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Poker & Pop Culture: The Long, Strange Life of the Dead Man's Hand

This week we conclude our survey of "saloon poker" with some consideration of the most famous hand ever played in a saloon, the last one ever played by James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok — a.k.a, the "dead man's hand."

"I'm Sort of Public Property"

Hickok was a well known figure for several years prior to that fateful August afternoon in Nuttal & Mann's Saloon No. 10.

Born in Illinois in 1837, by his late twenties Hickok had already collected a number of adventures, including enduring a bear attack, working with the Pony Express, and serving the Union Army in various capacities during the Civil War.