Uploaded April 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Original Airdate: January 1, 1950 (the premiere episode)
Hopalong Cassidy: Dead Man’s Hand
Starring: William Boyd as Hoppy and Andy Clyde as California
Hoppy has summoned California to the Bar-20 Ranch. Hoppy has received a letter from an old friend who has been mining for gold up in the mountains. It seems he’s struck it rich but his partner has been murdered, and he now fears for the safety of his family. The only problem is the letter is not in Hoppy’s friend’s hand.
Dead Man’s Hand: 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 while playing a game. No contemporaneous source records the exact cards he held when killed. Frank Wilstach's 1926 book, Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince of Pistoleers, led to the popular modern conception of the poker hand's contents.
Hickok's hand：Considered the dead man's hand card combination of today got its notoriety from a legend that it was the five-card stud or five-card draw 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.
According to a book by Western historian Carl W. Breihan, the cards were retrieved from the floor by a man named Neil Christy, who then passed them on to his son. The son, in turn, told Mr. Breihan of the composition of the hand. "Here is an exact identity of these cards as told to me by Christy's son: the ace of diamonds with a heel mark on it; the ace of clubs; the two black eights, clubs and spades, and the queen of hearts with a small drop of Hickok's blood on it."
Original Airdate: January 1, 1950 (the premiere episode)
Hopalong Cassidy: Dead Man’s Hand
Starring: William Boyd as Hoppy and Andy Clyde as California
Hoppy has summoned California to the Bar-20 Ranch. Hoppy has received a letter from an old friend who has been mining for gold up in the mountains. It seems he’s struck it rich but his partner has been murdered, and he now fears for the safety of his family. The only problem is the letter is not in Hoppy’s friend’s hand.
Dead Man’s Hand: 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 while playing a game. No contemporaneous source records the exact cards he held when killed. Frank Wilstach's 1926 book, Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince of Pistoleers, led to the popular modern conception of the poker hand's contents.
Hickok's hand：Considered the dead man's hand card combination of today got its notoriety from a legend that it was the five-card stud or five-card draw 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.
According to a book by Western historian Carl W. Breihan, the cards were retrieved from the floor by a man named Neil Christy, who then passed them on to his son. The son, in turn, told Mr. Breihan of the composition of the hand. "Here is an exact identity of these cards as told to me by Christy's son: the ace of diamonds with a heel mark on it; the ace of clubs; the two black eights, clubs and spades, and the queen of hearts with a small drop of Hickok's blood on it."
