Las Vegas Casino Poker Room Reviews: Treasure Island & Planet Hollywood

Hey all – My friends and I were recently in Vegas and I thought I’d post my observations/thoughts about two poker rooms that I played at: Treasure Island and Planet Hollywood. I should note that I did not play in cash games or satellites but in buy-in tourneys. I realize that there are some people who would argue against entering these types of tournies and I fully respect their opinion. The purpose of this thread is mainly to inform those who are considering entering these (types of) tournies, so I hope some of you might find this information useful for future purposes.

Instead of cramming everything into one post, I'll divide things into two posts.

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Location: Treasure Island (TI)
Time: 7pm on a Wednesday
Type of Game: NLHE Tourney
Buy-in: $65
Rebuys: Yes - within first hour, but only after the alternates
Add-on: No
Estimated Payout Structure: top 15%
Blind Levels: 20 minutes
Starting Chipstack: 3500
Antes: No
Starting Blinds: 25-50
Breaks: Every hour for 10 minutes
Number of Players per Table: 10

Comments: My friend and I walked into the poker room about 30 minutes before the start of the tourney. The person at the desk said they typically get about 30 entrants or so. Obviously this guy was wrong as the field consisted of 20 players total after rebuys. Based on the payout structure, the top 3 out of 20 make ITM, so it appears that TI pays out the top 15% or so. Also, the TI poker room is an actual room, so the place is relatively shielded from other casino distractions like the slots, tables, and bars. There is a flat screen display that shows you how many minutes are left in the level as well as some other relevant info (e.g., next break, next blind level).

Overall, the play was quite weak IMO. I saw a decent number of players open limping into the pot and if there were preflop raises, they were min raises. I’d say there were a lot more people calling as opposed to raising. Aggressive plays usually won the pots. For instance, I observed that continuation bets often allowed people to win the pot, even c-bets that were as small as 1x or 2x the BB. Most people playing looked like they were visiting Vegas; no locals from what I saw. Additionally, no one sitting at the tables struck me as being a particularly strong player.

Unfortunately, I didn’t finish in the top 3. I built up to a decent stack (6500+) during the first two levels but before the first break, I misplayed AJ from the button. No one had entered the pot and I raised 3x the BB and the SB called. SB checked on the flop (a 9 high rainbow flop) and instead of a c-bet, I checked. On the turn, the SB bet out about 2x the BB and not giving him credit for calling a raise out of position, I raised him enough to move him all in, which he did. He flips over AK and a blank on the river left me with about 3000 chips. I couldn’t quite recover from that hit and never made it back up more than 4500+ chips. Another memorable hand was when we were down to 10 players, I was UTG and got 9-9. With the high blinds (don’t recall how high though), all I could do was move all in and hope to double up. I got called by the BB who flips over 7-2 of diamonds (sweet!). He didn’t hit and I doubled up. The last hand of this tourney, my friend was on the button and raised; I was the BB and had A10off. I moved all in (my stack was about 2.5x or 3x the BB at that point) but no pair for me and I walked away in 8th.

Location: Planet Hollywood (PH)
Time: 7pm on Tuesday and Thursday
Type of Game: NLHE Tourney
Buy-in: $70
Rebuys: Yes - within first hour, but only after the alternates
Add-on: $10, Show the PH players card and get an extra 500 chips
Estimated Payout Structure: top 15%
Blind Levels: 20 minutes
Starting Chipstack: 4000 + 500 with players card
Starting Blinds: 25-50
Antes: No
Breaks: Every hour for 10 minutes
Number of Players per Table: 10

Comments: In general, the PH Poker Room was all right - not sure if I’d prefer TI over PH or vice versa. The PH poker room was behind a bar and in an area that was roped off from other parts of the casino. Because of this, you got a lot of distractions from people passing by, people hooting/hollering at the big wheel table behind the room, as well as the music blasting from the Pleasure Pit (<= just google it if you’re curious). Like the TI poker room, there’s a flat screen display that shows you how many minutes are left in the level and some other relevant info (e.g., next break, next blind level, places paid, etc).

I’ll note that my friends and I played at PH twice. The first time on a Tuesday where there were 38 players and 6 cashed out, and another on a Thursday where the top 4 cashed out of 29 players – this equates to roughly a top 15% payout structure. Since it was the same poker room and same tourney, I’m going to combine my thoughts/impressions from both tournies. I cashed in the Tues tourney with a 6 way chop which came out to be $325.

