I rolled into Deadwood and I Mosied Into Saloon No. 10…

I’m a little late posting this. It was actually last Tuesday night.  I was on business, meeting with the Air Force at Ellsworth AFB.  So I took the rental out 30 minutes to Deadwood.

Apparently, Deadwood is rebuilt after a fire some time back (a less lazy blogger would wikipedia it and find out the actual story).  These days Deadwood is a little tourist trap casino town.  They basically just have hotels and “casinos”.  For the most part, the casinos are just slot parlors.  A good number add blackjack or three card poker.  Then, a smaller subset (around 5) spread poker.

The chair where Wild Bill was shot (supposedly)

One of the places they play poker is in Saloon No. 10.  The saloon is a recreation of the saloon of the same name (as previously mentioned, which burnt down at some point).  The original was where Jack McCall gunned down Wild Bill Hickok.  It’s a cool place.  They have sawdust all over the floor and memorabilia everywhere, including the chair where supposedly Bill was gunned down.  The coolest part is that they play blackjack in the back with these big metal dollar tokens.  The sound is so cool with the tokens clanking against each other every time someone bets.

The poker?  Not as cool.  They only play spread limit (and SD law says the max single bet size is $100 so they can’t play no limit).  They had one table going and they couldn’t keep it full.  They were playing $2/6 spread limit.  People were playing with mid-sized stacks and there wasn’t much gamble on.  One out of town player came in and pushed the action a little.  It was mostly enjoyable.  People were mostly friendly.  The most exciting hand (for me) of all night came when I decided to bet $6 in middle position with 9T off.  The crazy player to my left (who played every hand and raised just about every hand) raised it to $12.  Then a player behind him re-raised to $18.  To my surprise, the tight played to my right also called.  I’d normally fold this hand to such action, but the pot was so big at this point.  So I call as do the other two players.  I had been playing very tight and had only shown down very good hands all night.

The flop comes 9 9 9.  I can’t imagine I’ll get any action.  But I suspect that someone else must have a big pair.  I’m representing some kind of pocket pair.  So I bet $6.  Crazy guy raises to $12.  Both other players call.  I decide to call.  I don’t want to tip anyone off to my hand yet.  The turn comes K.  I check, crazy bets $6.  Next player raises to $12 and nitty guy on my right calls.  I call.  The river comes A.  I bet $6, crazy calls, next player calls.  Nitty thinks for a bit and raises to $12.  I look over at him and pretend to think for a while then I raise to $18.  Crazy calls.  Middle player folds and nitty calls.  I show the 9 and nitty flips pocket aces.  Crazy mucks but says he had KJ and the middle player said he had a king as well.

Another picture of Wild Bill

I don’t really care for spread limit, because the pot was still only a little over $200.  No one even got it all in on that hand.  I have no idea if I played that hand well or not.  I never know whether I’m playing a hand right.  I know there’s a ton of fundamental limit strategy that I don’t know.

Bad news is that I lost pretty much all of that money later in the night.  I was second best on every showdown against the crazy LAGgy player to my left.  Especially with limit poker, I have no idea how to combat a LAGgy player.

Anyway, it was a nice night, but I’m not particularly excited to go back.