OK, but it is hard to vote Lodge without considering that is floating around deadwood about it, though I was impressed when the Lodge responded to my inquiry.

Here is another issue to consider. Lodge and Silverado rake $5, while #10 and CJ's rake $4. They all have jackpot drops. This takes Lodge and Silverado down a notch based on that, though I have never thought Deadwood players as a whole would notice such thing.

BTW, I lived there for 5 years. I suspect we know each other, especially considering the small poker community there.

The Lodge is a poker room that loses money week after week after week. They promote tournaments that are unfair by any standards and have led to the collusion that has been taking place in Deadwood for the last 4 years. Collusion, marking cards, chip dumping are a common everyday practice that goes on at the lodge. Deadwood has lost close to 50% of their players because of these activities over the last four years. Two poker rooms in Deadwood are now controlled from the inside by this group of criminals. Millions of dollars have been stolen from the poker games. As of this time the Silverado and the #10 Saloon deal fair games. That's it. Games have become so depleted in town that Deadwood has gone from one of the best places to play 4+ years ago- to in a lot of peoples opinion one of the worst places to play in the country. So eat your food at the Lodge. Don't tell me that there is anything positive going on with the poker in that casino. A dealer worked there a couple of years ago reported cheating to the staff. Nothing was done. A poker dealer quite dealing there and left town to deal elsewhere because he thought he would sooner or later be arrested in the mess that goes on in that poker room. If that's what you want to call it.

IMHO I think that is a bunch of bull****. I've played up there a lot and I pay close attention to what is going on. I think I know exactly who you are and who you are accusing. It is sad some people from our own community try to ruin the good name of players in Deadwood.

http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/loc...4be79c4f9.html

Not that there's proof yet, but this doesn't look good for The Lodge. I hope that if these allegations are shown to be true, that you'll give the individual who has been harping on them for two years now a big thank you for trying to protect the good name of players in Deadwood. It's looking more and more like he's due some commendations rather than derision.

Just curious as to the limits and spreads offered in deadwood, SD. Where is the best place to play and how much action there even is there during the week. Anyone play there within the last few months or even the past year? Thanks.

Sooooooo, no poker in Deadwood or just no 2+2ers. Must mean the games are really soft, if they even exist.

There is Poker in Deadwood, Just not a lot of poker. I was actually considering going there this weekend but had changed my mind. I haven't been there in a while so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Tournaments can be found on thepokeratlas. As far as I know it is current.

Live games: I generally prefer to play at the Silverado as I am a limit player and that seems to be the only place in town that does that. I believe it was a 4-8 LHE with either a 1/2 kill or full kill. Can't remember for certain. I believe on Friday and Sat nights they get a 2-100 spread limit game which is basically Deadwoods version of 1/2 NL. I think they get an Omaha game going on Friday evenings as well.

The only other places I know of now with rooms are Cadillac Jacks, Saloon #10 and The Lodge. I have played at CJ's in a fun little Saturday morning tourney that is fun. Never seen a live game going but was told they sometimes get a 2-100 going some evenings. I have never seen a live game going at The Lodge but seems like they have some tourneys that run and I have overheard talk from time to time about a 2-100 game going there that gets fairly wild. I cannot confirm that at all. Saloon #10 - I have played in the early morning $6 tourny which goes sometimes. There is an add on which everyone takes to make it actually a $9 buy in. There are rebuys which get used quite a bit as well since it is really just a super fast shove fest very very quickly. But it is a fun tourney if there is nothing going at the Silverado yet.

Hope that helps

I used to live near Deadwood and visit frequently. This is the old thread with some info you should check out:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/20...od-sd-1038579/

Silverado is the place to play IMO. The above poster covered the main games. The Friday night O8 game is 5/10 and pretty loose. There used to be a Tuesday night 3/6 O8 game but you might want to call first to see if it still runs. Otherwise, it is all FLHE during the week and weekends spread 2-100 in addition to that.

Saloon #10 does 2-10 spread limit HE most nights and occasionally Seven Card Stud H/L. They also might get a mixed game. It is the same group of players that have gotten together for years. It is a fun place to play.

CJ's gets a bigger game than 2-100 from time to time but their room's action is limited from what I have seen. The Lodge has little in the way of cash game action. They do tournaments that are popular because there is huge overlay. Those are the only four poker rooms in town.

