Dakota Kid Presents - Deadwood Nuts

A Big and Rich Wild Bill Days

By
Mike Randall

A great part of being involved in the poker scene in Deadwood, S. D. is the opportunity to see some great entertainment and activities going on here, especially during the summer months.

Wild Bill Days has become one of the biggest events in Deadwood and it was bigger and better than ever this year.

This year�s festivities took place June17th � June 19th featuring the World Championship Fast Draw Contest. Man these guys and gals are fast and accurate!

There was free Main Street big name entertainment every day of the celebration. The Main Street entertainment has become very popular and people come early and �stake a claim� with there favorite lawn or camping chair.

W. Earl Brown who plays Dan Dority on the HBO series �Deadwood� playing with his band the Sacred Cowboys opened the final and biggest day of entertainment on Sunday. Little did I know then that a week later I would be playing poker with Earl and Robin Weigert also a member of the cast, who portrays Calamity Jane.

After listening to The Sacred Cowboys for awhile I entered the Saloon #10 card room to play poker while waiting for the weekends big attraction, Big and Rich , to begin there performance. Perfect timing, one seat open, but bad timing if I wanted get a good look at Big and Rich as Main Street filled to over flowing when they took the stage. It was a record crowd of an estimated 15,000 people on Main Street that night. Big and Rich has adopted Deadwood as sort of there home town and Deadwood had welcomed them with open arms. I took some lobby time from the poker game so I could listen to this great county duo and hopefully get a picture for this article and Deadwood Nuts.com. It looked hopeless to get close enough to the stage to get a picture. I went into a casino near the stage and as a member of the �press� got permission from a manager to access a window where I could get a picture. Pretty lucky as I was right next door to the CMT film crew!

I returned to the poker game before my lobby time was up and through the course of the night played a couple of interesting hands, but that�s a story for another article.

I thought all the celebrity excitement was over until the fallowing Sunday When I entered the Saloon #10 hold�em tournament and discovered that W. Earl Brown and Robin Weigert were entered in the tournament also. Earl had stayed in Deadwood that week and other cast members along with Robin got in to town on Friday for a press conference and autograph session on Saturday. Earl and Robin are both poker enthusiasts and so decided to play the tournament thus creating an impromptu celebrity tournament. Robin lasted about midway through the tournament before busting out. Robin played well but just wasn�t getting any good cards to play with. There�s nothing you can do about that, better luck next time Robin. After getting short stacked early, Earl made a comeback and play down to fifth place.

I got a chance to visit with Earl during a scheduled break in the tournament. Earl was here last year and liked Deadwood so well he was happy to come back this year to be part of the entertainment and stay for over a week this time. He would like to return to the area for the Sturgis Bike Rally, but they are scheduled to begin shooting the new season of �Deadwood� that week so it would be difficult to arrange.

Earl told me about his recent increased interest in poker. He had learned to play a few years ago but didn�t play that much. When a friend gave him a hold�em computer game it renewed his interest in poker and suddenly he was playing all the time. After that he got experience playing in some home games with co-star Robin and some other friends. It was fun playing the tournament with you and better luck next time, Earl.

Robin returned after the tournament to play in the live $2-$10 game and we visited in between hands about her experiences with poker. Robin received here initial poker tutoring from Jim McManus, the author of �Positivily Fifth Street, a book about his 5th place finish in the 2000 WSOP main event. During a hold�em game that Jim was playing in he showed Robin several hands and explaining how to play them. What a wonderful way for a beginner to learn how to play the game. By the way Robin was playing it appears that she took that bit of professional training to heart. Robin�s claim to poker fame so far is having won one of the Hollywood Hold�em Tournaments on the cable channel E! In the tournament her poker skills and a natural ability to �read� the other players aided her in winning the single table tourney.

It was a very enjoyable afternoon of playing and talking poker with Earl and Robin and I look forward to a return visit and more poker with these two stars of �Deadwood�.