Close to your chest
Binge-watching
Nowadays, I don’t watch any television. I mostly consume YouTube content. One of the problems was waiting for the next episode. I didn’t want to wait. I want to see the show to the end. So, I stopped watching TV shows until they finished. When the series was over, I downloaded the entire series. Netflix made this a lot easier. Two shows that stand out in my mind are Dexter and Breaking Bad. I binge-watched them around the same time. They both have a main character that has to keep his cards close to the chest.
In Dexter, the main character is a serial murder who works for the police. Of course, he has to hide this fact from his co-workers. Well, he has to keep it a secret from everyone. I really enjoyed this series and I thought Dexter was a good antihero.
The main character in Breaking Bad, Walter White, is a drug chemist and dealer. He tries to keep this information from his family and his brother who is a police officer. He was not successful. His nickname in the show is Heisenberg. The took the name because of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. It states that the location and momentum of a particle cannot be known at the same time. White used the name because – like the location and momentum of a particle – no one could know who he really was.
Meaning
Keeping your cards close to your chest means that you don’t tell your secrets or intentions. Additionally, some people want to keep their emotions a secret. So, keeping your cards close to your chest can also describe someone who is not open. Some synonymous phrases include “Keep your cards close to your vest”, “playing your cards close to your chest”, and “hold your cards close to your chest.”
Example: If you don’t trust someone, it is a good idea to keep your cards close to your chest until you get to know them better.
Origin
As you might have guessed, this phrase comes from card games. In poker, players need to keep their cards secret. Players should only look at their cards when they are close to their chest, or another player might see. The poker player needed to keep their cards close to their chest to protect that information. The phrase dates to the 1860s.
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Resources:
www.theidioms.com/keep-card-close-to-chest/
https://linguaholic.com/linguablog/close-to-the-chest-vs-close-to-the-vest/