dead man's hand

English

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dead man's hand

The aces and eights sense is from a legend that Wild Bill Hickok was holding such cards at the time he was killed in 1876.

(poker) A pair of aces and a pair of eights (especially, the black aces and eights), in a player's hand.
- 1907, Davida French with Esther Stevens and Laura Wells, “The Rulers of the Realm”, in Not Included in a Sheepskin: Stanford Stories, Stanford: The Stanford Book Store, page 172:
  "A dead man's hand or queens on the roof at least," suggested Southack.
  "They say two aces and two eights can never be beat."
(poker) An ace and an eight as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em
(poker, obsolete) Other various hands, among them a full house of three jacks and two tens.
- 1903, Cora Linn Morrison Daniels, Charles McClellan Stevens, editors, Encyclopædia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, volume 3, J. H. Yewdale, page 1478:
  When playing poker, should you hold a jack full on red sevens, it means death, and is called "a dead man's hand".

Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. →ISBN