Dealers were usually friendly and polite, but I noticed that they were not always on top of things. Thinking back, at least twice, two different dealers mistakenly allowed a raise that was not a min raise (e.g., 300-600 blinds, and allowing a raise to 700) – I believe a minimum raise must be one full BB. The players at PH were much better than those that I encountered at TI though. But with better players come bigger egos. I remember a guy who was basically a calling station (e.g., check-call, check-call) muttering under his breath about how he was sucked out on the river. A few other players here and there would be complaining about how some plays were bad. Also, some players at the final table on Tuesday were pretty big whiners too, which is a reason why I didn’t oppose chopping the prize pool six ways. Not to suggest that the players at PH were a pain to deal with, but I will say that players at TI were friendlier than those I encountered at PH.

In general, I did not think that players were that good; I’d say that a lot of CC players can easily outlast players that I played against (note: I don’t consider myself to be that good, so I’m an exception! LOL). Players here had a better understanding of the game, observant, and more disciplined than those at TI. Raises were usually the standard 3x the BB but there was still some variation from that. I saw more c-bets here but post-flop play was still not a strength for many players.

A few more thoughts. The Tuesday game, I was completely card dead for the first hour and didn’t win a hand til after the first break. The only hands I played during the first hour were when people limped and I was in the BB. Most of my moves during the second hour were pushing all in because most of the time, I had less than 10 BB or 10 orbits. The good thing was that my tight play during the first hour paid off – people laid down some pretty good hands against me.

To give you an idea of what I observed/considered to be a solid player at PH, here’s a little more info. Of the two games I played at PH, only one player (Thurs tourney) stood out from all the rest as being good. This guy was quiet and kept to himself, but his plays were more solid than the rest. He rarely open limped and he varied his preflop raises. Post-flop, he would often bet anywhere from ½, 2/3, or ¾ of the pot and often took it down without much contest. But I did notice that at least twice, he open limped with a weak suited ace in early position. I guess you could argue that my read on him may be less credible/accurate when you consider that I busted out against him because I thought he was pushing around chips to pick up blinds (after an early position 2.5x raise, I stupidly decided to make a move with a weak ace from the cutoff and busted out). If I had to guess, he was using Phil Gordon’s preflop raise strategy (e.g., raise 2.5-3x BB early position, 3-3.5x BB in middle, 3.5-4x BB in late). Also, the way this guy bet out reminded me of Tom Dwan……wonder if he watches a lot of poker on TV…?

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Last item - a little about the blind structure. This pertains to both TI and PH because both of them had the same structure (I think) even though the starting chip count is different. The first hour is pretty easy to survive because the amount of chips you have relative to the blinds is still high. Once the second hour hits, the blinds go up high enough that it becomes more difficult to make aggressive preflop plays without moving all in. People who aren’t aware of how many chips they have left can get short stacked if they play too many hands and don’t pick up pots. If I’m reconstructing the blind structure correctly, here is how the blinds progressed every 20 minutes:

1st hour: 25-50; 50-100; 100-200
2nd hour: 200-400; 300-600; 500-1000
3rd hour: 1000-2000; 2000-4000

That’s all I have for now - hope someone finds this userful!

Great posts, I'll be inLas Vegas next month so the information usefull.

Thanks alot i wanna for sure visit these when i go out to vegas..
Planet hollywood seems alot better but can't stand rebuys..oh well

I've cashed a few times at Treasure Island and I have to agree that the play is pretty soft. The structure is pretty fast too - doesn't matter if the tourney has 20 people in it or 40, the tourney tends to end around two an a half hours after it starts. Once the blinds reach 500-1000 almost everyone is shortstacked. Their deep stack head hunters is much more fun.

great infos on the TI, i'm leaving to vegas on saturday morning for about a week, i'm staying the TI.. you check out the cash game scene? how was that?

Nice post. Good information too. I have a conference that I am going to Vegas for in 1 1/2 months so I will stop by TI for that tourney. It is going to be a tough week for me....trying to stay out of the poker room and go to my stupid conference....

Very good posts Ryo, thanks for the heads up. Are the two casino's far from each other? I keep reading fairly decent PH/airfare offers every weekend in my weekly newspapers, it's usually there or Circus Circus.

