Dead man's hand 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 hand is said to have been held by Old West folk hero, lawman, and gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok when he was murdered. No contemporaneous source records this hand's exact cards, but Frank Wilstach's 1926 book "Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince of Pistoleers" led to the popular modern conception of the "dead man's hand" as containing pairs of black aces and black eights. In Hickok's
Poker hand poker"). So while the "majority" of poker game variations are played "high hand", where the best high "straight, flush etc." wins, there are poker variations where the "worst hand" wins, such as "low ball, acey-ducey, high-lo split etc. game variations". To summarize, there can be variations that are "high poker", "low poker", and "high low split". In the case of "high low split" the pot is divided among the best high hand and low hand. Poker has many variations, all following a similar pattern of play and generally using the same hand ranking hierarchy. There are four main families