In online poker, the hand known as a ‘dead man’s hand’ is famously known as two pair of aces and eights. The name comes from a famous story in which Wild Bill Hickok, the famously outlaw, but also a well known gambler and poker online player, was playing draw poker with a group of men at a bar. He’d just made two pair, aces and eights, when another man came into the bar and shot him in the back, killing him. From then on, the hand he died holding became known as the dead man’s hand.
This story also adds to the common superstition of gamblers or wildmen who prefer not to sit with their back facing the room. Unlike Bill, they’d prefer not to get walked up on.
Superstitions such as these in poker online mean little to some, but other players take the game of superstitions greatly to heart. Though I’ve never seen a man fold the aces and eights hand simply on the fact that it might have helped kill Bill, there’s a reason these stories get passed along. Though it may be unwise to believe too much in little totems and stories, sometimes a mind for ritual or luck can help put you in the right mind you need to play cards to the utmost of your ability. Not for everyone, for sure, but in the right spots a little can go a long way.