Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a playing card image used fig. to denote an act of bluff.

1542		Brinklow Complaynt of Roderyck Mors. (1874) 45: Eyther he shal haue fauor for his masters sake, or els bragg it owt with a carde of x .
1567		T. Stapleton A counterblast to M. Hornes n.p.: He hath all this while outfaced vs with a card of ten.
1577		H. Bullinger Sermons 171: [W]ee will not stick to face them out with a card of ten.
1580		Lyly Euphues and his England (1916) 302: All lovers (he only excepted) are cooled with a card of ten, or rather fooled with a vain toy.
1605		The life and death of Caualiero Dicke Bowyer n.p.: Zounds, these Frenchmen think to out-face vs with a card of ten: but, and his beard were made of brasse, Dicke Bowyer will make him know the discipline of war.
1623		Shakespeare Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies 218: A vengeance on your crafty withered hide, / Yet I haue fac’d it with a card of ten.
1651		Proceedings at the sessions of the peace [...] 20 day of Iune 11: [B]ut this fellow will out-face us without a Card of ten, a meere nothing.
1660		N. Chewney Hell, with the everlasting torments thereof asserted 104: But that he may not out-face us with a Card of ten, we affirm, that the original Text, [...] is entire and incorrupt.