Some great poker trivia,
poker stories, poker myths and poker
quotes.
Wild
Bill and the Dead Man's Hand
Wild Bill and the Dead Man's Hand
On August 2, 1876, in Deadwood, South Dakota,
old west legend Wild Bill Hickok was shot to death
by Jack McCall during a poker game because McCall
believed he was being cheated. The poker hand Wild
Bill was holding at that moment was two pair,
black aces and black 8s. Since that fateful day,
that poker hand has been known as the Dead Man's
Hand.
Over
the years many tales of Western lore have become
legend. And to the poker world, none more so
than the day Wild Bill Hickok met his untimely
demise at the Nuttal and Mann's Saloon in Deadwood
Gulch, Dakota Territory, on 2 August,
1876.
As in many areas of the West, gold
had been discovered in the region in 1874, leading
to the establishment of the town. Tradition
goes that when Hickok first laid eyes on the
place, he had a premonition that he would not
leave town alive.
James Butler Hickok was
born in Troy Grove, Illinois, on 27 May, 1837, and
had become famous for his deadly gun-slinging, as
well as his gambling skill. Once a U.S.
Marshall, he was fired for shooting more than just
the bad guys.
On that fateful day in 1876,
Wild Bill had joined a poker game in the saloon,
and for the first time had sat with his back to
the door. In strode Jack "Crooked Nose"
McCall who promptly put a bullett into the back of
Hickok's head at 4:10pm.
Legend holds that
the hand Hickok held as he fell to the floor was a
pair of Aces (Spades and Clubs), and a pair of
Eights (Spades and Clubs) -- Aces and Eights.
Hence, Aces and Eights have forever come to
be known as the "Dead Man's
Hand."
Interestingly, noone has ever agreed
on the fifth card Wild Bill held. Over the
years, the following kickers have been suggested
for Hickok's draw poker hand:
2 of
Spades 5 of Diamonds 9 of Diamonds J of
Diamonds Q of Clubs, and K of
Spades
And, as with many Wild West legends,
noone knows for certain why McCall chose his
actions that day. Ultimately, he was tried,
found guilty, and hanged the next year in Yankton,
Dakota Territory. But all agree that there
is no more famous hand in all of poker - the
Dead Man's Hand.
In poker, the dead man's hand is
a two-pair
hand, namely
"aces and
eights." The hand gets its name due to the legend
of it having been the five-card-draw hand held by Wild Bill
Hickok at the time
of his murder (August 2, 1876). It is accepted that the hand included
the aces and eights of both of the black
suits
although his biographer, Rosa, says no
contemporary citation for his hand has ever been
found. The term, before the murder of Hickok,
referred to a variety of hands. The earliest found
reference to a "dead man's hand" is 1886, where it
was described as "three jacks and a pair of
tens."[1]
There are various
claims as to the identity of Hickok's fifth card,
and there is also some reason to believe that he
had discarded one card, the draw was interrupted by the
shooting, and he never got the fifth card he was
due.