The Dead Man’s Hand

It was late one evenin’ during a poker game.
A man lost all his money; he said Willie was to blame.
He shot poor Willie through the head, which was a tragic fate.
When Willie’s cards fell on the floor, they were aces backed with eights.
Bob Dylan, “Rambling Gambling Willie”

There are a number of poker hands that are famous for one reason or another, but perhaps the most sinister is the Dead Man’s Hand. Legend holds that on August 2, 1876, James Butler Hickok (”Wild Bill Hickok”) was shot to death during a poker game in Deadwood, South Dakota, and that the hand he held was two pair, black aces and black eights, although his biographer, Rosa, says no contemporary cite for his hand has ever been found. The term “dead man’s hand” certainly predates the Hickok connection which only occurred in the mid-1920’s. Prior to this, the term 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.”

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.

The Stardust in Las Vegas had a 5 of diamonds on display as the 5th card; in the HBO television series Deadwood, a 9 of diamonds is used; the modern town of Deadwood, South Dakota also uses the 9 of diamonds in displays; and Ripley’s Believe it or Not shows a queen of clubs.

The last and the most recent conjecture as to the final card in the Dead Man’s Hand is the King of Spades. This was presented as an option in the 1936 movie “The Plainsman” which starred Gary Cooper as Wild Bill Hickok.

While there may be a lot of options as to what was the final card in Wild Bill’s hand there’s no confusion about what the other four were - nor that if Wild Bill hadn’t been sitting with his back exposed that he may have survived the attack and lived to play many more poker games

Now this isn’t to say that you shouldn’t trust your friends or the casino where you’re playing; that having a pair of black eights and aces should give you pause for worry but you might just want to consider keeping a close eye on who’s behind you.

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