There have been several poker TV shows that have came out in the past few years and, so far, I think they’ve all been fairly good.  However, the only catch is that most of them don’t really offer poker fans much besides the chance to see their favorite pros battle each other.  And to me, just watching the game of poker isn’t always the funnest thing in the world to do – even with top players involved.  It’s a lot more fun to actually be doing it.

Well the Venetian Resort Hotel & Casino apparently agrees and has developed a pretty cool concept in the form of a live show that they will be hosting.  It’s going to be called The Real Deal and will be a poker show staged in front of a live audience.  There are no plans so far to film it for television as, instead, people will pay admission to get into the show.

Once inside the show, people will not only get to see a 90 minute poker tournament with some of the top players in the game taking part, but they will also get to actually participate in the tournament themselves.  The way that this will be done is by audience members getting a wireless device which will enable them to be the ninth player at the table of pros.  Everyone will start with 100,000 points and whoever gets the top score out of the audience members near the end of the tournament gets to play against the last remaining pro. 

What I really like about this idea is that it’s something that a lot of people can enjoy.  I could see casual visitors of Las Vegas wanting to take part in this live show and I could also possibly see it becoming one of THE Vegas shows people like to talk about.  Obviously it will take some time before that happens but with top pros being involved, there will definitely be the chance for The Real Deal to be huge.