Dead man's hand in popular culture Dead man's hand in popular culture The dead man's hand, a legendary "cursed" poker hand usually depicted as consisting of the ace of spades, ace of clubs, eight of spades and eight of clubs with an undefined fifth card, has appeared or been referenced in numerous works of popular culture. In the novel "Along Came a Spider" by James Patterson, Jezzie Flannigan tells the story of how her father won his gun with a hand of aces and eights – she also uses "Aces&Eights" as her computer password. "Dead Man's Hand" is the name of the seventh book of the
Bluff (poker) Bluff (poker) In the card game of poker, a bluff is a bet or raise made with a hand which is not thought to be the best hand. "To bluff" is to make such a bet. The objective of a bluff is to induce a fold by at least one opponent who holds a better hand. The size and frequency of a bluff determines its profitability to the "bluffer". By extension, the phrase "calling somebody's bluff" is often used outside the context of poker to describe cases where one person "demand[s] that someone prove a claim" or prove that he