The dead man's hand, aces and eights.

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").

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.

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, and
Dick Tracy
Along Came a Spider
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
Dead Man's Hand is the name of a first-person shooter for the XBox set in the 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

Mot