious

[/ QUOTE ]

I have played there on and off for about 2 years, and while I find the software odd at times, I never really thought the games were bad(playing 1-2 to 5-10, mostly 3-6 and under) I logged in last night to see what the games were and there were quite a few 2-4 and 3-6 fulls going all with average pots over $20 and vpip over 25(i know this can change in a hurry) I was going to sign up for the hollywood RB +1000 offer, I figured it would give me enought time to see if I liked it, but if the site has turned into the newer version of what everyone here hates about Absolute(2+2 and rocks whoring off the bonus $) then it probably not worth it. Anyone else add some info, thanks.

todog

[smartalecc5]

I like Pokerroom besides the long time it takes to clear the bonus. I play almost exclusively 2/4 5max there and tables frequently have 2 poor players and average flop seen is usually etween 55%-65%. I 4-table on a 1024x(insert other resolution here) with tons of overlap. Its not that bad - Im used to it.

[DavidC]

Hey there.

I've never witnessed a tourney hand where the % chance of each hand winning is displayed before the cards come out. I don't like this idea for a few reasons:

1) It tells the fish how much they suck (though your equity in a particular section doesn't necessarily dictate correct play) and vividly displays the relative strength of different PF hands.

2) It slows down the game, if you slow down the hand, to actually be able to read these percentages.

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This site allows you to accumulate points based on whether or not the pot was raked. However, rakeback is an entirely different story!

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Firstly, there appears to be two different affilliate deals:

The old deal is:
-players are attributed their MGR somehow
-neteller deposits are subject to a 7% charge, which is subtracted from MGR
-bonuses are subtracted from MGR as they're paid (not as they're earned)

The new deal:
-Players are attributed their MGR
-No deposit fees
-Bonuses removed

Because of this, it's actually possible as an affilliate to get a player who generates NEGATIVE rakeback, which is charged against the rakeback of your positive players!!

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In the new affilliate agreement, players are attributed rake as follows:

At the moment a pot is raked, everyone who is still in the hand gets attributed for an equal amount of rake.

For example, 5 people fold preflop at a 0.5/1 game, 5 people stay in. The pot is raked $0.10, and each of the 5 players is considered to have paid, as an individual, $0.02 in rake.

2 players fold on the flop, the pot goes up to $4. Another $0.10 more is raked, and three players are each attributed for $0.03 more in rake.

This differs from Party in that at party, where the pot is considered to be raked at the end of a hand, but everyone who was dealt cards is considered to have paid an equal rake.

If you're getting an affilliate for this site, it would be wise to ask them which affilliate agreement they have.

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Now I asked Jessica how rakeback worked at Hollywood, and she gave me the Party definition, but clearly stated that it was the Party definition, so I emailed support and asked them to put me in touch with the affilliate people, requesting information so I could make a decision as to whether or not to become an affilliate.

I have no idea how the old affilliate agreement works, in terms of how rake is determined for each player, and I have no idea whether the people I signed up with are using the old agreement or the new agreement. Clearly, though, it's best to know this ahead of time, or you will get shafted every time you deposit.

Just so you guys know, under the new agreement, I've had something like a 14 vpip (which I hate, but I"m not used to tight games. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]):

PT said that I'd paid 197 in rake, total. (Equal per player). Hollywood only considered me to have earned $100 in rake!

Quite a difference.

--Dave.

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In conclusion, there's no f-ing way I'm touching this site again, until I've really gained skills at playing in TA-A games and SH pots, and even then, probably not.

If I were a SH player, or maybe NLHE player, this may not have been a bad bonus to go after, though.

[Hannibal]

[ QUOTE ]
If I were a SH player, or maybe NLHE player, this may not have been a bad bonus to go after, though.

[/ QUOTE ]

What makes you think that NL would make it better to clear? The more I read the more I tend to agree...just wondering what you reasoning was.

[MisterNatural]

Poker Room was where I learned to play, mostly because I used to play on a Mac. Great play money system. The interface is not that bad, it's just that people get used to playing somewhere else. I remember hating playing at Party for the first month or so because PR was so comfortable. I only play there now for a bonus. Here's my system:

1) Play only during peak hours.

2) Get on the waiting lists for all of the 2/4 and 3/6 full tables that have average pots of over $20. If there are plenty of 2/4 pots hitting $30, i'll stay down there since the players are weaker, but a lot of times I have a bunch of 3/6 going. I get 4 tables going. Short handed is faster if that's your game, but it's not really mine so...

3) While playing I have the dialogue box set up so that all I see is chat and and the winning pot size. I am constantly watching the pot sizes of the last few hands. I want to see atleast 75% of the pots hit $20, or I'm leaving when the blind comes around the 1st or second time. $20 is where you get a full credit towards clearing the bonus.

4) There are plenty of tags and rocks so I want lags at the table and I want them on my right, if not, I'm probably leaving. I have the player notes set up so that each color means something to me. Lags get red, fish get yellow, etc. Before I leave a table I try to give everyone a color that represents how they play based on my observations and PT stats. This makes it easy to navigate the lobby next time you play because each player's color is next to their name, a very cool feature.

5) There are many times when Poker Room is just too dead. If I can't get my 4 tables with the conditions as mentioned, I leave and go work off another bonus. If you can't afford to work on multiple bonuses, then it may be a slight negative for you.

6) If you play less that 2/4, it will take a very long time to clear a bonus here. If you play No Limit, it's much harder to clear a bonus here than at Party. At Party the pot only needs to hit $2, at Poker Room, I think it's a $20 pot and you have to play at least .50BB (equivalent of Party 50nl)to hit the $1 rakes, 25BB only rakes a maximum of .50. Basically if you're a nl player, to find the pots that hit over an average of $20, you need to be comfortable playing some high blind tables.

7) Playing 4 tables of 2/4 and 3/6 as described, here are some of my results: 2100 Raked hands took about 22 hours, 1050 raked took 1600 delt hands and 12 hours. So about 100 fully raked per hour. Of the 7 or 8 deposit bonuses i've done, only one was a losing "whoring session", not counting the bonus. Maybe I've run well there, but tight 2+2 play has worked well for me.

8)It's more of a grind than Party but I like it a lot better than Absolute, which I stopped playing once I graduated from 1/2 limit. Now that I'm playing more nl, I might start passing on the reloads at Poker Room until I'm playing at the higher pot size rooms as previously mentioned.

Tip - PR has "hot keys" as all poker sites should have. Since the F1 key will click auto check/fold, I have the side button on my mouse next to my thumb programmed to type the F1 key. This avoids a lot of index finger burn after those long sessions, and you don't need to run AutoHotKey, etc. like at Party.

[DavidC]

Wow! Thanks a lot for your input here, man.

[DavidC]

bumpy, I seem to see poker-room and hollywood posts too much.

Also, this thread needs to be updated in accordance with pokerroom's new rake schedule and bonus point system.

If a mod would like to edit the OP with:

"Edit: This thread needs to be updated in accordance with pokerroom's new rake schedule and bonus point system."

That would be sweet.