Antedating of "Poker Face"

[Shapiro, Fred]

poker face (OED 1884)

1874 _Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art_ 26 Dec. 837 (ProQuest)  _Round Games at Cards_, by Cavendish. ...We haven given us in this little book clear rules for some fifteen round games at cards. ... To any one not very well up in these games, some parts of the book are at first sight rather puzzling.  "It follows," we read in one passage, "that the possession of a good _poker face_" (the italics are the author's) "is an advantage."

NOTE:  An earlier citation could be found in the reviewed book itself.

Fred Shapiro

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org