Hollywood Poker's much advertised $1M Guaranteed with a buy in of $1000 +$40 recently paid out only $553,000 (the amount of money from the player buy-ins).
Huge banner ads guaranteeing $1M in prize money were live on the Hollywood site on both the home page and on the scheduled tourney ad page up to and after the tournament ran. But there was no guaranteed pay out. Hollywood Poker paid out only the amount provided by player buy-ins.
The tourney info page suggested that the prize amount listed (which only showed money from player buy-ins) may not be accurate. So, before the tourney I enquired with support:
Me:
I have a neophyte question. I'm playing today in the final day of the Grand, and I note that the auto-prize table does not reflect the guaranteed amount, so I was wondering if there's any way I can see the actual payouts for the day. Do I have to look at the percentage tables and calculate based on the per cent shares and the $1M prize pool?
Hollywood Support:
Thank you for contacting HollywoodPoker support.
Thank you for your Email. Yes, you are right. It depends on the number of the players and you can calculate the pay-out percentage for each rank. For further details please go through this page and click on Pay Out Table:
https://member.hollywoodpoker.com/to...UserTimeZome=0
Should you have any further queries, do not hesitate to contact us.
Good luck and have a nice day!
I have screen grabs available of the advertising and of the payout tables.
After making the money in the tourney, I enquired as to why my payout was more than $1000 less than the guaranteed amount:
Me:
Okay, so I made the money, but my payout was as if there was only the amount of money in the pool indicated by entries, not by a $1M guaranteed prize pool.
Where is the balance made up? Is it added at the top end of the structure?
I'm assuming a $1M guarantee actually guarantees $1M in prize money.
Thanks for your help.
Hollywood Support:
The relevant department has informed us that the January Grand Tournament will be the last Grand Tournament as a new tournament will be launched. Therefore the network has changed the Prize Pool of the tournament and it was no longer guaranteed. It seems that our technical department did not have enough time to update the tournament information on the website and we would like to apologize for that.
The payout structure however is still the same and the top 70 players will be paid out accordingly. The 69th player receives 0.3% of the prize pool. You can check the payout structure for the Grand Tournament from the link below :-
https://member.hollywoodpoker.com/to...serTimeZome=-5
Should you have any further queries, do not hesitate to contact us.
Me:
Needless to say, since the tournament was advertised as *$1 million guaranteed tournament, people who signed up based on that advertising have a right to feel misled.
The event was promoted as $1 million guaranteed up to and after game start.
If I did the same here in my business, I would be sued within an inch of my life, and rightly so.
How can I put money up with confidence in the future if I know that the payouts and rules can be changed from the promotion even after game start?
This incident gives me grave concerns, and I am extremely unhappy with this response. The least Hollywood Poker could do is provide players with an equivalent value in tickets to make up the difference between the advertised value of the tourney and the actual cash payout.
Hollywood Support:
Thank you for contacting HollywoodPoker support.
We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you. Rest assured we have notified the relevant department in order to make sure that promotions information are updated to inform players if there are any changes made. As a token of our appreciation *towards your continued support, two (2) $5+0.50 tickets have been issued to your account. The tickets can be used for any tournaments with the mentioned buy-in amount. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience and your kind understanding is greatly appreciated.
Should you have any further queries, do not hesitate to contact us.
So, Hollywood Poker, after I pressed the matter, offered $11 in tickets to compensate for almost $1500 in prize money. If I had not complained, I would not even have gotten that.
As of my last visit to the site, the $1M Guaranteed banners are still up. As a web professional, I can tell you that it is about a 2 hour job to changes these ads. Hollywood Poker clearly benefited from the advertising and then declined to pay out the advertised amounts.
I'd be interested to hear from anyone else having this experience. And for others, buyer beware. At this site, Guaranteed means guaranteed unless it's not.
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