Now a dirty question, did either rooms allow smoking or were they smoke free zones? Some more questions lol, where did you guys stay and what other casino's did you visit? Thanks Ryo.

I doubt I'll be in Vegas anytime soon. The tourney structures are very similar to the ones we have here at Ameristar and Lumière. I live in St. Louis BTW

Thanks Crystal. PH and TI are a bit apart. Google Maps says 1.2 miles. There are quite a few casinos in between including the Bellagio, Paris, Caesar's, Mirage, and the Venetian to name a few. Overall, I liked PH as a casino although I didn't play much there other than poker. They were still constructing the PH Westgate - a timeshare building/casino/extension to PH - so that may lure more people when it opens up. I've walked out to Circus Circus before (maybe about 1.5 years ago), and it's at the North end of the strip - I didn't like it much because it was too far from the other major strip casino/hotels. I'm not a big fan of clowns either and if you're interested in visiting the major strip casinos, I wouldn't recommend staying there.

To answer your other questions, neither the PH or TI poker rooms allowed smoking; I specifically remember a guy stepping outside the PH room to smoke. In a previous visit to Vegas, my friend and I stopped by Hooters Casino and they promoted themselves as the only poker room in Vegas that allowed players to smoke. Not sure if this still holds but regardless, neither of us were impressed by that casino/poker room.

During this past visit, my friends and I passed through and played at quite a few casinos so I can't recall what we did in each one but we hit most of the major venues including the Wynn, TI, Venetian, Mirage, Caesar's, Bellagio, PH, Luxor, Excalibur, and Mandalay Bay. We stayed at Caesar's the first night, Bellagio the second night, and THEhotel at Mandalay Bay the third night. Neither of my other friends post at CC so I sort of have to speak for them, but we were all very impressed by THEhotel since they gave us a free upgrade to a suite with a partial strip view - the room was much like the one you see through the link except we had two queen beds. We actually turned down an upgrade that was a step up from this suite because that upgrade only had one bed and there were three of us. We didn't gamble much at Mandalay Bay and somehow we didn't check out their poker room either.

If people are interested, I can eventually post some of my impressions about the casino/hotels that we stayed at too. I'll hold off until I get responses though since that can be a long post.

Thanks for the interesting report. I would go for the TI as I was there before 12 years ago and really liked it (although i wasnt even 21 ! ). So I plan a trip to Vegas and now know TI will be my first spot to play a tourney.

Im interested to hear about the other hotels/casinos you stayed.

Best Regards,
Boro

Thanks for the reports. A UCAP (Up Close And Personal) report is always nice to read.

I for one would certainly like to hear more Ryo. The personal thoughts of someone that's recently been there and done it is a very good way for others to get a feel of the place. I know you are a busy guy but I'd love to hear what you can share about your visit. Thanks.

Oh yeah, I just wanted to add that I plan on visiting Vegas hopefully sometime this year. I have no set date in mind and I also have a tricky situation where I am having trouble convincing my wife to join me. It's not that she is against gambling or anything like that but she is a poor traveler unfortunately.

She has given me the green light to go if I wish so that option is still available to me. While I would prefer her to join me, I do believe that I will be going there this year with or without her.

So any information I can get from a personal point of view would be a great help to me. I have visited many web sites getting an idea of what it's all about and also read some reviews etc, but I think your own thoughts and experiences could be invaluable.

Next time you're in Vegas check out MGM Grand and the Venetian. MGM runs some nice tourneys at 11am and 7pm. Always at least 50 players and more at night. Very nice room. About the same price as TI and PH. Basically tourist playing. The poker room is right next to the hugh sports book. I've found it to be one of the better places to play tourneys for small buy-ins on the strip. If you play cash games the MGM always has lots of action no matter the limit you play. The Venetian has deep stack tourneys at night, but cost around $110+ to play. Nice room. A note about the "rebuy". These are not "rebuy" tourneys, they just let you buy a second entry into the tourney after the waiting list. If you lose, then you also lose your seat and are assigned to a new table. In a rebuy tourney you do not lose your seat and can countinue to rebuy all you want.

Yup tpb, you're absolutely right. I think the rooms use the term rebuy a bit loosely, but the "rebuy" within the first hour seems to be the norm from what I can gather at these limits. I don't recall if there was a limit per player but I would guess that given the time constraints (within the first hour) and people on the waiting list (alternates waiting to enter and then people rebuying), it would be difficult for someone to continuously buy back into the tourney. At most, I would guess an extra rebuy, so you won't be at too big of a disadvantage if you don't plan on buying back in.

