Hold The Cards Meaning

Example : 1907, R. Austin Freeman, The Red Thumb Mark, ch. 14:  "[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.