Poker Hand of 4 cards - Dead Man's Hand
You have probably heard the term ‘Dead Man’s Hand’ if you played poker couple of times in your life. But do you know where it came from?
The term ‘Dead Man’s Hand’ is actually based on a real story.
Massie was a Missouri River steamboat pilot who went in search of riches when gold was discovered in the Black Hills. He didn’t find metal in a mine, but in Nuttal & Mann’s Saloon in Deadwood on August 2, 1876.
Massie preferred poker to prospecting, and he was pretty good at it too. He had been playing at Nuttal & Mann’s Saloon most of the day, in a spirited game with saloon owner Carl Mann, Charlie Rich and a fourth guy who lost his stake and left. When Hickok came into the saloon, he was offered the vacant seat at the table.
Hickok hesitated. He never sat with his back to the room, so he asked Rich if he would change seats with him. But Rich liked his seat against the wall just fine. Hickok sat down, directly across from Massie.
As they played, Massie won big. Hickok finally had a hand he thought was a winner—reportedly a pair of aces and a pair of eights—but he never got a chance to play it. Jack McCall walked into the bar and shot Hickok through the head.
The ball of lead exited Hickok’s right cheek and lodged in Massie’s left wrist. Massie, at first, thought Hickok had shot him in anger. He apparently stared at Hickok in disbelief, before he realized what had actually happened.
Hickok died before having the chance to see the 5th card. The number and suit of that card are still controversial.
Massie was subpoenaed to testify at McCall’s trial, but he refused. “I won’t go down there to testify! Think of the disgrace it would be for my daughters to have it in all the papers that I’d been in a poker game where a man was murdered,” he said (apparently not yet understanding the historical significance of the murder). He admitted he also feared for his job. In the end, a bench warrant was issued, and Massie was forced to appear—a living evidence exhibit, as he showed off the murdering bullet in his wrist.
Massie went back to steamboats and eventually caught on to the significance of his wrist jewelry. Whenever Massie docked in Bismarck, North Dakota, he “enjoyed swaggering around the town, reminding his friends that the ‘bullet that killed Wild Bill has come to town,’” reported Dakota Datebook, a radio program aired by Prairie Public Broadcasting.
That bullet went to Massie’s grave with him, when he died in 1910 and was buried in a St. Louis cemetery.
Since then, having a poker hand of those 4 cards is called ‘Dead Man’s Hand.’
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