Treasure Island built a classy poker room that reminds me of a miniature version of the poker room at MGM Grand. That means I like it.

The new poker room at Treasure Island (“TI”) is located right across from the Mystere showroom and box office. This is a high-traffic area of the casino that is relatively close to the parking garage. A huge sign at the front of the poker room alerts passerby of the poker room’s presence. You can’t miss it.

The interior of the TI poker room is well designed and rich looking. It is dressed up in deep red and dark gray colors, including a wild carpet pattern that utilizes those same colors. The carpet design actually reminded me of a Hypercolor t-shirt I fully admit to owning in the early 90s.

The poker room has a hip vibe. There are classy art prints hanging on the walls, and mellow pop tunes playing through the poker room’s speaker system. The tables are well lit, but the poker room still maintains a sort of dark and mysterious character. Although the TI poker room is not nearly as wild as the poker room at MGM Grand, it feels like they were both built for the cool crowd.

The trendy design isn’t the only thing the TI poker room shares with the MGM Grand poker room. Both poker rooms also rely heavily on technology. Inside the TI poker room there are eight plasma screen televisions, some of which display the electronic waitlist information, just like at MGM Grand.

Also, like MGM Grand, the poker room at TI uses an electronic player tracking system that allows a dealer to swipe each player’s comp card right at the poker table. The system at TI is an upgraded version however which includes an LCD screen built into each poker table. The LCD screen displays each player’s name, which means a dealer can look down and see the name of each player signed in at the table. The intended benefit of this system is that dealers will now be able to learn players’ names and thereby interact on a more personal level. Nevertheless, I have to admit it felt a bit like something out of the movie 1984. At the TI poker room, Big Brother is watching.

The most obvious similarity between the MGM Grand poker room and the TI poker room however is the actual Players Club comp card. The one I was given at TI actually says MGM on it, and it looks identical to the comp card many players use at the MGM Grand poker room. Players at TI won’t soon forget that MGM Mirage owns both MGM Grand and Treasure Island.

The poker tables are unique. There are really elaborate graphics drawn on the table felt which advertise the Tangerine Nightclub and the TI Sirens show. I have never seen cross promotion like this (ads on a poker table?), but it seems like a good idea, and I think it works - especially because here the graphics include sexy scantly clad women.

The poker tables also have built-in drink holders and auto-shufflers. The chairs are standard style poker chairs covered with red fabric which matches the poker room’s décor.

Management at the poker room seems good. The managers I dealt with were helpful and friendly and had no trouble putting my name on the list and getting me in a game. Also, managers and even dealers were doing a fabulous job asking players whether they had a comp card. This is important because a lot of players don’t know that they can sign up for a comp card to earn $1 per hour. It is refreshing to see management at a poker room take such a proactive approach to making players aware of the offer.

The only blemish at the TI poker room is the dealers, and it’s not really their fault. You see, more than half the dealers at the TI poker room are dealing poker for the first time. Tonight some of these dealers dealt their first real casino poker hands ever. As such, they are obviously inexperienced. This means they are slow, and they do make a few mistakes. On the bright side, they are friendly, and I am confident they will improve over time.

In closing, the poker room at TI is definitely cool. It’s not quite MGM Grand cool, but it's still good, especially for its size. The design is lovely, and the technology is sophisticated. I’ll return soon to conduct a complete editor’s review. In the meantime, if you have played there already, please consider contributing a review.