"The Buck Stops Here" (ca. 1930)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>(everyone antes.

Sometimes the dealer antes alone. One can Google <<"dealer antes">> for a
number of examples.

>No need to invoke anything other
>than 'standard' poker.

For Mark Twain's metaphor, standard poker would do. For the modern
metaphor, however, I think ideally "passing the buck" should not refer to
the routine deal-passing between hands: this happens automatically.
Somebody should be able to decide to pass (or not to pass) the metaphoric
buck. There are various ways this could have developed, of which I've given
two casual notions only.

-- Doug Wilson