Famous Poker Hands
The makeup of poker's dead man's hand has varied through the years. Currently, it is described as a two-pairpoker hand consisting of the black aces and black eights. The pair of aces and eights, along with an unknown hole card, were reportedly held by Old Westfolk hero, lawman, and gunfighterWild Bill Hickok when he was murdered while playing a game. No contemporaneous source, however, records the exact cards he held when killed. Author Frank Wilstach's 1926 book, Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince of Pistoleers, led to the popular modern held conception of the poker hand's contents.
The hands rank in almost the same order as in standard poker, with straights and flushes counting and the lowest hand wins. The difference from normal poker is that Aces are always high, so that A-2-3-4-5 is not a straight, but ranks between K-Q-J-10-8 and A-6-4-3-2. The winning poker hand of the famous poker player Chris Moneymaker at the 2003.
Use of the phrase[edit]
- The makeup of poker's dead man's hand has varied through the years. Currently, it is described as a two-pair poker hand consisting of the black aces and black eights. The pair of aces and eights, along with an unknown hole card, were reportedly held by Old West folk hero, lawman, and gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok when he was murdered while playing a game. No contemporaneous source, however.
- Hand nicknames have been a part of the beautiful game of poker as long as it has been played. Dead Man’s Hand. The Doyle Brunson Hand may have the best history of all and it’s become arguably the most famous hand in poker. The actual origins of the 10-2.
- Money won is twice as sweet as money earned. — Paul Newman in The Color of Money.
The expression 'dead man's hand' appears to have had some currency in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, although no one connected it to Hickok until the 1920s.[1][2] The earliest detailed reference to it was 1886, where it was described as a 'full house consisting of three jacks and a pair of tens.'[3] Jacks and sevens are called the dead man's hand in the 1903 Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences.[4] The 1907 edition of Hoyle's Games refers to the hand as Jacks and eights. [5]
Hickok's hand[edit]
What is currently considered the dead man's hand card combination received its notoriety from a legend that it was the five-card stud or five-card draw hand, held by James Butler Hickok (better known as 'Wild Bill' Hickok) when he was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall on August 2, 1876, in Nuttal & Mann's Saloon at Deadwood, Dakota Territory. Hickok's final hand purportedly included the aces and eights of both black suits.[6]
According to a book by Western historian Carl W. Breihan, the cards were retrieved from the floor by a man named Neil Christy, who then passed them on to his son. The son, in turn, told Mr. Breihan of the composition of the hand. 'Here is an exact identity of these cards as told to me by Christy's son: the ace of diamonds with a heel mark on it; the ace of clubs; the two black eights, clubs and spades, and the queen of hearts with a small drop of Hickok's blood on it,'[7] though nothing of the sort was reported at the time immediately following the shooting.
Hickok biographer Joseph Rosa wrote about the make-up of the hand: 'The accepted version is that the cards were the ace of spades, the ace of clubs, two black eights, and the queen of clubs as the 'kicker'.'[8] Rosa, however, said that no contemporaneous source can be found for this exact hand.[9] The solidification in gamers' parlance of the dead man's hand as two pairs, black aces and eights, did not come about until after the 1926 publication of Wilstach's book 50 years after Hickok's death.[1]
Legacy[edit]
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Division, the Los Angeles Police Department CRASH squad, and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System all use some variation of the aces and eights dead man's hand in their insignia.[10][11]
See also[edit]
Poker Hands Quiz
References[edit]
- ^ ab'Was Wild Bill Hickok Holding the Dead Mans Hand When He Was Slain; The Straight Dope article; retrieved March 2013.
- ^'The Dead Man's Hand Explained – What is the Dead Man's Hand in Poker?'. Casino Wizard.
- ^DiscussionArchived 2007-10-20 at the Wayback Machine; July 3, 1886, article in the Grand Forks Daily Herald; at Linguist List online; retrieved February 2013.
- ^Cora Linn Morrison Daniels, et al; editor; Volume 2.
- ^Edmond Hoyle and editors; Hoyle's Games; 1907; p. 405
- ^Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince of Pistoleers; Frank J. Wilstach; 1926.
