Dead man's hand

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Image:Dead man's hand.jpg In poker, the dead man's hand is a two-pair hand, namely "aces and eights." The origin of the name 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").

(In five-card games, this category of hands can be succinctly defined as two aces, two eights, and one card of any remaining rank, regardless of suit. In seven-card games, a strict specification of aces and eights is more complicated: in permitting the existence of two pairs, a five-card hand as described also rules out any higher value. Among seven-card hands, as a contrasting example, any with two aces, two eights, and three cards with one other rank in common always provides both two pair and a full house, so a competent player would always set aside the eights and declare the full house; most players would probably thus not consider it a dead man's hand, any more than they would so consider a full house with aces and eights.)

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 Deadwood (TV series) a 9 of diamonds is used, 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.

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The hand in popular culture

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

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

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.

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