Dead man's hand game, with the Jack of diamonds as the fifth card. The Coen Brothers' film "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" features the hand in its first segment, where the character Buster Scruggs takes someone's place at a poker table who was dealt this hand before leaving, and subsequently refuses to play it. The hand is mentioned in the title track from Motörhead's "Ace of Spades". Dead man's hand The dead man's hand is a nickname for a particular poker hand, popularly a two-pair of black aces and black eights, although definitions of the hand have varied through the years. Such a
Lowball (poker) hands with pairs tie, kickers are used just as in high poker (but reversed): 3-3-6-4-2 defeats 3-3-6-5-A. This is called ace-to-five low because the lowest (and therefore best) possible hand is 5-4-3-2-A, called a "wheel". The next best possible hand is 6-4-3-2-A, followed by 6-5-3-2-A, 6-5-4-2-A, 6-5-4-3-A, 6-5-4-3-2, 7-4-3-2-A, 7-5-3-2-A, etc. When speaking, low hands are referred to by their highest-ranking card or cards. Any nine-high hand can be called "a nine", and is defeated by any "eight". Two cards are frequently used: the hand 8-6-5-4-2 can be called "an eight-six" and will defeat "an eight-seven" such as 8-7-5-4-A. Another