My buddy Ryan had a couple tickets to go see The Real Deal Poker at the Venetian casino on Sunday evening. I had never heard of it before, but once he explained what it was, I was excited to go.
I’m going to assume that like me, you are new to The Real Deal Poker and explain how it works. It’s like a mashup of a Vegas style show and a game show. There’s a poker table on a stage, a couple pretty girls {hostess and poker dealer}, a comic for an MC and 2 well known poker players (there are 10 pros who are part of the show, 2 per night). The MC selects 6 players out of the audience and they get to sit down at the table to play against the pros. Even if you aren’t chosen to play on stage, you still get to play along from the audience. Every seat has a touch-screen available that lets you be part of the action. Not only do you get dealt a hand in the game, there are a string of prop bets that add a bit of randomness to the game and the scores.
Here’s how the prop bets work. Before the poker game stars, you use the touch screen device to select your choses for the following prop bets:
1. Red or Black. You are betting on what color cards are going to hit the flop, turn and river.
2. Pick a Suit. The more cards of your suit that hit the flop, turn and river, the more you earn.
3. Pick 3 cards. You get to select 3 specific cards (8 of clubs, for example) and any time one of your cards comes up, you earn points.
4. Pick a pro. Decide which of the 2 pros are going to last the longest.
5. Pick an amateur. Decide which amateur is going to last the longest.
Now the game begins. The dealer starts by dealing 2 cards that belong to the audience. Everybody in the audience decides if they are going to call or fold (you can not raise). You can call or fold pre-flop, on the flop, turn or river. If the hand being played at the table is not going to make it to the river because everybody has folded, the last player with cards goes up against the audience to see who wins. There’s no penalty to the player on the table for losing to the audience. They are just trying to accumulate chips. The first round is 4 hands long. At the end of the first round, the short stack is eliminated.
In between rounds, on the touch screens they show all 52 cards face down. Everybody selects 5 cards. When they reveal the hidden cards, the top 9 players get to advance to the final round (I’ll explain this in a few.)
This process is repeated until it gets down to one pro and one amateur. At this time, the top point earner from the audience gets to join the remaining 2 players on the featured table. They battle down to the final player (there’s a certain set of hands that can be played, so it’s not going to last too long) and then the player with the most chips is the champion. If the pro wins, the second place finisher receives a nice gift. If one of the players wins, they receive a bracelet and some other prizes.
Once the tournament has finished, it’s time for the final round. This is where somebody in the audience has a chance to win a million dollars. All the players that made it on stage, and those that advanced to the final round by winning the mini-games between rounds are shown the 52 cards face down. If somebody picks 5 cards that give them a Royal Flush, they win the million. A straight flush wins them a 75 thousand dollar necklace. There are some other gifts for some other high hands as well. Of the 40ish players who are in, the best hand wins a nice prize as does the top point earner from the audience.
The show was pretty cool. We had a lot of fun watching our prop bets and bustin’ each other’s chops about who was winning. In the end I finished in the top 15 and Ryan finished about 100 places behind me.
The show lasts just over 90 minutes. Tickets are $45 for regular seats or $125 for VIP seats which are right down front, include a free drink and a meet & greet with the poker pros. In case you are wondering, sitting in the VIP section does not better your chances for making it on stage (as far as I could tell, anyway)
Here’s a shot of the game going on on-stage with the leaderboard behind them. That’s me in 13th place.
I just read that they have an “after hours” show where the comic is “let loose” to do his Don Rickles style comedy. Add to that the bar service and I think I’ve found the night for me to go back and take the wife since she couldn’t go with us tonight.
