Introduction

Our images of the big names and places of the Old West often come from the tales of gunfights and violence that were sensationalized by dime novels and yellow journalism in the 19th century and the myths that came from those stories live on today. But in reality many of these fabled characters of the Wild West were gamblers first and gunfighters second— more invested in poker than in the momentary fury of the shootout. Aces and Eights tells story of the role of poker in the lives of these legends, and offers a portrait of the places where they lived and frequently died. This book offers both the “facts” of these lives and the true tales of the game and the gamblers—and the entertaining “tall tales” that have survived to this day.