Author's Note: Considered one of the most unlucky and sinister of poker hands, the “Dead Man's Hand”, is so named because it was the hand held by James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok when he met his untimely demise.
Hickok was playing poker when shot in the back of the head. It is said he slid to the floor, still holding his cards. Hickok would have had five cards in his hand: two black aces, two black eights, and a kicker card.
Some say that all five cards were black, others that the fifth card was a ten or a queen. But all agree that Hickok was holding a pair of aces and a pair of eights when he was shot, and that combination has become known as the "dead man's hand". There are superstitious poker players to this day who will not play a hand with a pair of aces and a pair of eights.