Poker action is scarce this time of year compared to tourist season. You might have a hard time finding games during off peak hours. For example, I was up there during a bitterly cold weekend in December and there were no cash games on oa Sunday at CJ's, #10 or Silverado between 2pm and the end of SNF before I gave up.

Heading there in a few weeks... I read that the Lodge would be a good place to play, but, this has me a bit cautious... Anyone else have input?

http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/loc...4be79c4f9.html

This is discussed just a few posts above yours.

Threads were combined after my post.

Deadwood poker is alive and well. Lodge has 3 weekly tournaments that bring good prize pools. Caddys has two tourneys a day, most days of the week. Granted, those are quite small.

Cash games range from 3/6 at the Rado, to the 2-10 (occasional wknd 3-25, 2-100 game) at Saloon 10.

Caddys and the Lodge have the biggest games in town. Usually 5-100. or 10-300.

A few other random cash games will pop up.

Silverado is good on the weekends. They have a 5/10 OH8 that runs weekends, usually. And they always have a 5-100 on the weekends. They also have a nice little $98 deepstack on thursdays that they do a points standings for a give away a state championship seat each month. ( nothing comes out of the prize pool)

Now is the best time to be in deadwood for sure. The sturgis rally is heating up and there are a lot of tourists.

PM me if you have any more questions regarding DWOOD

I'm so excited to get back to SD in a month or so! I used to play pretty regularly at Silverado (and sometimes at the 10). Didn't the Silverado used to spread a 15-30 on weekends? I'm hoping to convince a room to spread a mixed game. Are the bigger spread games pretty soft these days or are the players getting stronger?

Used to play in DW years ago when I lived in Spearfish. It was LHE back then and some small spread limit games 2/10. Went to play "The Big Game" with a co-worker and it was junk. 5/100 spread limit and I never understood why they just don't spread a 10/20 or 30/60 LHE. Players were idiots, and would call raises with low implied odds hands and super small BI's. It was like playing 5/10 limit with $30.

When DW raised the betting limits to $1,000 to compete with casinos out of state where players were going to, I went back to play their 2/1,000 spread. It was JUICY!!! These players for the most part had little idea of NL strat. It wasn;t long before they quit spreading it and I kept calling over to see if they were going to spread it, with no luck.

While in DW for other reasons I stopped in at the Lodge, Cadillac Jack's and Silverado and asked each poker room mgr on duty about the $1,000 games. They said it about broke Deadwood players. And still they don't spread it.

Wyoming has legal "social poker" and there are huge bar and home games where players go off for 5k or more in 1/2 and 5/5 games. One round NL and one round O8. I would really like to see DW spread the $1,000 limit again.

Still if I'm in DW, I mess around with the old men at the 4/8 half-kill at Silverado's during the afternoons! I'm not a Lodge fan and Jack's doesn't do it for me.

Saloon 10 spreads a dealers choice game on Thursdays that starts around 2-4pm. It has a ton of games you can choose from and dealers are good. There's a chance of getting a round of HE/round of Omaha game at the lodge.

Go play the 10-300 game and ask for overs. There are plenty of players that will do this.

can you define "overs"? Sorry.

I agree. I think it's because a lot of deadwood players want to gamble. So, if they are playing limit, they want to be jamming a lot of pots. I wish they would spread a 20-40 or something. (I hear they get them going during the rally sometimes) I can't afford to play that level yet, but it would be nice to have something to aspire to.

Are the players skilled in the games other than hold em? It would be nice to have a nice mixed game.

All this talk of poker rooms and my "home turf" has me anxious to get back up there! I will be back to the hills by early September. I hope to meet some of you in person.

-Nate

Overs buttons. It allows anyone who has one to play a limit above the regular game when only those who have an overs button are left in the hand. It applies the next street. So preflop it would be the regular limit always, but if say, you and I, go to the flop and we both have one, it would be whatever limit over the regular one we decide.

That sounds super cool!

which room has the 10-300?

It usually runs at Caddys on Wed at 2pm, Friday and Saturday at 3pm... The lodge has been hosting it sometimes too. Depends who is around and where they want to play.

