<P> The makeup of poker's dead man's hand has varied through the years . Currently, it is described as a two - pair poker hand consisting of the black aces and black eights . These and an unknown hole card were reportedly held by Old West folk hero, lawman, and gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok when he was murdered . </P> <P> The expression "dead man's hand" appears to have had some currency in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, although no one connected it to Hickok until the 1920s . The earliest detailed reference to it was 1886, where it was described as a "full house consisting of three jacks and a pair of tens". Jacks and sevens are called the dead man's hand in the 1903 Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences . Edmond Hoyle refers to it as Jacks and eights in 1907 . </P> <P> What is considered the dead man's hand card combination of today gets its notoriety from a legend that it was the five - card stud hand held by James Butler Hickok (better known as "Wild Bill" Hickok) when he was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall on August 2, 1876, in Nuttal & Mann's Saloon at Deadwood, Dakota Territory . Reportedly, Hickok's final hand included the aces and eights of both black suits . </P>

Where did the term aces and eights come from