3300 S. Las Vegas Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV
(702) 894-7291

Official Treasure Island Poker Room Website

8 Tables

Comments & Review 12/16/2006:

I finally got to playing this room. The room has a heavy tournament schedule, and as one who does not pay to play in tournaments, cash games in this room usually left me on a longer list than I cared to be on. Especially for a NL game. The TI only plays NL games 9-handed. They say they do this to give NL players extra table room, and I must admit that that I did have more room to move around because of this policy. But it also means fewer players in the room at any given time. It is also right across from the Venetian … a place where I am not willing to give my seat up easily.

Unfortunately, the only NL game they had running was the dreaded (at least for me) 1/3 NL game. I don’t like 1/3 NL. I can’t put my finger on exactly why I don’t like it, but I just don’t. The Wynn also has this game as their standard NL game.

I want either 1/2 or 2/5. Something about 1/3 just doesn’t feel right to me. It seems created to fill the void between the two games, but I never felt a void existed there. But I digress. I played 1/3.

On this particular day, I had played at the Venetian, and decided to hop across the bridge simply to play a little bit so that I could write a review … I didn’t actually go with my “win money” midset.

This was problem #1.

I bought in for only $100, and when I sat down, the guy to the immediate left of me had $1,200.

This was problem #2.

I had brought a knife to a gun fight. This guy to my left refused to let me see a flop for less than $20, so I saw five flops before busting out (I held decent cards like A-K suited, but missed all five flops miserably). At least it took me an hour to accomplish this disaster.? I paid $100 to review a room for you ingrates. Who else is going to do that for you?

Anyway …

The room itself is small and quite dim. I was a little claustrophobic. And I still had my sunglasses on (I wear dual-tinted prescription sunglasses before 5pm both indoors and outdoors, not too look cool, but because I cannot tolerate sunlight with clear glasses, and I don’t like carrying multiple pairs of glasses around), so this made matters worse. I couldn’t see squat. I could have easily mistaken a flush draw due to the lack of lighting. I am sure this room is much more playable for people that use clear glasses or no glasses, but after having come from the ultra-bright Venetian, I felt like I was playing in someone’s basement with only a 60 watt lightbulb overhead.

The tables themselves are quite nice. They had pictures of the T.I. Sirens on them, and this is a neat change from the typical green or red velvet found at most rooms.

The waitress came around frequently, and brought my drinks very quickly. She was super nice.

Speaking of super nice, the folks at the podium were exactly that. They acknowledged me immediately, and were among some of the most polite folks I have encountered in a poker room. They put my name on the list, called me over when the seat opened, and were really very pleasant people.

The dealers were also very polite, competent, and friendly. No grumps here.

But there is something irksome that goes on at the NL tables.

When you sit down, you hand you MGM/Mirage player’s card to the dealer. Well, since there are only 9 people seated at the 10 person table, this sets off all kinds of shit when a new person enters the game or a new dealer sits down.

You see, you are given $2 per hour in comps at the table, but the dealer has to swipe you in and press a button as to which seat you are in. But you are not really in a seat. Remember, there are only 9 players. And instead of blocking off one seat, the players are spread out between seat numbers. Since the dealers are changed often, the dealer has to do a “roll call” to make sure he has the correct people in the correct computer seat numbers so they can be comped correctly. Since the player to my right had a food cart, I was sitting closer to seat 3 than seat 2, and I had to verify about 8 times during the game that even though I was sitting in front of the seat 3 drinkholder, that I actually had only one player to my right and was being comped in seat 2. Nobody was actually sitting in the appropriate seat number.

Sound confusing?

It was.

There was a 2-3 minute delay every time a new player or dealer sat down. And it was annoying. I appreciate what they are trying to do (give people more elbow room), but it’s more of a hassle than it is worth, and it also makes the big blind come around that much sooner, and with only $100, this will bleed you a little faster. It also reduces potential callers by 10%. Not that the latter is a huge deal, but it is what it is.

The have the typical computerized/monitor list management and it is clean and easy to keep track of what is going on. There are several TV’s on the wall in the room, but they are relatively small. I could see the action, but there was no way I could read the score or the stats. Nobody was really watching the TV’s anyway.

The competition was mostly cocky tourists who though they were better than they really were. When they got lucky, they were great players, when the other guy got lucky … he got lucky! You know the drill, it’s always a bad beat when the other guy wins. I heard “nice river!” more times than I cared to, but tourists … what are you gonna do. Except for the $1,200 guy, most everyone else was grabbing for their wallet for rebuys pretty frequently.

If I had really come to play fresh and with a competitive mindset, and if I had brought a bankroll, I probably could have made some reasonable cheese in this room. And I may go back someday to do just that.

It is a fine, modern, yet small room. It serves it’s purpose.

But there is one thing that just completely and utterly kills this room for me. And it’s not T.I.’s fault.

And this is that thing:

This is the pedestrian bridge right around the corner from the TI Poker Room that goes over Las Vegas Boulevard, making it a 5 minute walk to the Venetian Poker Room.

When I was in this room, all I kept thinking was “Why am I here? I could be at the Venetian before the next big blind”. I had to force myself to stay in the seat so that I could at least get a good feel for the room. And yes, this did distract me.

It’s like putting a very fine and cozy Econolodge next to a Five Star Hotel, and charging the same room rate.

And in the end, I believe this is the room’s achilles heel. If I am going to be in that particular spot on the strip, why on earth would I not cross the bridge to the undisputed world’s best poker room … The Venetian?

I know what is on the other side of the bridge. And it is, in my mind, the perfect poker room.

If the T.I. Poker Room were somewhere a little further north near Circus Circus, or a mile or so off the strip, it would be a no-brainer.

But a 5 minute walk from the Venetian Room? Yikes. That is mighty tough competition.

I think this is why the TI is so heavy on tournaments and so generous on comps. And for players who go for those things, TI is certainly worth playing.

But for a cash game junkie who doesn’t worry much about food comps and who wants to feel like a VIP while playing 1/2 No Limit … it’s going to be hard to get me to cross that bridge to TI again.

The TI gets an ‘A’ for effort, but an unfortunate location brings down the overall room value for players like me.