Yes, fate is in the cards! You can even make the difference between life and death and terrify poker players as Dead Man’s Hand. Superstition is not alien to anyone who confides in the fickle goddess of fortune at the gaming table. In poker in particular, certain combinations of cards in a player’s hand seem to mean far more than just winning or losing. Four of clubs – get rid of it quickly! Two aces and a pair of eights – danger of death! Here we explain where such beliefs come from. We also explain how you can make your luck in the best NZ casinos, for example, completely unimpressed!
Wild West, Wild Bill!
Wild was the American West, and James Butler Hickok pretty much fitted in there. Wild Bill Hickok became a legend in the founding myth of the conquest of the North American continent. And as a cautionary tale to all who fate deals the Dead Man’s Hand.
In the mid-18th century, Wilde Bill worked as a gunslinger, tracker, bear slayer, wagon driver, and controversial law enforcement officer on the American Fronier of the time, which knew one law predominately: that of the fittest. A relentless bearer of the Tin Star, he was happy to take it into his own hands and earn respect as a deadly marksman. The newspapers of the time, which can safely be called revolver papers, attributed additional notches to his pistol grip and put the number of his perforated victims at more than 100. In fact, it must have been about half a dozen. Wild Bill Hickok met his death at the card table in the fateful Dead Man’s Hand game.
Revenge at the Poker Table!
In 1876, at the age of 39, the Wilde Bill was already past its prime. He had earned well, even at the card table. But his failing health scratched his reputation as an invincible marksman. He was newly married but soon left his 50-year-old circus wife in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He joined a wagon trek to the gold fields of North Dakota. There he is said to have made the acquaintance of another legend of the Wild West, Martha Jane Canary, known as Calamity Jane. However, it may be that she only made up the days together when, as she got older, she tried to silver her memoirs and put as many famous names as possible in it.
Hickok was making money at the poker table in the infamous Deadwood. The city on the fringes of the white man’s civilization was considered lawless; his fate overtook him in their Nuttal & Man’s Saloon. There he took a lot of money from the buffalo hunter Jack McCall on August 1, 1876 and patronizingly gave him a little back so that the loser could afford breakfast. McCall came back the next day, but not for breakfast. Wild Bill was already in the saloon but hadn’t been able to sit down at the poker table with his back to the wall as usual. That was his undoing. McCall shot him in the back of the head!
The Last Cards of the Legend
Bill is said to have still been clutching his cards when he fell off the chair. According to legend, it was the black aces and black eights – Dead Man’s Hand. The supposed curse of this card combination only became popular in the 1920s. Wild Bill’s contemporaries paid more attention to the fate of his killer. McCall escaped the already dubious Deadwood case law on the justification that he did not want to avenge his game loss but the death of his brother Lew McCall at Wild Bill’s hands. Given Hickok’s reputation as a gunslinger, that seemed convincing to the jury. They let him go. However, McCall then made the mistake of publicly boasting about having hunted down Wild Bill – which led to a new investigation. They ended for him in 1877 on the gallows.
The fear of a “Dead Man’s Hand” existed in the Wild West before the murder of Wild Bill Hickok. This competing legend from the 1840’s involves a full house card combination of three jacks and a pair of tens. She is said to have promised the rescue of an unlucky judge who was trying to avert bankruptcy at the poker table. However, he was horrified to discover that his opponent also had a full house in his hand – two tens and three queens. The judge was then said to have been hit. However, Wild Bill’s jacks and eights eventually became the “official” Dead Man’s Hand after his 1926 biography was published.
Dead Man’s Hand Game in Literature & Cinema
Wild Bill’s last cards became a long-lived myth. It can be found in songs by Bob Dylan, Bob Seger, The Church and Motörhead, in comics and books. George RR Martin, creator of the novels for “Game of Thrones” named a volume of his “Wild Cards” series so. Of course, the alleged curse found its way into western films, the television series “X-files” and, among others, the computer games “Fallout 4”, “Hearthstone”, “The Walking Dead” and “A New Frontier”. At the card table, the term dead man’s hand sticks in versions of blackjack and poker. Anyone who can shake off superstitions will appreciate that dead man’s hand poker can be a winner – it’s not really a bad hand to start with – it just depends on what happens next.