- ^Wild Women of the West; Signet; 1982; p. 77.
- ^Wild Bill Hickok: Gunfighter; Joseph G. Rosa; p. 163.
- ^Wild Bill Hickok: The Man and his Myth; Joseph Rosa; 1996.
- ^'Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department'. Archived from the original on 16 March 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
- ^'Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner'. Archived from the original on 15 May 2012. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
External links[edit]
There are several hands that you can be dealt out when playing poker. Below we have listed the strongest to lowest poker hands you can be dealt when playing poker variants such as Texas Hold’em Poker.
Those hands listed at the top of this guide to the top 10 poker hands are the strongest and highest valued hands, and it is worth mentioning due to them being much rarer hands you may go quite a while before you actually see one being dealt out to you or even your fellow players!
The highest valued poker hand and one that you are going to want to be dealt out to you when your fellow players all have high valued hands is the Royal Flush hand.
The hand is simply made up of a set of five cards which are the Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten cards, and to be a Royal Flush they must all be in the same suit. Get this hand when playing poker and you should be laughing all the way to the bank!
A Straight Flush is another very strong hand and one you will be hoping t get dealt out to you are often as is possible when you are next playing poker online or in a land based environment.
This hand is five cards which are all consecutive and in addition to them being consecutive they must all share the same suit.
If the cards that share the same suit are not all consecutive this hand is then deemed to be a much lower valued Flush hand as described lower down this page.
You may have already guess what a poker hand known as a Four or a Kind hand contains as the name goes give this hand away!
If you haven’t worked it out then this type of hand is one in which you have four matching cards such as 4 x 5’s along with any fifth card.
This is a fairly strong hand and one that can be expected to take a lot of pots, unless the player holding this hand comes across a player who is holding one of the above two hands that is!
You should get the occasional Full House hand dealt out to you from time to time when playing poker, and this hand is one that is made up for a three of a kind hand and one pair (see below).
Famous Poker Hands Names
This hand could therefore be a hand with 3 x Kings in it and 2 x 3’s.
This is another of those hands that as soon as you form it then you are in a good and strong position and should, if all goes to plan, pick up the pot at the poker table you are playing at!
Any hand which contains five cards all of the same suit is classed as a Flush hand, those five cards must not be consecutive they must be non consecutive to be classed as a Flush hand, should the five cards all sharing the same suit be consecutive then this is a hand deemed to be a Straight Flush and is a very strong hand.
One of the mid ranged poker hands which you are always going to have one dealt out to you when playing poker for any amount of time is a Straight hand. This is a hand in which the five cards are all consecutive.
It should be noted that the cards need to be made up of any suit and as such a hand containing a 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, but not all of one suit is deemed to be a Straight hand.
If the cards are of the same suit this is a Straight Flush hand instead (see above).
You are going to form a Three of a Kind hand quite often when playing poker.
This had is of course fairly self explanatory and it will see you having been dealt out two un-matched cards and three alike cards.
An example of this type of hand is 3 x 4’s and a Queen and a 10 card, this hand is a mid range valued hand and whilst it can take many pots due to its strength as you can see above there are several much stronger hands available so always keep that in mind when you get dealt out this type of poker hand!
As soon as you have two sets of matching cards in your hand along with any third unmatched cards then your hand is classed as a Two Pair hand.
So if for example you have 2 x 8’s and 2 x5’s along with any other card then you have Two Pairs, and that hand may just be worth you taking your chances on.
Any hand you get dealt out which had three unalike cards in it but two cards that are the same, such as 2 x 7’s is called as a One Pair hand.
This hand, depending on the value of the two matching cards can be a risky proposition if you intend playing on which it as there are many more quite easy to achieve hands of a much higher value, namely all of those listed above!
A High Card hand is one you are not really going to want to play on with as soon as you have been dealt it out.
This is a hand of five cards that do not share all on suit and in that hand each card is non consecutive and none matching and the highest valued hand is deemed to be the value of your High Card hand. So for example a Ten, Eight, Six, Four and Two is a ten valued High Card hand.