Interview with James Woods

In between hands he was happy explain to us why HollywoodPoker.com is the poker site to look out for this year.

James Woods: Hold on a second, I got a hand here…you don’t mind if I play while we talk? It’s part of the charm of this entire event.

I’m chip leader and I have Pocket Queens…let’s just raise him and rattle his cage a little…I’ve been having a battle with this guy all day. Ha! He’s folded because he’s learnt the Master takes no prisoners. I’m now way up.

GOM Sounds like you’re gonna win this tournament

JW: I’m absolutely gonna win it, because I’m ruthless (laughs). I sit at the poker table and my job is to destroy people.

GOM: When is HollywoodPoker.com coming out?

JW: It’s in Beta testing now, but the public should be playing by November 1st - at the latest, November 15th…hold on A-Q, let me do a bit of math here…let me make it look enticing – I’ll bet 950 – aw, he’s folded…

How many celebrities are going to be on board?

JW: So we’ll have easily a hundred celebrities playing online and they’re gonna have fun. We’ll be hosting one of the biggest Oscar parties of the year; we’re going to sponsor it. People who win our tournaments will get a seat at one of these parties. Do you know how hard it is to get into one of these parties? Leonardi Di Caprio can’t even get in! The celebrity co-coordinator who organises that party, and has been doing it for years, is going to be helping us organise and support all our celebrity players, so that they are enjoying playing with their fans as much as their fans are enjoying playing with them.

Tell us what’s unique about the software

JW: It’s incredibly intuitive and incredibly easy. We’re gonna work with all the different platforms too: with Windows, with Mac, Linux. But I like the ease and the beauty of the interface. One of the biggest poker sites – and I won’t say which one – just started as a means for college kids to play each other when ever they wanted to – and now it makes tens of millions. But we liked it because it started as a friend’s site. We talked to them and to the people who designed their software and said: “Look. We love the way your site looks and works. Because you’ve set up a situation where friends can really enjoy eachother’s company. We took the elegance of their interface and talk a lot of their designers and their software engineers, so that when you come online you can just click and play.

Now I got Qs-Js and the flop is Q-10-9 –I’m on a straight draw and top pair. Hello! Normally I’d slow play this a little. But I can’t afford for him to have, like, pocket sevens in the little blind. So I’m gonna go all-in again. I’m gonna win this while we’re talking so that your readers can see that it’s possible if you just play well.

Take my Mom, for example. Now, I’m 57 so you do the math. But she loves her Macintosh computer and she goes online, but she said: “You know, I don’t feel comfortable giving my credit card to someone in Costa Rica or Belarus.” And I told her that that’s one of the reasons I want to be a spokesperson for the site; because I think people will feel pretty comfortable when they see James Woods is involved. And there’s a whole market out there of people who just want to log-on with twenty bucks, have fun and player little poker, and even if they lose they’ve lost less than they would have by going to the movies and buying popcorn; they’re a big part of what we want to cater to. We want to provide a place where they feel comfortable.

Here we go… ‘Just got to call a hand – I flopped two pair and he has 3-5 – okay – I just busted his ass - Then there were five, and I’m still the chip leader.

GOM: Give us your best poker tip

JW: Unequivocally, the most important thing in poker is to know when to lay down a hand. When I played in last year’s WPT final, the one where I won the $116,000 super satellite; well, the first day I played, twice I had pocket Kings, and twice I laid them down before the flop.

Hey – I’m in the money – I just won 3,200, and I just realised there’s only three of us left.

GOM: So are you more of a pro poker player than actor these days?

Well, I do both. I just finished a movie called Pretty Persuasion and there’s something I want to direct, and we’re just finishing up the script now. And I’m doing a picture with Cuba Gooding Junior in February. I have a great life!

Think about it. How about if your life were about making movies and being a spokesman for the coolest poker site in the world, and playing as a representative in all the great land-based tournaments around the world?

Okay, pocket Kings in the Big Blind – I’m gonna take somebody out – Aww, they both folded before I had a chance to bet!

GOM: Why did you decide to get involved with HollywoodPoker.com?

You’ve got to remember, I haven’t been involved as a spokesperson in a commercial venture since I did a couple of commercials when I was a young actor – when I was twenty years old. People have offered me opportunities since, and I’ve just never done it. And the reason I got involved with this site was that I love poker, but because my name’s attached, I wanted to be sure that the people really get a bang for their buck. I wanna make sure they’re treated well, they have the help they need, a nice environment, they have fun.

If you sign up to our site, our first tournament for instance, won’t cost you a dime. It’s a freeroll with a $20,000 prize pool. You just sign up. The first pace is a seat at WPT Los Angeles Poker Classic and all your hotel and airfare and that stuff paid for you. How about that? I said to the guys you got to make sure you put up a little money and take care of the people who are interested. I

I’m hoping to let one of these guys knock the other one out. A-J against A-7 – hmmm – Oh! A-7 got it he’s knocked the other guy out and now it’s just him and me. Now this guy has 9,000 and I have 3,000.

Players are going to be able to win not only big cash and buy-ins to the big land based tournaments, but we provide something that nobody else can – how would like to win seats at an Oscar party tickets, or tickets to one of the big premieres? We can do that!

Look at this! A-K suited and I’m all in – he’s called and he’s got K-10…okay, no ten, no ten…The Ten on the River!!! (Laughs) I came in second place. Never mind – good game.

I was signing autographs once for a long time and somebody said to me: ‘God, why don’t you just say you’re busy?’ I said, ‘Hey, fans pay my salary and they deserve my attention. They made me.’ Ultimately, I want this site to have the same respect for our clients as my fans have always gotten from me.

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