Dead Man's Hand-poker

[Douglas G. Wilson]

"Atchison Daily Globe" [Atchison KS], 13 Apr. 1888: p. 1, col. 6:

<<"I held 'aces and eights,' a dead man's hand," was a note left by a
Leavenworth suicide the other day.>>

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"Atlanta Constitution", 28 July 1895: p. 23 (?), col. 3 [attrib. "New York
Times"]:

<<JACKS UP ON EIGHTS>> [title]

<<.... "Finally Cherokee said:'I ain't aimin' to invest Wolfville in no
superstitious fears, but I jest chronicles as a current event how I was
settin' into a little porker [sic] last night an' three times straight I
picks up "the hand the dead man held" -- jacks up on eights, an' it win
every time.' ....">>

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"Daily Nevada State Journal" [Reno NV], 3 Dec. 1905: p. 12, col. 4:

<<THE man who held a pair of jacks and a pair of eights in a recent poker
game at Pittsburg would doubtless give assent to the accuracy of the
superstition that calls such a combination "the dead man's hand," only that
he is unfortunately in the usual position of the dead man -- unable to speak.>>

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-- Doug Wilson