hold the cards

• hold all the aces, hold all the cards

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

to hold the cards (third-person singular simple present holds the cards, present participle holding the cards, simple past and past participle held the cards)

1. (idiomatic) To be in a strong position, possessing significant advantages over someone else; to be in control of a situation involving multiple parties.
   • 1907, R. Austin Freeman, chapter 14, in The Red Thumb Mark:

     "[B]ut if you make conditions I have no choice but to accept them, seeing that you hold the cards."

   • 1986 Aug. 17, Peter H. Lewis, "Practical Traveller: Learning the ABC's — as well as the XYZ's — of Flying," New York Times (retrieved 12 Jan 2012):

     Once a ticket is paid for and the airline has your money, it holds the cards.

   • 2008 July 10, Megan Lindow, "Why Mugabe and His Foe Are Talking ," Time:

     "In the short term, from a power perspective, the current Zimbabwe elite is holding the cards," says Steven Friedman, director of the Center for the Study of Democracy.

• Often used in the present participial form: holding the cards.

• the upper hand
• whip hand