9 ENGLISH IDIOMS AND EXPRESSIONS from Cards and Parker

- [Jack] Hello, this is Jack from ToFluency.com.

And welcome to this English lesson where

you are going to learn idioms

that come from poker, the game of poker.

Now when I was researching this video,

I noticed that most of these idioms are used

when it comes to business,

or international relations,

politics, and also sport,

but you can use these too in everyday English.

And I sometimes say these things,

and I'm going to give you lots of examples

to help you better understand them.

So let's start with number one and it is this,

to bluff or the act of bluffing.

Now when you are bluffing in poker,

it means you make a bet

even though you don't have a good hand.

So you try to deceive people,

you try to trick them

which is what makes poker so much fun.

And the deception is that you're saying

my hand beats your hand,

that is why I'm putting

all these chips into the middle.

So this is bluffing,

when you don't have a good hand

but you still bet

and you're trying to deceive people.

So you can also bluff

when it comes to politics or business

or anything in life really.

Now here is a good example.

It's quite topical at the moment

talking about the Brexit deal,

and it's the headline that says,

"Is the government bluffing about a no-deal Brexit?"

So is the government bluffing about a no-deal Brexit?

And the UK government is saying yes,

we are going to go through with the no-deal Brexit

unless the European Union makes a better deal.

So this writer doesn't know

if the government is telling the truth,

if that they are really strong about this position,

and they might just be bluffing,

deceiving the EU to get a better deal.

So bluffing is used a lot in everyday English

especially in politics, in business, and also in sport.

I love the next one,

poker face, to have a poker face.

So in order to bluff somebody in poker,

you need to have a good poker face

which means that you need to keep a straight face,

to not show your emotions

when you feel emotional.

So let's say you are bluffing in poker,

you have a terrible hand but you make a good bet,

you want to be able to keep a poker face

to make people think that you actually have a good hand,

or a poker face so that people don't know

if you are bluffing or not.

Now the term poker face

was made popular by Lady Gaga.

You know the song.

♪ P, p, p, poker face, p, p, p, poker face ♪

And I'll leave a link to that video in the description.

And this is true in real life.

You can use your poker face in real life.

So outside of poker, to have a poker face

means to have an expression which doesn't show

what you are feeling or thinking.

Now actually there was a newspaper article

that says, "Lady Gaga Maintains Poker Face

"After Nearly Falling During Performance."

So she fell during a performance

but she kept a straight face.

She didn't reveal any emotion on her face

and just kept on going.

So it is used in everyday English.

It's also used in boxing.

So sometimes you'll hear commentators say,

even though he got punched really hard,

he has a really good poker face,

he doesn't let you know if that punch hurts,

if he is hurt or not.

The next one is to have an ace up your sleeve.

Now in poker this means you are cheating

by keeping the best card in poker up your sleeve

and then taking it out when you need to use it.

Now to have an ace up your sleeve

means that you have some secret information

or a secret skill that will give you an advantage

and something that you can use at a later date.

Here is a headline that uses this.

"In Virginia The Election Stakes Are High,"

we'll come back to stakes are high later,

"But Democrats See Obamacare As An Ace Up Their Sleeve."

So the Democrats see Obamacare, a policy,

as this secret thing or something that they can use

at a later date in order to improve their situation.

The next one is hold your cards close to your chest.

Now when playing poker,

you don't want anybody to see the cards that you have,

because then they can use this information

in order to beat you and to either fold or raise or bet.

So you want to hold your cards close to your chest.

And we use this in everyday English too.

And it means to not reveal

your intentions or plans or tactics.

So don't tell anybody about what you intend to do.

Here is a good example from a Cricket headline,

and the Ashes is a game played between

Australia and England,

and it says, "Langer keeps his cards close to his chest."

And let's just read the first

paragraph here or this bit here.

"Langer was giving few clues away

"as to Australia's likely selection

"at Monday's press conference."

So again the coach of the Australian cricket team

is not revealing anything about who is going to play

and how they are going to play.

So he's not revealing the tactics or the team selection.

He's keeping his cards close to his chest.

The next one is to play the hand you're dealt.

And in poker this again it just means if you get bad cards,

then you have to play these cards correctly.

For example even if you get bad cards,

you can fold your cards to play them correctly

or you can try and bluff.

Now in everyday life

it just means to make the most

out of any situation.

Even if you're in a bad situation,

to make the most out of it.

And it can also mean to play to your strengths.

So to focus on what you're good at and do more of that.

Here is a quote from Lebron James

about the basketball coach, James Walton.

"You have to control what you can control,

"and you've got to play the hand you're dealt.

"I think Walton played the hand as well as he could."

So again it just means that he did the most

out of the situation he found himself in.

The next one is when the chips are down.

And this means in poker

when you don't have many chips,

when you are running out of chips,

a situation I've been in many times before.

And again this is all about mentality.

It's about what you do when the chips are down.

So when the chips are down means

when you are in a difficult

or maybe a dangerous situation.

It's used a lot in boxing.

How are you going to respond

when the chips are down, when you are hurt,

when you are finding it very difficult to beat somebody?

And here is a headline from John Terry,

the ex-Chelsea captain.

"When the chips are down we can come together as a team,"

which I really like this quote because it's saying

when we are in a difficult situation,

this is when we as a team can be more united, more bonded.

When we find ourselves in a difficult situation,

when the chips are down, we can come together as a team.

The next one is to go all in.

And this is when in poker you put

all your chips into the middle of the table

and you say all in.

Outside of poker,

it means to fully commit to doing something.

So to fully commit to doing something.

And here is a good headline

which talks about a business owner.

"Owner of The Copper Closet went 'all in'

"to start her business."

Now in poker as well as business,

if you go all in, it is a little bit risky

because you are risking everything you have.

So when it comes to business,

to go all in means to fully commit to something

and you don't have a backup option,

you don't have anything to fall back on.

So you go all in,

you spend all your money,

you spend all your time,

and you fully commit to doing something.

So it is risky but sometimes in life you have to go all in.

The next one is in or on the cards,

if something is in the cards, let's just use in.

And this means in real life

if something is likely or inevitable.

Here is another Brexit example.

"ETFs in Focus as a No-Deal Brexit May be in the Cards."

A no-deal Brexit may be likely or inevitable.

And the last one is know when to hold them

and know when to fold them.

So to hold your cards means

to stay in that hand, to not fold,

and then to fold is to say, okay, I give up,

I'm not going to continue this hand.

Now this phrase has been made popular

by a song called The Gambler by Kenny Rogers.

And he says, "You've got to know when to hold them,

"know when to fold them, know when to walk away,

"and know when to run.

"You never count your money

"when you're sitting at the table.

"There'll be time enough for countin'

"when the dealin's done."

Now in everyday life this is true as well.

And again if you go all in on something,

then you might reach a stage

where you have to give up on this dream,

and knowing when to continue doing something

and knowing when to quit doing something.

There's a very fine line here.

It's not easy to know.

And you never really know

if you make the right decision or not.

So I think this is a really interesting one

because there are times when we think this is too difficult

but we keep on going and that was a good decision.

But then there are also times

when we continue doing something

even though it's not working.

So you've got to know when to hold them

and know when to fold them.

Okay, so thank you so much for watching this lesson.

I'll leave all the idioms in the description below

and I'll link to the news articles

that I shared in this lesson too.

Now if you found this lesson useful,

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Thank you so much for watching.

And I'll speak to you soon, buh-bye.