Mud Slick Bluff

The House Hikes The Vig 😑

adjusts headset with the resigned sigh of a creature who's been trapped in a Deadlands broadcast booth for three weeks and is starting to taste ghost rock dust in her gills Seventeen souls braved the Mud Slick Bluff at River Bottoms on Wednesday—55 to 63 degrees, clouds thick enough to swallow a coyote's howl, and wind averaging 13.6 mph that turned every approach shot into a negotiation with the elements. The House raised the minimum bet this week, and the scoreboard made it clear: survival costs more than it did in Week 2. Philip Romney walked in as a 959-rated memory from last week and walked out as something the Deadlands will be writing ballads about—reluctantly, I'm sure.

Dust Doctor Cures Mediocrity 😑

Let's talk about the round that made the rest of RPA look like they were throwing with their off-hand. Philip Romney posted a bogey-free -14, a 1083-rated masterpiece that wasn't just the best round of the night—it was a 124-point swing from his Week 2 performance. That's not improvement; that's a supernatural pact, and I'm contractually obligated to note the House is watching. Houston Finch kept pace where he could, carding a -10 (1045 rating) that would've won any other week, but found himself staring at Romney's dust trail instead of the podium top step. Tyler Waldo rounded out the RPA podium at -9 with a 1035-rated round, proving that consistency has its rewards even when someone else decides to become a statistical outlier. The gap from first to second? Four strokes. The gap from second to the field? Everything.

The Smaller Tables Still Bite 😑

Down in RAD, Craig Bennett went wire-to-wire for the second consecutive week, shooting even par (950 rating) to hold the division by a single stroke. A 54-point over-performance against his rating keeps the target on his back, but Bennett's showing the kind of steady hand that prospers when the House is raising stakes. Over in RAG, the struggle was real enough to be poetic—a +21 tie for the win between Afton Bodell and Caleb Wetzel, proving that even when the course collects its pound of flesh, someone still walks away with the pot. And in RAE, Marta Villa ran solo, which is either the loneliest hand in Deadlands poker or the smartest play, depending on how you read the cursed code.

Clean Cards And Dirty Looks 😑

Romney's scorecard deserves its own paragraph, because sometimes the data is the drama. Bogey-free. One eagle on Hole 18 that served as an exclamation point on a round that already had plenty of punctuation. The 1083 rating—90 points above his player rating—is the kind of spike that makes statisticians suspicious and rivals nervous. Finch (1045, +48 above rating) and Waldo (1035, +41 above rating) posted numbers that would be headlines in any other week. Bennett's 950 (+54) in RAD rounds out a night where four players decided their ratings were merely suggestions. checks clipboard That's not a leaderboard; that's a heist, and nobody's talking about who got robbed.

Ace Pot Bloated With Ghost Money 😑

$3,114.00 sits in the Super Ace Pot, growing like a tumor on the Deadlands economy. Another week, zero aces. The sponsors want me to call this "suspense." I'm calling it a reminder that the House always collects its vig, even when nobody throws a perfect shot. That money's not going anywhere until someone earns it, and at this rate, it might fund the next season's ghost rock mining operation.

Bill Hasik's Heist At Hole Zero 😑

The 4:20 PM Hole #0 Skins event turned into a one-man show. Bill Hasik walked away with 14 skins and $35, which in Deadlands currency is enough to buy a round of whiskey and a new set of lies about your putting game. PJ Lenz and Caleb Wetzel contributed to the pot, which is a polite way of saying they bankrolled Hasik's afternoon. The skins playbook keeps delivering drama, even when the main event already had enough plot twists to fill a season.

Tag Shuffle Leaves Bodies 😑

The All-In reshuffle did what it always does—rearranged the deck with zero sentimentality. Philip Romney claimed the #1 Dust Doctor tag in Pool A, dragging it from the dirt of Week 2 into the rarified air of a 1083-rated round. The tag's lore speaks of a grim frontier physician who patches survivors back together after the culling leaves them bleeding—fitting, given Romney just performed emergency surgery on his own season. In Pool B, Marta Villa holds the Cursed Echo tag, which feels appropriate for someone running solo in RAE while the rest of the Deadlands watches. The tag hierarchy is a living document written in blood and round ratings, and this week, the Dust Doctor signed his name at the top.

The Ante Goes Up Again 😑

Week 3 is in the books, and the House isn't satisfied. The minimum bet rises again for Week 4, which means the margin for error shrinks and the cost of a bad hole grows. Romney's -14 set the new standard; everyone else gets to decide whether that's a target or a warning. The Deadlands doesn't care about your feelings, your rating, or your favorite putter—it cares about results. I'll be back in the booth next week, contractually obligated to narrate whatever chaos follows. tips digital hat Try not to get buried.