Maybe you're one of the perpetrators? Anyone that knows how to use Google search can see that the games in Deadwood were not fair at one point:

http://www.capjournal.com/news/sd-to...a4bcf887a.html

http://madvilletimes.com/2014/03/3-o...ing-collusion/

http://ksoo.com/probe-reports-of-pok...nse-suspended/

Does anyone have any recent experience in Deadwood? Is there still rampant collusion in games?

I've played there numerous times but haven't really gone back since they quit spreading the 2-1000. I can tell you if you pull your phone out at the table you'll be gone from the game. The casino operators and poker rooms appear to be taking the accusations seriously.

Unfortunately, the big game in town (now played as 10-300) is probably corrupt. I apologize for the use of a 0-post account. However, the collusion team has been known to use intimidation tactics against those that stir up trouble for them, and I'd rather not subject myself to that. If you are someone that could potentially help do something about this, I would be happy to work through PM to confirm that you can be trusted, and I would then divulge my identity.

Ok, with that out of the way, why do I just say "probably" corrupt? Well, first off, because I freely admit I don't have any hard evidence that tells me without a doubt that there's active & regular collusion in Deadwood. Just about everything I know about it is 2nd hand information. Secondly, an accusation of cheating is very serious. I recognize that. And I can't prove collusion. Even from an anonymous account, I'm not going to name names of the cheats. That being said, I believe there is regular collusion in Deadwood's biggest game.

So, why do I believe that the game is crooked? Well, the #1 reason is that a player I've been friendly with for over a decade confided in me that he was approached by the collusion team and asked to join (he turned them down). In the years I've known this guy, I have never caught this guy in the slightest bit of dishonesty. I'm aware that nobody knows anybody as well as they may think they do, but I would still lay large odds he's not making anything up here. Still, I can hardly scream 2nd hand information from the rooftops as proof.

A different poster mentioned that because the casinos are now hardasses with the cell phone rules, that the accusations are being taken seriously. All I can say, is that if you played locally, you'd recognize that this cell phone business is basically only worthy of eye-rolls. Players have indeed used cell phones to cheat in Deadwood...years ago. Anyone want to take any guesses how they were caught? A cocktail waitress (a cocktail waitress!) caught them at it. So gaming's "no cell phone even if you're out of a hand" rule is many years behind the times. The cheats have moved onto more sophisticated signals. Oh, and does anyone know what happened to the cheats using cell phones? Nothing! I have heard from multiple sources that the reason for this is that the floorpeople at Cadillac Jack's and the Lodge are paid off. It meshes with what I know, but unfortunately, still isn't proof.

The Lodge was the original host to the big game in town. However, a little more than a year ago, they moved the game to Cadillac Jack's. I have heard rumors of the floor there being corrupt, and occasionally getting prestacked decks into the game to deal particular players a massive cooler. Imagine how it looked to me when shortly after the game moved, the bad beat was hit, with winner's and loser's share both going to people associated with the team (one was in on the ground floor, but may have left, the other was a current member of the team). Could it be a coincidence? Sure. Do I think it is? No.

Earlier I mentioned that the collusion team has long since changed its tactics. The #1 way I have heard that they collude, is that they signal at least their hole cards to each other, and possibly other information as well. This is one place I have first hand information experience. And I actually have two stories to tell here.

#1: Shortly after learning about the team, and their identities, I saw just two of them playing together in a cash game. Being the type of person that likes to get some independent verification of things, I decided to sit down, play like a piece of granite to limit my exposure, and closely watch how the alleged cheats played. I admittedly didn't see anything blatant in their play. They didn't pull the obvious trick of sandwiching a civilian in between their raises. Maybe they did some other stuff with their play, but it was too subtle for me to pick out.

However, I did notice something very suspicious. I noticed that every time they were dealt cards, the player on the right would glance very quickly at the team member to the left's hands/chips. I could never decipher what information he was gathering. Of course, I know a defense of this would simply be that the alleged member to the right was looking left to see if anyone was folding. Of course, he was only looking at one person's hand. I guess the defense there would be he knew a tell with that guy. Still, it was very odd to me, especially given that it was matching what I was told to look for. In the interest of full disclosure, I will say that I never saw the player to the left look to his right. I wish I could offer up that quite damning bit of evidence, but I can't honestly do it. Still, to me, this session was super suspicious.

