Wild Bill Hickok and his fateful love of poker
You may remember me mentioning Wild Bill Hickok or James Butler Hickok, as he is more formally known, previously on the website. He was a fascinating character with a colorful life that extended even to his death, and his fateful tale is one of the key legends of the ‘Wild West’.
Hickok grew up on his parents farm in Illinois where he became a first class shot. In the 1850s, after fighting with the abolitionist Free State Army in the Bleeding Kansas series of skirmishes between the pro- and anti-slavers, he then became a constable. When the American Civil War started in the early 1860s, Hickok worked a stagecoach driver for the Union Army. It was during this time that he became well known for his work as a scout and marksman, but perhaps most interestingly as a professional gambler. After the war, Hickok worked as a scout and marshal, as well as operating as a gunfighter.
Gambling, in particular poker, was a huge passion of his and one that ultimately led to his death. It’s not uncommon now for people to think they are passionate about poker because they play at Partypoker.com every day and have a regular poker nights with friends, but it’s unlikely they’ll have the same degree of feeling for the game that drew old Wild Bill to an untimely end. This was someone for whom poker flowed in his veins.
On August 2, 1887 Hickok was playing poker in Nuttal and Mann’s Saloon, No. 10 Deadwood in the Black Hills of Dakota Territory. For some reason he ignored his usual habit of facing the saloon in order to better defend himself, on this fateful day he sat with his back to the door. Legend has it that this wary man asked someone to switch seats with him twice, but both times he was refused.
As if this wasn’t unusual enough, he was also left with no choice that day but to borrow a poker stake from the bartender. This was obviously a man for whom poker was something of a necessity. If Hickok thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did when Jack McCall entered the bar unnoticed, walked up to Wild Bill, drew a pistol, shouted “ Take That” while firing a gun at him.
Hickok died instantly as the bullet hit the back of his head. He was holding a pair of aces and a pair of eights, all black, although it is widely debated what the fifth card was. The idiom Dead Man’s Hand, used today in poker refers to the aces and eights that the legendary Wild Bill held at the time of his death.
