A couple of decades ago, American professional football teams had what they called "The Gong Show" tryouts. The fundamental idea behind this unusual style of player recruitment was that an NFL team would let any slob who could walk in the door try to win a spot on the team. While most lawyers and factory workers are probably very good at what they do for a living, it takes a very specific skill set combined with a prevalent mean streak and absolutely no sense of self-preservation to be good at American football.
Seeing as most normal humans don't come equipped that way, the try-outs were little more than an excuse for professional athletes to beat the hell out of their fans. Usually someone's audition would end in tears and a trip to the hospital, but occasionally a diamond in the rough was found. Somebody who had spent their entire professional career in a cubicle may have suddenly found themselves living the life of a professional athlete.
While the sport of poker has more avenues to the professional ranks than most professional, competitive sports, it can't hurt the average person to test themselves against the best that the sport has to offer. The Venetian in Las Vegas is now giving people this opportunity.
Starting this fall the Venetian is adding a new show. It is called "The Real Deal!" As part of the show established pros like Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth will be pitted against people from the audience as well as amateur poker players.
Not all the details have been released yet, but apparently people will be able to compete against the pros onstage by using touchscreen devices at their seats.
This will either be really, really interesting or so insanely boring that watching "Gigli" will be exciting by comparison. We will have to wait and see.
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