Put One's Cards On The Table Meaning

Example : 1899, Henry James, The Awkward Age, ch. 4:  "We needn't either of us," she continued, "be concerned for the other's reasons, though I'm perfectly ready, I assure you, to put my cards on the table."1915, John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps, ch. 4:  I thought the time had come for me to put my cards on the table. I saw by this man's eye that he was the kind you can trust.1921, William MacLeod Raine, Tangled Trails, ch. 10:  "Let's put our cards on the table. We think you're the man the police are looking for—the one described in the papers."2003 May 27, Tony Karon, "Mideast: Can Bush Deliver?," Time:  Although Sharon has never put all his cards on the table, he's given plenty of indicators that in his vision, a Palestinian state comprises the 40-50 percent of the West Bank currently under PA jurisdiction.