Dead man's hand

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This article is about the poker hand. For the video game, see Dead Man's Hand (video game).

In poker, the dead man's hand is a two-pair hand, namely "aces and eights." The origin of the name, legend has it, is the five-card-draw hand held by Wild Bill Hickok at the time of his murder, which is accepted to have included the aces and eights of both of the black suits (sometimes considered "bullets"), 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 occured 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 due to him.

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.

For other poker hands that have found a place in lore, see List of slang names for poker hands.

[edit] The hand in popular culture

This ominous hand is sometimes used as a portent of death in songs, books and in movies that include

• Stagecoach (where a doomed character held the ace of diamonds in place of one black ace, and the queen of hearts as fifth card)
• The Plainsman (where Gary Cooper as Hickok held the king of spades as the fifth card)
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (in Ken Kesey's novel McMurphy has a dead man's hands tattoo)
• The collectible card game Doomtown defines a Dead Man's Hand as having the Jack of Diamonds as the fifth card. In this game, it is considered to outrank any other poker hand, unless an opponent plays the card "That's Two Pair!" to reduce its rank.
• The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
• Dick Tracy
• Along Came a Spider
• Quantum Leap Season One, episode four, How the Tess was Won features a fixed hand of poker with the Dead Man's Hand being dealt out.
• A Party Poker ad shows a man playing poker against an opponent holding a dead man's hand with a Five of Diamonds as the fifth card. The camera then pans out to show that the setting is a morgue and the player holding the dead man's hand is a corpse
• Wing Commander IV featured a game of cards between Maniac and Vagabound. Maniac wins the hand with four queens, against Vagabound's hand, described as "full house, aces and eights". Shortly after, Vagabound is killed on an intelligence-gathering mission.
• Dead Man's Hand is the name of a first-person shooter for the Xbox and PC set in the American Old West, which features train trips and shoot-outs on horseback.

Dead Man's Hand Popular Rockabilly band which originated in Jacksonville, FL and later relocated to Los Angeles known for their blues-rich sound and driving rhythm. Their 1999 full length album, Days You Loved Me, won much acclaim amongst critics and roots music enthusiasts alike.

Bob Dylan's 1962 song "Rambling Gambling Willie" shows the tradition in these lines:

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.

And, in the next verse:

So all you rovin' gamblers, wherever you might be,

The moral of this story is very plain to see.

Make your money while you can, before you have to stop,

For when you pull that dead man's hand, your gamblin' days are up.

Bob Seger's 1980 song "Fire Lake" make reference to the legend in these lines:

Who wants to play those eights and aces

Who wants a raise

Who needs a stake

Who wants to take that long shot gamble

And head out to fire lake

Motörhead mentions the hand in their 1980 song Ace of Spades in the final verse:

Pushing up the ante, I know you've got to see me,

Read 'em and weep, the Dead Man's Hand again,

I see it in your eyes, take one look and die,

The only thing you see, you know it's gonna be,

The Ace Of Spades

Uncle Kracker has based an entire song on the hand, entitled Aces and Eights, where in the refrain, he repeats the lines:

Aces and eights, aces and eights, aces and eights

That's a dead man's hand

Bill Caddick has also based an entire song on the hand, entitled Eights and Aces, where he includes the lines:

In the dark the gambler fumbles

Eights and Aces in his hands

The Crown mentions the hand in their song "Dead Man's Song" (Deathrace King - 2000):

The cards are given, now place your bets with your soul at stake

But as a sinner you live to win, throwing the dice...

You get triple six and flash a gain of gold!

He's never lost before, but now he's been given the dead man's hand

In Nelson DeMille's novel The Charm School, the school in question is a Soviet prison camp for American military personnel missing in action forced to serve as role models for future spies, who live with them in a complete simulation of American everyday culture. The prisoners have secretly agreed among themselves on false customs they will teach in order to sabotage their students' future missions, and DeMille reveals this fact to the reader by describing a poker game where a two-pair hand has just been declared, and a prisoner misleads a student by inappropriately describing it as the dead man's hand.

In the 1990's television series entitled Quantum Leap when Sam is trying to win Tess and a ranch for the unfortunate veterinarian he has jumped into for the episode "How the Tess Was Won" Tess is dealt the dead man's hand dealt by Wayne. Wayne intends to ensure that the veterinarian inhabited by Sam can't win Tess in their week long cowboy contest by cheating for her and otherwise sabotaging the contest despite her request to win fairly or lose. Wayne, in the hopes that someday Tess will return his love, is desperate that Sam lose the contest and thus not marry her.