Bill Hickok Poker Hand
Hand in poker game which came out to be from an old west folk hero lawman and gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok who was murdered.
This week we conclude our survey of 'saloon poker' with some consideration of the most famous hand ever played in a saloon, the last one ever played by James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok — a.k.a. In his hand he held Aces over Eights, and this is now known to poker players around the world as the Dead Man's Hand. Now, despite the fact that DMH Poker knows Bill Hickok's last hand was Aces and Eights, no one is really sure about what that fifth card might have been.
In today’s poker world the dead man’s hand is anickname for a particular poker hand, popularly a two-pair ofblack aces and black eights, although definitions of the hand have variedthrough the years. No contemporaneous source records this hand’s exact cards,but Frank Wilstach’s 1926 book Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince ofPistoleers led to the popular modern conception of the “dead man’shand” as containing pairs of black aces and black eights. In Hickok’s casethese would have been combined with an unknown hole card.
The history of the dead man’s hand
Over the years Dead Man’s Hand definitions have actuallychanged over the years, though. The earliest reference is thought to be in1886, where it was described as a full house of three jacks and a pair of tens.Then in 1903, the Encyclopedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the OccultSciences of the World referred to it as a very unlucky hand of jacks andsevens. A little later in 1907, 17th century British author Edmond Hoyle,who wrote rule books for games to settle disputes, referenced it as jacks andeights.
The present the black aces and black eights definition onlycame around in the 1920s. That’s when it was solidified in poker vernacular, inlarge part because of a biography of Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince of Pistoleers.
Thestory goes that this hand actually comes from the death of lawman andgambler James Butler “WildBill” Hickok in 1876. He was killed by local drunkard, Jack “CrookedNose” McCall, in Deadwood, South Dakota. Apparently, after joining a pokertable with Hickok, he ended up losing every single dime. Hickock gave him somemoney to get some food and advised him not to play again until he could affordto cover his losses. McCall was insulted.
The next day, McCall entered the saloon to see Hickokplaying poker again and was furious. Hickok usually always sat with his back toa wall because he was paranoid about being killed, but on this fateful day hedidn’t because another player wouldn’t change seats with him.
McCall came up behind Hickok and allegedly shouted: “Damnyou! Take that!” and shot him in the back of the head with his Colt .45revolver. He claimed he was avenging his brother’s death.
Hickok died instantly, and McCall was executed by the stateseven months later. Most accounts say that Hickok’s hand at the time wascomprised of black aces and eights, although the Dead Man’s Hand 5th cardisn’t specified.
The worth of a Dead Man’s Hand in poker
While the Dead Man’s Hand might have a lot of psychologicaland historical value, it isn’t actually a very high valued hand and isconsidered unlucky. The two-pair, while not a terrible hand in poker, certainlyisn’t as worthwhile as a royal flush, straight or full house. While it’s alwaysintriguing to be dealt a Dead Man’s Hand, it doesn’t change your chances ofwinning or losing. Wikipedia states that it’s used as the insignia forthe Las Vegas Metro Police Department’s Homicide Division, theLA Police Department CRASH squad and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System.
Wild Bill Hickok Death Poker Hand
Now a sign of bad luck and death
In Ken Kesey’s book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, McMurphy is described as having a tattoo of, “a poker hand fanned out across his muscle- aces and eights.” This foreshadows his eventual fate at the end of the novel.
Many poker fans often get the reference, presuming animminent death or at least an unwanted surprise in the future. In writtenfiction, it’s used in a variety of novels. For example, James Pattersonreferences it in Along Came a Spider, with a character telling the storyof how her father won his gun with a hand of aces and eights, and even uses theDead Man’s Hand as her computer password.
Other news sources say that in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey describes McMurphy as having a Dead Man’s Hand tattooed on his shoulder, which has had various interpretations. Many fans of the book and film have taken inspiration for their tattoos from this.
John Ford used to use it as a foreshadowing of death in hisfilms. In Stagecoach, the hand is held by Luke Plummer before he is shotby the Ringo Kid, played by John Wayne. Then in The Man Who Shot LibertyValance, the titular character draws the Dead Man’s Hand just before his death.
As for TV show many have used this as titles of episodeswith imminent death or to show opportunities for characters to cheat death insome way. For example, in Criminal Minds, Hotch plays cards with a deathrow inmate in the hopes of getting the location of another victim. Hotch claimsto have a Dead Man’s Hand, which is what the inmate believes he should have.Hotch then reveals another ace, turning his Dead Man’s Hand into a full houseand beating his opponent.
Even video games make use of this legendary hand. There’s an expansion for Fallout: New Vegas where players can collect cards making up the Dead Man’s Hand to get an achievement. In the card game Doomtown, the Dead Man’s Hand is the highest possible hand, using a jack of diamonds as the kicker. It features in Hearthstone, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Wing Commander IVand Need for Speed: Carbon as well. Many music albums hit in market giving the reference the Dead Man’s Hand too. (From various news sources)
Which cards was “Wild Bill” Hickok holding when he was murdered?
-Michael Weirens of Sartell, Minnesota
Legend says James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok held the Dead Man’s Hand, or aces and eights, when Jack McCall shot him in the No. 10 Saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, in 1876. Here’s how Hickok biographer, the late Joseph Rosa, explained it:
“Ellis T, Peirce, a self-styled barber-surgeon and blowhard…claimed in his correspondence with Frank J. Wilstach in the 1920s that the cards Hickok held were the Ace of Spades, the Ace of Clubs, two black eights, Clubs and Spades, and the Jack of Diamonds, which became celebrated out West as the Dead Man’s Hand. Some, however, have claimed that the ‘kicker’ was not the Jack, but the Queen of Diamonds, but no proof has been produced.
“Some years ago, I was told by a poker expert that Hickok could have had a full house (that is three of a kind plus a pair) or, mathematically, he could have drawn a low hand. However, the only [contemporaneous] reference to cards Hickok may have held that I have found appeared in Harry (Sam) Young’s book Hard Knocks. Young was the bartender at the No. 10, and he claimed that Capt. [Bill] Massie, the former Missouri Riverboat pilot, had ‘…beat a king full for Bill with four sevens, breaking Bill on the hand.’ Young then said that he had brought Hickok $50 worth of checks. As Young returned to the bar, McCall shot Hickok. Young’s more matter-of-fact reference makes more sense than Peirce’s claim. Others will doubtless disagree, but it is arguments that make horses race!”
Wild Bill Hickok Poker Hand
I believe, with so much chaos—gunfire, blood, smoke, shock—that nobody bothered to check his hand.
Wild Bill Hickok Poker Hand
Marshall Trimble is Arizona’s official historian and vice president of the Wild West History Association. . His latest book is Arizona’s Outlaws and Lawmen; History Press, 2015. If you have a question, write: Ask the Marshall, P.O. Box 8008, Cave Creek, AZ 85327 or e-mail him at marshall.trimble@scottsdalecc.edu
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