walked by there at 12:30 pm (sunday)

NO ACTION - 1 person on the 1/3 interest list

Yes, but unless things have changed recently, they'll pay you to sit there and wait to try to get that first game of the day started. They'll log you in and you'll get credit for that time as you work toward the $12/hr max compensation ($10 + $2 comp).

well 60 hours is too much and players will get burnt out. do you know the application site for the prop players? and how much does it pay, and also can they benefit from the bonus or comps?

no, he is just saying that the promotion is essentially paying you as if you are a prop

Most places with a $4 rake will also have a jackpot in addition to the rake, so it's definitely not the same as a lot of the rooms with a $4 rake.

You don't have to play the full 60 hours though. You can still get paid if you play fewer hours.

This isn't even close to the same thing as a prop; you pay props to start and keep games going when they otherwise wouldn't be. this promotion pays players for playing when they'd be playing anyway.

Apparently they wouldn't be playing thats why they have the promo.

You know what I hate most about TI is the fact that you cant get on website on iPad.

You just said 2/4 players are not eligible to "capitalize on the promotion". It's no surprise then that there's no 2/4 game any more. Who wants to pay for a promotion that someone else gets?

Yes, 3/6 is theoretically eligible, but I have never seen a 3/6 game there. I've never even seen it on the board as an interest list.

uh, sure they would. if this wasn't the promo, there'd be a different one in place to draw them in. and if they weren't playing at TI, they'd be playing across town.

regardless, my main point is obviously that this promo is very different than having props, and you're just overlooking the meaning and nitpicking on the phrasing.

They do NOT. It's nothing like having prop players. Prop players would put their names on a 3/6 list, and/or start 3/6 games when told. Prop players would be there at specific times so other players can expect a game to be going at certain times, etc.

TI is the worst room in Vegas ! Thats why they have to pay people to play there.

The promo does the second thing. Or at least it did when I was there.

Most of the guys doing 60 hours start the games often and keep the games going. Sure, many of those who play less hours just come in and play in the game that would be running anyway.

There were always people waiting for someone to show up and play at 11am.

I'm guessing it would be hard to hire props for the same purpose. You'd have to hire a new set of props every couple weeks.

Wat? When have you ever seen those bonus grinders on a 3/6 list?

This isn't even close to true. The TI poker room is friendly and well run. If they had a regular game above 1/3 running regularly, it would be my main poker room

I was referring to them starting games(1/3 NL).

Many seem to think we just show up whenever we feel like it and don't start games. Which IMO is wrong.

That would change if the hour requirement was lower, but with it being at 60 games get started pretty much as soon as 1 other player shows up most of the time.

The promotion, unlike other similar promotions, actually does a good job of propping up the 1/3 games.

yeah, the game usually starts around 11. but sometimes it doesn't go until 12, or maybe 1. with props, it would definitely start at 11, every day. or 10 even, when the poker room opens. (only poker room i've ever heard of closing, btw)

Exactly. And a poker room needs more than one table running to stay healthy. If they got a limit game running, people would eventually show up. But they need to know it will be running (since TI thinks it's not worth informing the public to their games, unlike many other Vegas poker rooms) abd when, and be able to count on it. For that, you need employees, aka props.

Bay 101 is one of the busiest cardrooms in the country, measured by waiting list. Most evenings at 5 pm, including weekdays, the 1/2 NL list is often 40 names deep and a 2 hour wait or more. Even so, they hire props. Commerce, ditto.

I feel this is another unfair comparison. A 12 table poker room sandwiched in between a plethora of rooms on the Vegas strip is not the same as Bay 101 and Commerce. The latter exists within a completely different context and their reasons for success cannot be simply applied to the model that exists in Vegas. Propping has been tried in Vegas before and had it been successful I would imagine more rooms would still do it.

In the examples you bring up, those card rooms exist in cities where there aren't as many poker options and they are not as close together as they are in Vegas. Thus the poker populations tend to become more concentrated in one room that wins out amongst a few choices. You can't just say they have tons of games, and they use props so that must be why. The Bike in L.A. also uses props and they've been consistently losing players to Commerce and is now a ghost town compared to what they were before.

That's not my point. My point is that even hugely busy rooms find value in hiring props. A dead room should find the value even moreso.

I agree with you in theory that having props should work in small rooms, but for whatever reason it just doesn't in Vegas. It has been tried in the past and all such efforts have essentially failed. I remember the Hard Rock having done it a couple of years back and they were very organized about the whole endeavor. They had a roll call of players, different people assigned to different stakes, etc - but it couldn't sustain itself. One reason may be that poker rooms are budgeted for a fixed amount of employees at any given time and since props can't be paid out of the jackpot they essentially become additional employees that the poker room cannot afford. Also props may work in rooms like Bay 101 and Commerce because they already have a huge client base. Thus it may be worth it to use props to try to get games going that traditionally do not run often. But for a smaller room where props may help you to get maybe just one game going, the casino may not see the investment as worthwhile considering the additional liability and such that goes with having more employees.

Whats the current state of games in TI? Tables/times running/reg fest/and anything worth knowing?????games offered/

the mirage had props for a long time, don't know if they still do but it didn't seem to do much for the game. Dealers from the Mirage were also allowed to prop.

Agree it's a small but good room. I tried the promo earlier this year and found it very profitable over and above the bonus $.