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Gammerstang commented on the word dead-man's hand
(noun) - Throughout the West, the combination of two aces and two eights is known as the dead-man's hand. This superstition was handed down from the time that Jack McCall killed Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood, South Dakota, while he sat in a poker game holding this hand. All five cards Hickok held were black--either clubs or spades. --Ramon Adams' Western Words: A Dictionary of the Range, Cow Camp, and Trail, 1946
January 26, 2018