Definitely - at 500-1000 most people become shortstacked relative to the number of BB left. That's why I was upset with myself when I misplayed my hand at TI. My 6500+ stack was above average and I would've been able to open up my play more than people who were only sitting at 3000+ chips.

In all honesty, I didn't see a cash game going on for the most part. It looked like a few people (2 or 3 maybe?) were playing a cash game before the tourney but not much else going on. I think they reserve one or two dealers for cash games since I saw at least one employee sitting around and playing with her cell phone. The PH cash game seemed to have more people whenever I stopped by. Also, a note about TI dealers. I didn't take issue with them or anything, but they may not be the most skilled dealers too. They rely on an automatic table shuffler for each hand that's sort of annoying and the ones I encountered weren't the friendliest bunch.

At least you're lucky enough to have a conference in Vegas! I wish there would be psychology conferences in Vegas (I'm a grad student, btw), and I always say to people that we should have conferences in Vegas. So far I haven't been persuasive enough!

Yeah, unfortunately, my buddies and I didn't stop by MGM Grand, but we've passed by it during a previous visit. I remember their poker room being in the center of a giant rotunda like area (maybe not a rotunda per se) and next to a big sportsbook (<= a potential distraction perhaps?). We didn't stop by MGM because based on some info we had from a website, the buy-in was listed as $110. If they lowered the buy-in or now have cheaper tournies, that's a miss on our part - we were staying at Mandalay Bay on Thursday so we would've prefered to play closer (MGM) than further away (PH). I also do remember passing by the Venetian poker room, which is probably one of the bigger poker rooms that I saw this trip. This poker room was pretty crowded if I'm remembering correctly.

I think you may enjoy Vegas more if you have your significant other or are going with friends. I really enjoy going to Vegas (3 visits so far). If you haven't done so already, request information to be mailed to you from VisitLasVegas.com. They'll mail you a visitor's guide, area map/guide, and a show guide - having concrete material to show her may be more convincing than showing her info online. I would guess that there's gotta be something that your wife would like - shopping, relaxing by the pool, going to shows, relaxing at a spa, etc. I wouldn't give up on her just yet Crystal!

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So here's my thought about posting more info about hotels/casinos. I know that if I'm going to write a review, it'll be on the long side because I don't like omitting details. Because a few of you have expressed interest in hearing more, I'm thinking we should start a Vegas Hotel & Casino thread in the players lounge. I don't recall seeing a thread like this before, so what do you guys think? I'll try to get started on some thoughts and try to post something within the next day or two.

PS - sorry for the long post. Just wanted to make sure that I addressed people's questions.

I like the idea Ryo. It's up to you where you wanted to post anything but I think "Poker Rooms" might be the best place really. Being that these hotel/casinos have poker rooms in their premises. I think I have seen reports/posts from others about their experiences in Vegas but like you said, I don't think there is a dedicated area as such.
I for one would really like to see a dedicated thread ( sticky perhaps? ) where recent visitors to Vegas share their knowledge and experience of their time there. I think lots of useful and worthwhile information could be kept neat and tidy in the one place that way. Nice.

Posting in "Poker Rooms" would be best, as you say. If it were me, I would do separate threads for each casino/hotel review. If we did one thread, it's liable to get bogged down and confusing after awhile.

Ryo, you are more than welcome to post reviews. Just remember that we do not allow commercial links. If you are unsure of any of the content, then you can forward it to a mod for review before posting.

Thanks for the reminder about the commercial links juiceeQ - I'll make sure to not have those up. I see your point about potential problems with having one large thread for various reviews so I will also follow your suggestion and start separate threads for the three hotel/casinos. I also have some thoughts about other casinos that my friends and I played at but where we did not spend too much time - what would you recommend for something like this where I may not necessarily have too much to report?

By the way folks, regarding reviews of Caesar's, Bellagio, and Mandalay Bay, I've written down some thoughts but it'll be a few more days before I post something - I'm a bit busy trying to catch up on some missed work. For those of you wondering, given the recommendations, I will post my reviews/thoughts in Poker Rooms instead of the Players Lounge.

EDIT: Ooops, that didn't work the way I intended lol. Was supposed to be a left & right "thumbs up" for each quote.