The Buck Stops Here

Poker has experienced a popularity boom never before seen, and is becoming part of the mainstream in a big way. Attendant with this, poker terminology is rapidly making its way into the English language. But this is not a new thing. Long before you could see poker tournaments and events on TV at practically any time on any day, ordinary people used terms that came from poker. The difference was that oftentimes they didn't realize where those terms came from.

Harry Truman had a plaque on his desk that read, "The buck stops here." He got the saying from the expression pass the buck, which comes from poker, as a buck was the marker used to keep track of the deal position. Once upon a time, an actual buck knife was used as the marker, hence the name. To pass the buck meant to refuse to deal when it was one's turn to deal, passing the deck instead to the next player to the left. You don't hear the terms buck and pass the buck among card players anymore. The phrase pass the buck has migrated to general usage, where it means to shift responsibility to someone else, and Truman's slogan has found a place in most collections of famous quotations and sayings. As commander in chief and head of his country, he believed that he was ultimately responsible for everyone below him.

(That the political climate has changed since Truman's time was shown in a recent New Yorker cartoon. A smug-looking president sits at his desk. His plaque reads, "What buck?")

I imagine that a lot of people who don't play poker and use the phrase ace up the sleeve don't know where it came from. The phrase describes the situation in which a cheater has withdrawn an ace from the deck to be introduced into the game later, or, more generally, has taken some unfair advantage. The phrase passed into general usage to describe the situation in which someone is hiding something that gives him unfair advantage.

Ace in the hole is similar, but without the shady connotation. In a stud game, having an ace among one's one or more downcards is a desirable condition. The phrase passed into general usage as an advantage or resource kept in reserve until an opportunity presents itself.

To ace out means to win by deception or just barely beat someone. That meaning came from the situation in poker of winning (perhaps by bluffing) while holding an ace-high hand (that is, a relatively worthless hand, since it doesn't contain even a pair). If your opponent holds a totally worthless hand, your ace-high hand will just barely beat him; that is, you will ace him out.

Poker players all know what cash in means, but the general public also knows the term. In a poker game, it means taking your chips to the cashier's cage (or, in a private game, turning them over to the banker) to exchange them for cash, thereby finishing your playing session. The phrase passed into general usage meaning to die, usually as part of the phrase, he cashed in his chips. That probably came from the figurative meaning of ending the game.

Have you ever been asked to chip in to an office collection for a co-worker's birthday or wedding? That too came from poker, where to chip in meant to ante or call a small bet. The term passed into more general usage meaning to contribute, usually in the form of cash, to a collection.

And while talking about chips, a wealthy person is said to be in the chips. That came from poker, where the term still is used, and generally means someone is winning or has a large bankroll.

Even more chips appear in the expression the chips are down. In general usage, this means that a situation is urgent or must be dealt with. In the world of poker, it originally meant that bets have been made and the players are committed to win or lose based on the cards they hold. This would likely happen when one or more of the players is all in, and bluffing is not a factor.

My first poker experience was a, literally, penny-ante game at Stanford. I soon graduated to nickel-dime-quarter. Many of you probably started in such a game, but you also have heard the term in the "real" world, meaning petty or small-time.

What do you call it when a car dealer gives you an honest shake? Well, you might call it a miracle, but you also might call it a square deal. In the world of poker, this once meant an honest deal, as indicated by a deck containing no trimmed or shaved cards, which were among the tools of old-time card thieves. You don't hear this term now in cardrooms, mainly because paper decks have been replaced by plastic, and because most games are dealt by house dealers. Also, altered decks are good evidence to use against a suspected thief. In deal-yourself games, which are getting increasingly hard to find, thieves are more likely to use sleight of hand than gaffed decks.

And if you look up gaff, you will find it defined as "deceive, trick, fleece." Here we have another word that came from the seamy side of the world of poker. (It also referred to rigging dice.)

Michael Wiesenberg's forthcoming The Ultimate Casino Guide (retitled from 1,000 Best Casinos), published by Sourcebooks, will be available in the fall. Send comments, complaints, and congratulations to queue@CardPlayer.com.