Dead man's hand dead man's hand card combination of today gets its notoriety from a legend that it was the five-card stud 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. Reportedly, Hickok's final hand included the aces and eights of both black suits. 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
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