Dakota Kid Presents - Deadwood Nuts

2005 - A Year of New Beginnings

By
Mike Randall

      The year 2005 was a big year of firsts for me as well an excellent first year for Full Tilt Magazine.

      This year of new beginnings actually started for me about Sturgis Motor Cycle Rally time in August of 2004 when I ventured into an unknown realm with the launch of DeadwoodNuts.com. Coincidently that was about the same time that Marty Nelson and Steve Wilson began making plans for a new Deadwood Shootout city wide tournament and to film it for cable television. In the beginning Deadwood Nuts was pretty basic and I struggled with coming up with ideas and also with a way to let the poker playing community know I was out there.

      Later that fall I was visiting with a poker dealing friend of mine, Mike Keenen, who told me about being interviewed for a new poker magazine. They were looking for someone from the area that might want to write articles for the magazine, he gave me John Herring�s Full Tilt business card thinking I might want to take a �shot� at writing for them. Not long after that I heard about Greg Raymer�s planed appearance at Cadillac Jack�s at the end of October (Greg Raymer and a New Era of WSOP Champions � Premiere Issue, Jan. 2005). When I heard about Raymer coming to Deadwood I thought this would be a great story for this new magazine to kick of with, so I gave John a call. Now I had a way to let the Midwest poker community know about my web site with advertising at Full Tilt and they had someone to write about poker in the Deadwood area.

      Interviewing Greg Raymer for the January issue was a �once in a life time� experience for me. Even though I had not spoken with a celebrity before and interviewing one in the area of interest I enjoy most, POKER, this was not the most important part of this special experience. What did make this interview memorable for me was that besides the fact that he was a truly nice guy was that he loved to talk about poker and took the time to visit with anyone that approached him. I spent as much time as I could talking to Greg, but between the fans and the poker games that he also played in that evening I didn�t have time to ask all the questions I wanted to. When we were cashing out at the end of the evening I voiced that problem to Greg and he offered to finish the interview by phone. He took the time to finish the interview a few weeks later during a break in a major tournament he was playing in. This, to me, makes him a great ambassador of poker and a just plain nice guy.

     The next few months I wrote mostly about poker strategy in actual games or tournaments that I played in. I enjoy talking poker with friends so it has become easier to write about it as time goes on. Towards spring I did another interview that I really enjoyed. This was with my friend Floyd Dahl about some of the poker history in Deadwood before gambling was legalized in 1989 (The Biggest Game in Town � March 2005). This was fun because we sat at his kitchen table and �shot the bull� like friends do, the only difference was that I had the tape recorder on!

      April brought another poker celebrity, Chris Moneymaker, to Deadwood (The Silverado Celebrity Tournament � June 2005). I didn�t get the opportunity to interview Chris, like I did with Greg, but the tournament made for an interesting article and another first for Deadwood.

     Summer started of with a bang with Wild Bill Days, June 17th � 19th. The hot country duo, Big and Rich, was the closing concert on Sunday and drew the largest crowd ever assembled on Main Street, 15 thousand! The next weekend the cast of the HBO series Deadwood were in town to promote there show. I heard that two of the cast members, W. Earl Brown (Dan Dority) and Robin Weigert (Calamity Jane) would be playing in the Sunday tournament at the Saloon #10 so I entered giving myself another opportunity for a story (A Big and Rich Wild Bill Days � Aug. 2005). I again enjoyed visiting with the stars and had a lot of fun playing live poker with Robin after the tournament. The next biggest event of the summer for the casinos in Deadwood arrives with the motor cyclists that come for the Sturgis Rally in August. This time my luck ran out as I missed playing poker with another star, Henry Winkler, who played one afternoon during the Rallies at the Saloon #10.

     The biggest poker event of 2005 took place Oct. 21st � 23rd in the form of the reinstatement of the Deadwood Shootout, city wide tournament. This tournament was the first of a series of tournaments that was larger than any previous tournaments and was filmed for cable television as a pilot that may lead to filming of future Deadwood Shootout Tournaments (The Deadwood Shootout by David Bischoff � Nov. 2005).

      The other day as I thought about all the exciting �firsts� with myself, Full Tilt Magazine, and Deadwood poker and I marveled at all that has happened in one short year.

      My web site has come alone nicely to where I could do without the advertising (the reason I started writing) to where I could slow down with the writing if I wanted to. I realize though that in the course of the past year that I was really writing because I love the game. I learned one other just as important reason the other night as I cashed out at the cage when the cashier told me how much she enjoyed my articles even though she only plays a couple of times a year, but hopes to become a better player. Knowing that really makes writing worthwhile and you will hear more from me in the coming year.