Later, in the February 1867 issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Nichols would tell Hickok's story to a national audience, going to great lengths to present Hickok as some sort of gunslinging god among men. In the fall of 1865 - not long after the Tutt duel - Hickok's notoriety had grown enough to earn him a visit from journalist George Ward Nichols. He'd also been involved in a couple of shootings, most notably the first widely reported 'quick draw' duel in which he killed a man named David Tutt following a dispute about poker debts (and, likely, a woman). 10.īorn in Illinois in 1837, by his late twenties Hickok had already collected a number of adventures, including enduring a bear attack, working with the Pony Express, and serving the Union Army in various capacities during the Civil War. Hickok was a well known figure for several years prior to that fateful August afternoon in Nuttal & Mann's Saloon No. This week we conclude our survey of 'saloon poker' with some consideration of the most famous hand ever played in a saloon, the last one ever played by James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok - a.k.a, the 'dead man's hand.' 'I'm Sort of Public Property'

Old west poker