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Also used as "play it close to your chest," this is a Poker idiom. It refers to the practice of keeping your cards close to you so that nobody can see what you have. The idiom means to keep things to yourself, not to let everyone know what you are planning.
There are many variations of this phrase. Variations include "play it/keep it close to your vest/chest" It is an idiom that means to keep the subject "it" closely guarded and to not share or disseminate the information easily. Example: "You can let them know that we are calculating a forecast for the next quarter but keep the preliminary earnings close to the vest".

Most likely this was derived from the 19th century as a metaphor to card playing essentially telling one not to let others see their cards.

The literal reference is to holding your playing cards close enough to your chest so that no one else can see them. The idea is to prevent others in the game from gaining a strategic advantage over you. You do this by not allowing them--or their possible confederates standing behind you--even a glimpse of your cards. Here is a snippet from Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt (1922), where the setting is a men's club: "He was a large man with hair en brosse, and he knew the latest jokes, but he played poker close to the chest." This is more than a factual description. The author is saying something significant about the man's character.

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11y ago
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13y ago

(to play one's cards close to one's vest) to be very cautious with one's dealing with people

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Q: What does 'play it close to your vest' mean?
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What does 'to play the cards close to your chest' mean?

Refers to being secretive about one's actions with those near to you, such as holding cards close to your chest so that no one near them may see their play coming. More common version of the saying would be "playing it close to the vest".


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