I play golf pretty regularly with some guys who also play poker on a fairly regular basis. They play every week; it’s hard to be more regular than that. I don’t join them because I know very little about poker. They’d probably like me to play, though, because I would surely lose a lot of money.
Regardless of my ignorance of the game, I am aware of many poker terms that have sneaked into our everyday language. Poker lingo such as “calling your bluff,” “ace in the hole” and “poker face,” are often used in daily speech. Many people wouldn’t even think about these terms as poker expressions, but their origins are clearly in poker.
Take “calling your bluff,” for example. In poker, a player might add money to the pot when he doesn’t have a hand to back it. That means he’s bluffing. To call this bluff, an opponent simply stays in for the showdown instead of folding.
But away from the poker table, an example might be something like this: You threaten to call the police if someone doesn’t stop doing something you don’t like. If the person doesn’t believe that you’ll call the police, he might call your bluff by continuing his offensive behavior.
I guess “ace in the hole” means quite a bit in some games of poker. An ace in the hole is sort of like a secret weapon, I suppose. Away from poker, an ace in the hole is a way you can win when it looks like you might be losing.
It’s important to have a “poker face” when you’re playing poker, so people don’t know when you’re bluffing. In everyday life, if you have a poker face, you’re not very likely to betray any emotion that would let people know how you really feel.
Besides poker terms, there are other terms in our everyday speech that probably are connected to card games. How about “following suit,” “above board,” “according to Hoyle” (Hoyle wrote a well-known book about card games), “ante up,” “call a spade a spade” (to speak plainly), “cash in your chips” (to die, to pass away), “deal me in.”
You can deal someone a bad hand — put them at a disadvantage, or be dealt a bad hand — you’re put in a bad place. Or you can “deal someone in” — to include him or her in some enterprise.
What do people mean if they say you’re a “few cards short of a deck”? You’re not smart, a little crazy, simple-minded? Sort of the same thing as “not playing with a full deck.”
You can force someone’s hand when you make him do something that he does not want to do, sort of like calling his bluff. If the cards are stacked against you, things are arranged unfairly so that you have an unfair disadvantage. If you hold all the aces, you have all the advantages.
When you lay your cards on the table, you’re open and honest. If you play your cards close to your chest, you’re extremely secretive and cautious. If you overplay your hand, you’ve probably overestimated the strength of your position.
If you play your cards right, you use your best resources or make the best use of your opportunities. When you raise the ante, you increase what is at stake. Your strong suit is something you’re good at.
Kenny Rogers used the card-playing metaphor to tell a young listener a lesson about life: “You gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em,/ Know when to walk away and know when to run./ You never count your money when you’re sittin’ at the table./ There’ll be time enough for countin’ when the dealin’s done.”
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