What exactly is a “Dead Man’s Hand” in the context of Poker? Named for the hand Wild Bill Hickock was holding when he was shot and killed in 1876, it is Aces and Eights in every reference I could find, and almost always the black ones (Ace of Spades, Ace of Clubs, Eight of Spades, Eight of Clubs). What was the fifth card? Most references that say at all (few do) say it was the Nine of Diamonds or the Jack of Diamonds (I found about equal numbers of references saying these two things).
Or was it a 5 card hand after all? I don’t know much about the history of Poker, but figured 5 Card Draw would have been the dominant game, maybe the only one, at that time. But the reference that was the most detailed said that the game they played was 7 Card Stud, and that the hand was black Aces over Eights with a 9 of Diamonds. I know, that’s 5 cards. Other references quote Bill saying “You got me, I’m broke”, so maybe this was 7 Card Stud and he was folding a couple of deals from the showdown. But then still other references say he was shot and fell to the floor, revealing the so-called “Dead Man’s Hand”, implying he had not just folded but rather was still holding the cards.
Who knows? And what references you got?
There was another thread about this subject a while back. Try searching for it. I don’t really remember what the consensus was, but the 9 of Diamonds sounds familiar.
Cecil had a column on it:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_307.html
He claims it was the deuce of spades. I recall that there was some followup discussion disputing it, possibly at the tail end of another column, but I can’t find it. I recall the conclusion as “nobody really knows”.
The general consensus seems to be that it was the nine of diamonds, although there are not wanting those who claim that it was a red jack (either of hearts or of diamonds).
Interestingly enough, the nine of diamonds is often called “the curse of Scotland”. Some say this is because it was the card on which the Duke of Cumberland wrote his infamous order to kill the Scots wounded after Culloden, but the term was in use at least thirty years before Culloden, so this seems a coincidence.
I too was finding roughly two opinions as to the specific cards held. I ended up calling the Deadwood, SD newspaper, they said they are very tired of answering this question, but as a favor to a fellow newspaper man, they said according to old issues in their morgue, hand was; Ace of spades, ace of clubs, eight of clubs, eight of spades, kicker was the nine of diamonds. He said, however, that the mention of the card hand didn’t come until several issues after the initial story on the shooting and death.
This is disagreed with by Joseph G. Rosa, something of a Hickock expert, author of “The Gunfighter, Man or Myth” and “Are These the Hickcock Guns?”, who said the duce of spades was the fifth card.
The fellow I talked to at the paper said that while no mention was made of it in the paper, it is believed that the game being played was five-card draw because it was a much more popular game than seven-card stud at the time in Deadwood. Many say that seven stud was a “dandy’s game” at the time and “real” cowboys didn’t like playing it. Granted Hickcock was accused at times of being something of a dandy, but still it doesn’t fit in with the type of saloon at which it was played.
It is not inconsistent that Hickock lay down his cards in five draw (face down)and utter his last words if betting (and raises) was continuing and he had deduced that someone had filled a hand. It is also quite possible that he was tapped financially. As I remember when he sat down to play, he had told his fellow players that he only had a few minutes and had to get back to his young wife and could only play a couple of hands or until he lost a few dollars. He could have reached that dollar limit and decided to fold.
The newspaper account said Hickock fell forward onto the table and then slipped slowly to the floor. He was then lifted onto the table where they attempted to deal with his wound.
A couple different sources credit much of the myth of Hickock’s death (and for that matter, his life) to Col. George Ward Nichols who wrote for Harpers’ Weekly and who knew Hickock somewhat. He wrote some wonderful stories about William Butler and sort of added his own details where needed, and much like the Parson Weams stories about George Washington, into popular culture.
TV
[nitpick]I’d be willing to bet that searching for info on Mr. Hickok would go better if you spell his name correctly.[/nitpick]
Just to muddy the waters even more, I’d always heard it as full house, aces over eights, with no suits mentioned.
If you search for threads under Hickok and Hickock you will find more threads under Hickock. And there are many.
TV–I don’t want to dispute what your colleague told you arbitrarily, but my guess is that there is no contemporary account of the hand. You said he told you
See if you can get one more favor from him: ask him what the exact date/issue/newspaper that he was quoting. My guess is, you talked to some flunky functionary who was repeating what he has heard all his life. If the actual description of the hand appeared within the same year of the shooting, in that newspaper, then a whole lot of historians have been arguing over a settled issue for years.
Again, call the guy back and ask for the exact cite. I got $50. cash that says he can’t produce it!
As an aside, Rosa(his biographer) says on page 298, that “the actual cards are disputed.”