Combination Dead man’s hand in poker

We invite you to learn an interesting story about the famous poker combination “Dead Man’s Hand”. In the native language for this story, the title is “Dead man’s hand”.

The story begins in the far wild west, on the second of August 1867 in South Dakota in the small town of Deadwood. Then the game was played according to the rules of Draw Poker with five cards. Imagine a saloon from a western, in one of these establishments, William Hickok was a frequent customer – a big poker fan and an excellent shooter, he wore a wide-brimmed hat, long hair and a luxurious mustache. This colorful guy also had his own sign – he never sat down at the poker table with his back to the entrance because he was afraid that he might be attacked from behind and he would not be ready to repel the attack.One day, having come to a gambling establishment, Mr. Hickok found that his place was taken and made a fatal decision for himself to sit down at the poker table with his back to the front door. The sign worked, after a few hours of playing, Jack McCall, now known to many, appeared in the doorway. He fired two shots into the back of our hero’s head with a .45 revolver. The most interesting thing is that the reason for this wild murder in the Wild West remained unknown, although, as you understand, it has already acquired all sorts of versions and conjectures. William Hickok’s life is over, and the story of the Dead Man’s Hand combo has begun. So, the following five cards were in the hands of the deceased – the ace of clubs, the ace of spades, the eight of clubs, the eight of spades and … there is no exact data on the kicker (fifth card), but most historians and biographers are inclined to believe that it was a jack of diamonds. And since then, after the unfinished game of William, or how else they pronounce this name – Bill, the combination of their eights and aces of black suit has its historical name “Dead man’s hand” or “Dead man’s hand” in literal translation into Russian – hand dead person.Even the cinema has not remained aloof from such a legend, and in many Western-style films, such a set of cards appears as a very bad sign or a sign of imminent death. A few years after the murder in a Deadwood saloon, another very similar attack was committed – at the time of the draw, another poker lover was killed with a firearm. So the second version of the “Dead Man’s Hand” appeared – a Full House of two tens and three jacks. But it did not become as popular as its predecessor. Note that in modern Texas Hold’em, according to the rules of which the player is given only two hole cards – the starting hand, the dead man’s hand is called the starting hand containing an ace and an eight, and sometimes they are strengthened to those very two pairs from Bill’s hand.But do not confuse the “Dead Hand” combination with the “Dead Hand” – in English, “Dead Hand” is a set of cards that does not leave the participant a chance to win, for example, in Texas Hold’em – this is a common four of a kind nines on the board with a deuce kicker and pocket deuces. After all, for sure someone at the table will have a kicker over a deuce. But you should not take the black eights and aces that fell out to you as bad cards. The name of the combination does not spoil their reputation in any way. Those who play Texas Hold’em know that two pair aces and eights is a very good option for a successful game, and in Omaha poker they go all-in without even waiting for the flop. Well, we found out what kind of story is hidden behind the intriguing name of the poker combination “Dead Man’s Hand”, we don’t think that if that same Bill had finished playing that game and sitting with his back to the wall would not have died at the hands of a crazy cowboy, then hardly anyone knew today of its existence.