#2: A while after this, one of the team members wandered into the Silverado while I was playing their big game, and when he was sitting down, he started talking to a couple guys in the game that were obviously friends, and were guys I know not to be on the team. These friends obviously knew the team member, and they immediately started engaging in some good-natured the ribbing of the guy. The team member very quickly retorted with "have you guys got your signals worked out?"

Now, on the surface, that comment could be taken as "well, yeah, that's an obvious comeback, accuse the buddies of collusion". But it's the way he accused them of collusion. I've spent a lot of time playing live poker, and I imagine many readers of this post have spent more time than me. Many times I've seen accusations of collusion. Usually directed at a husband & wife, sometimes obvious friends. I'm sure you all have too. Has anyone here ever heard anyone accuse anyone of using signaling? I never have. Would be one giant freaking coincidence to me if all my information is wrong, and the guy who was wrongly accused of being on the team, accused someone of collusion in a way I've never heard before, that happens to match the method of collusion he is accused of using. Seems about as likely as hitting a bad beat innocently shortly after moving your game, lol.

I've heard that South Dakota gaming is paid off to the very top. I don't know if it is or not. But I do find it funny that if you Google "Why is South Dakota so" and let Google auto-complete it, the third thing listed is "corrupt". I haven't tried all 50 states, but I can't find a single other one that comes up that way. Even Nevada and New Jersey. So there's a fun bit of trivia for you, for reading this far into my post.

So, here's the current poker rundown in Deadwood:
Cadillac Jack's has the 10-300 game that I believe is full of collusion. I also believe their casino staff is corrupt. I would not recommend playing in this game. I'm not sure if they still occasionally play at The Lodge anymore or not, but the same comment would apply there. If either room gets a smaller game (3-25, 2-10, are the usual suspects I think), those games are likely fine. Of course, if you play in them, you're likely supporting casinos that allow cheating to flourish. Also, whatever you do, steer clear of tournaments for any serious money. While my focus in this post has been cash games (as that's my main area of interest), the team's true area of dominance is tournaments.

The Silverado gets a 5-100 going on the weekends. The action is very good, dealers are, as a group, the best in town. They also routinely spread a 2-20, and on Fridays get a 2-20 O8 game usually. I think there's some sort of mix game they get on Tuesdays as well. I haven't paid much attention to whatever goes on then. I have never seen members of the team in any cash game there. On Thursday nights they have a $98 MTT. I usually see 2-3 of the team in that tourney. Collusion effects are likely minimal, though. The rumor I've heard for why they're playing it is to start setting up the staff at the Silverado to be corrupted. I hope they try. There's only one dealer there that I get the feeling would be susceptible to corruption, so I really hope they just go a bit too hard at the wrong guy, and get their asses busted. I play at the Silverado, and will continue to do so, but I am being vigilant.

The Silverado also has an $1,100 tournament coming up. (http://www.silveradofranklin.com/sou...mpionship.html). I would be very hesitant to enter this tournament. Maybe if I could walk-in the day of, and survey the room for known team members, then if they weren't seen, I'd buy-in. But my advice to anyone else about playing that MTT without knowledge of who's on the team? Don't do it. Also, to be clear here, I don't think the Silverado is on the take with the team. I more think that their management is in the unfortunate position of having to either tell 8 (or more) local big fish that "we don't have any proof of cheating, but you're barred from playing this tourney" or letting them in. Now, if they actually did bar the team members, that would make my fat ass do cartwheels, so maybe the prospect of that spectacle will sway them. Of course, I understand that they have to do what they have to do. But I too have to do what I think is right there...and that is warn everyone away from their big tourney.

In my opinion, The Saloon #10 is 100% safe. It's also in my heart as my favorite casino in town. The problem is that usually their only action is 2-10 or 3-15 or thereabouts. On Thursdays they play 2-10 dealer's choice where your choice is any of like 10 games. Occasionally, they'll get a random 2-100 game going. And because of the nature of the place (it's basically a party-bar that happens to have some poker tables) the game is usually incredible. Like, any good player can party like it's 2004 type incredible. If you ever see that game going, sit in it. Thank me later. With all the Sklansky dollars you make, you can buy me a Sklansky beer. Additionally, I know at least one member of the team isn't exactly welcome there.

Finally, again, if anyone out there happens to read this, and can offer any help to eradicate this scourge on Deadwood poker, I would love to hear from you. Of course, the whole "let's earn each other's trust" thing is going to be arduous, but I'm willing to give it a shot.