Gunfights in the Old West
27 Feb 2007 Leave a Comment
We’ve all seen the scenes in old western movies. A card player squints, looks around, then tosses a fistful of poker chips into the middle of the card table. A desperado, seated across from him, accuses him of hiding aces up his sleeve and they both slap leather with guns a blazing.
I had thought that it was a common occurrence to fight over poker and other card games. As a matter of fact, I always thought that the Gunfight at O.K. Corral was over a poker game, but apparently I’m wrong. One site even says it was due to politics and other ideological factors.
Sigh. Another legend bites the dust. How disappointing. Well, I can still cling to the legend about Wild Bill Hickok. The story goes that when he was murdered, he was playing five card draw and had a two-pair hand, of “aces and eights.” Since his death, this has become known as the dead man’s hand. I wonder what it was called before he was shot to death? 
