It’s been a good poker game so far and you’re feeling fine. You scoop up the cards and look at them briefly, not wanting to give away anything to the other players. Suddenly in the back of your mind you feel a twitch, an uneasiness. You glance at the cards again and break out into a sweat. Sure, it’s only a legend but where do legends come from? And with you holding the Dead Man’s Hand you can only hope that it’s all smoke and mirrors. But what exactly is The Dead Man’s Hand and where did this poker myth come from?
In the late 1800’s an expedition found gold in South Dakota’s Black Hills, creating a rush to the area by anyone who could beg, borrow or steal their way there. The Gold Rush was on and it started a stampede not only of optimistic miners looking for their fortune but merchants to ply their wares – human and otherwise. Small towns popped up out of nowhere to feed the hungry and fleece the innocent. One such town had the ominious name of Deadwood.
Deadwood was much like any other Gold Rush town with its share of criminals and outlaws, but its reputation caught the attention of one James Butler Hickok – Wild Bill Hickok. Here was a lawless community needing his help and he was willing to give it as he had in other frontier communities. But when Wild Bill rode into Deadwood he had no idea that a handful of cards might prove his downfall.
On August 2, 1876 a man strode into the saloon where Wild Bill sat playing cards. For one of the first times in his life Hickok broke one of his own rules and didn’t sit with his back to the wall – something every gunslinger and poker player tried to do for the sake of survival. This time it would cost him.
Jack McCall walked up behind Wild Bill and shot him in the back of the head at 3:10 in the afternoon. Afterwards he confessed that he had no personal problem with Hickok but had been paid to shoot and kill him.
Wild Bill Hickok had been in the middle of a poker game when Jack McCall shot him dead. The cards in his hand fell onto the table and were immediately recognized from that time forward as the Dead Man’s Hand; a lasting memorial of sorts to this legendary poker player and gunslinger.
But the composition of this hand is somewhat blurred with time. We know for certain that four of the five cards were two black aces and two black eights (spades and clubs) but the identity of the fifth card has been lost over the years. Speculation has created a variety of choices for the poker historian to consider.
First, the Fifth of Diamonds. Advertised as the original card from Wild Bill’s hand, this card is on display currently in the present-day Deadwood, attracting both poker buffs and those interested in the Gold Rush days and Wild Bill Hickok. Supposedly this card had a previous exhibition at the Stardust casino in Las Vegas as well.
Second, the Nine of Diamonds. Many news stories reported this to be the fifth card when detailing the death of Wild Bill to their readers, giving it a bit more authenticity. While the original card is lost to history you can see it used in many recreations, including the ones in Deadwood, South Dakota.
The third can be found at Ripley’s Believe it or Not museums around the world on display – the 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. And now that you know the history you may just want to study your fellow players a bit closer. After all, rumor has it that Wild Bill would have won that final poker game with that hand. Can you do any better?
