Poker Room Review: Treasure Island (or 'T.I.'), Las Vegas
By Tim Lavalli
The poker room at Treasure Island has been open for just over eight
months now. The TI room like many of the new rooms is actually separate
from the rest of the casino. If you are coming over on the tram from
the Mirage the room is right down the staircase; from the rest of
the TI casino floor just go to the far back southwest (left) corner.
The room is quiet without being isolated and the staff is going for
an interesting mix of games.
First, on the tournament side, they deal $60 +$5 No
Limit Hold'em tournaments six times a day (2am, 4am, 11am, 2pm, 7pm,
10pm). 2,000 starting chips (the $5 is an add-on for another 1,000
chips) with 20 minute rounds, paying 6 places. On the weekends the
late night/early morning events (2am &
Pokerstars
4am) are very interesting events, usually with well "fueled"
fields, if you catch my ("Cocktails!") meaning.
Because Treasure Island is an MGM/Mirage property, the
events tends not to conflict with other nearby rooms, like the Mirage,
and the TI room seems to have found its niche of players. The Treasure
Island poker room has been busy every time I have stopped by.
On the cash game side, this is a $2/$4 limit and a $1/$3
NLHE room; they offer $50 NLHE Sit & Go's all day long; these
actually go off on a regular basis, especially on the weekends. If
you and some poke buddies are looking for a single table tournament
you can all play, then the TI room is just the ticket. The SnG rounds
are only 10 minutes, so be prepared to gamble, its not turbo but its
not a deep stack event either.
During their early days, the Treasure Island floor staff
were also offering Badugi and a special mixed game called The Tangerine
Mixer, which is a TI special mix of alternating rounds of Texas Hold'em,
Omaha High, and Crazy Pineapple. The staff tells me they will still
spread these exotic games with enough interest. You can call ahead
and request an interest list be started.
Why Tangerine? Well that's the name of the Nightclub
and Lounge at Treasure Island, which brings me to my only issue with
the poker room at TI—the table felts. Now I am nearly as interested
as the next guy in attractive members of the other sex but I am a
strictly old school player when it comes to table felts. The felt
should be green, just the way it is when they shear the felt sheep
on the table felt farms. In TI the felts are a yellow/orange and they
are adorned with sci-fi fantasy depictions of nearly naked young ladies.
You know the babes with bodies like a Barbie Doll, which would make
them 6'7" with measurements like 40-14-38. The tables are good
for one look and then a royal pain to find colored chips and cards
among the exaggerated T&A of the table tops.
All in all the room at Treasure Island is a nice bright
and clean room, eight tables with generally little or no wait list
for games, except the Sit & Gos. The room is no smoking, of course.
The TI poker room staff is very attentive and eager to answer questions
and open up any interest list you might wish to explore. If I had
to review the play there in my several sessions, I would have to say
more rocks than maniacs; the tournaments give you a fair amount of
play and very few (if any) local sharks are patrolling the waters
off Treasure Island.