The Real Deal

Hi Vegas Lovers

100 Days to go before I%26#39;m in Vegas. I can%26#39;t wait. I was wondering if anyone has been to The Real Deal show at the Venetian. Sounds like alot of fun. If anyone has been to the show please let me know what you thought about it. Thanks

The Real Deal

It%26#39;s brand new so you may not find too many who have tried it. I agree it looks interesting, but I wouldn%26#39;t go expecting to win enough money to offset the ticket price.

The Real Deal

Thanks for your reply stratton. I love playing poker and watch alot on TV. I don%26#39;t have the confidence to play at a table but I like being able to play interactively as an audience member. I would proably freeze if I actually was chosen to play with one of the pros.

I went to the show. My husband plays poker at the Venetian and they made an announcement that they had tickets, turns out they were giving them away.

The show is doing very poorly and only about 50 people were at the show. Buy the cheap seats!! Everyone gets upgraded to the ';vip'; section becuase the theatre is so empty. But if you do buy the vip seats you will get to sit in the front row and you have a good chance of getting on stage.

I hated the host. I go see a lot of comedy and a comedian that picks on audience members is ok, but he was not funny. He would just say rude comments and was very condescending to the audience and no one would laugh.

The show starts with an explanation of the rules and Vinnie (the host) picking people to go onstage. He mainly just picked people from the first row, except for two others (one of which was his friend%26#39;s mother). You have to be able to answer a basic poker question to get on stage, like ';What is big slick';.

Then the show is pretty much pandamonium from there. You get to ';play along'; by folding or calling at each round of betting. It takes half the show to figure a good strategy out becuase you can%26#39;t raise and if your hand wins/loses its hard to figure out how much you just won/lost. There are also ';prop bets'; you make before the game (like will the flop be red or black) and you get points if you were right.

After 4 hands the player with the least amount of chips is eliminated and everyone playes 52 card pick-up where everyone picks 5 face-down cards on their computer board. The top 9 hands get entered into the big game at the end of the show. Vinnie also randomly picks people to win prizes.

The random prize winning was the most frustrating part. Vinnie kept telling us he wanted us to be excited and would say ';who wants a prize'; but always picked the quiet person just sitting there, even though 80% of the audience would be cheering or jumping out of their seat. One time he picked the girl he walked in and out of the theatre with, she appeard to be his girlfriend. The co-host at one point walked around and gave a prize to everyone in an aisle seat except my husband. She gave a prize to the first 6 rows, skipped my husband, and then to the person in the 8th row. I left the show with a very bad feeling, like I was not important or something. It%26#39;s hard to explain, but it bothered me the rest of the day.

Towards the end ther audience member with the most points gets to play heads up on stage. The last game of 52 card pick-up is only for the audience members who qualified. The person with the best hand wins a certificate for a spa day at Canyon Ranch (a prize that I would have loved to get). If a person gets a royal flush during the last 52 card game, they win 1 million dollard.

This is much more of a game show than an opportunity to see famous poker players live. The two poker celebs hardly have a chance to talk and half of what they say is scripted. You need to go into game show games with the attitude of having fun and being entertained and not expecting to win. The problem is this show is horrible, I wanted to leave half way through, and the ONLY thing good about the show is the prizes.

About half of the audience gets a prize, so if you leave empty handed you will have seen a very terrible show and feel like a loser becuase there were tons of prizes and you got nothing.

There are some good prizes to be had:

2 certificates for spa day at Canyon Ranch

gift certificates to restaurants

show souviners

gps

lots of others

My husband figured out how to do good at playing along and ended up getting second place on that, so he got a gps. They are supposed to be mailing it to us, but it is a brand I have never heard of so my hopes are not high.

I love poker so the fact that I hated a show that had Jennifer Harmen and Eli Elezhra live and a chance to win get prizes, means the show is REALLY bad.

The only person that I can think that may enjoy the show is some who qualifies as ALL of the items below:

1) Gets the tickets for free or very cheap

2) Likes to watch poker on TV but is not a poker player themselves (this show is actually very boring for someome who plays poker unless they get to go on stage)

3) Wins a good prize

Think of the show as a gamble. Get free/cheap tickets, sit through a bad show, and try to win a great prize to make up for it.

Hi bobcatsports

Thank yo so mush for your detailed report on the Real Deal. I%26#39;m glad you mentioned about getting free tickets. I was going to order tickets on line but they don%26#39;t have any February dates. Now I will just wait until I get there. I%26#39;m sorry you didn%26#39;t enjoy the game and I hate that they made you feel unimportant. I%26#39;m not sure I%26#39;ll go or not but I really appreciate you taking the time to tell me about it. Hope the rest of your trip was great. I have 85 days to go. Yipee!

Thanks very much for this candid report. I think I would be willing to give it a shot if I can get in for free. Then at least, if I don%26#39;t win anything, all I have lost is my time.