Home / Poker News June 2012 / The Poker Grapevine – Hollywood Poker Closed
The Poker Grapevine – Hollywood Poker Closed
Posted by: James Carter. - Wed, 2012-06-27 08:58
Hollywood Poker had been a rather decent
online poker destination since 2004, when the site opened with the blessings and endorsements of James Woods and the WPT’s Vince Van Patten. Although things looked good for the operation in the beginning, they took a sudden southward turn in 2006, when the UIGEA was passed and when the site left the US market. It was then that the high profile endorsements came to a screeching halt too, since it didn’t really make a lot of sense anymore for US-based and US-focused celebrities to keep pushing the envelope for them. The site has functioned as an Ongame skin for a while but on Monday, the end came. The site was shut down, much to the dismay of its players (still surprisingly numerous) who received no foreword of the move. There wasn’t a Full Tilt Poker-style heist pulled though: although the site didn’t provide any details regarding the move, a notice appeared assuring players that their accounts and their funds had been safely transferred to Red Kings, another Ongame skin. Hollywood Poker players will be able to log into their new Red Kings accounts using their Hollywood Poker usernames and passwords.
In other news: the volume of worldwide online poker traffic has decreased for the 6th straight week. Whether the further 0.9 percent loss is due to the effects of the summer holiday season kicking in or whether it’s still fallout from the Black Friday and other similar events, isn’t clear. What’s certain though is that – although there were indeed a few less than relevant changes in it – the top 10 has remained largely the same. Pokerstars.es passing Pokerstars.fr for 8th position on the list only means PokerStars are gaining more traction in Spain. The Merge Network rebounded somewhat and re-took 10th position from the Revolution Gaming Network. On a year-to-year basis, the decline of online poker traffic since same time last year was a massive 18%.
