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.