I stayed at the Lodge at Deadwood for one Wed night on a family roadtrip (very nice rooms in a new hotel with great facilities). I went down to play a cash game around 6:00 and found one 1/2nl game running, and sat down. However, the game soon broke in favor of a tournament at 6:30, which I decided to join as well. The tourney was a $55 buy-in, but had a weird rule whereby you could add-on to your chip stack (either 4 or 5k starting) by 1k for each additional $10 at any time up through the first break. That is, not just *one* add-on, but as many as you wanted, any time you wanted through the end of the first break. You could also buy back in in you busted out (through the 1st break). Thus, of 40 starting players, the prize pool ended up being about $5k due to re-buys and add-ons! There was one guy at my table that must have bought an extra 10k worth of chips right at the beginning for $100. Also, due to the size of the prize-pool, they paid 10 places! Interesting and unique structure. after the tourney started winding down cash games popped back up, and there were two running by about 10pm when I left.
The room itself was very nice... nicely decorated, a bar right in the room, restrooms nearby. Also, the whole casino is non-smoking, which I think is great. Dealers and floor staff were very good and welcoming, friendly, and knowledgeable. I wasn't there on a weekend, so I'm not sure what kind of tourist traffic they get during those times, but it was clear that the people in the room the Wed night I was there were about 95% locals who generally knew each other well and were generally pretty skilled. Although I wasn't uncomfortable by the players'/staff familiarity with each other, and they were welcoming to me as a tourist, I don't tend to like playing in "locals rooms" as much. That aspect, and the moderate level of competition is why I didn't give it a 5/5. Again, weekends might be different.
