What does ’hand’ mean here?
(sorce: Iceberg Slim – Pimp, The story of my life)
The section that contains the word:
”He squeeled: Shine ’em up, hot shot! If I had your ’hand’ I would throw mine away. Get on bigtime. Shines ain’t but a dime. Shine ’em up!
I looked down at my stomps. They could stand a gloss all right.”
Background:
Slim walks down the street in elegant clothes and a shoeshiner man invites him to get his shoes cleaned. (The section above is what the shoeshiner tells to Slim.)
So what does he mean by ’If I had your hand I would throw mine away’ ?
thanks in advance
Re: What does ’hand’ mean here?
I think it's alluding to a game of cards. Your "hand" refers to the cards you have in your hand to play the game with. Sometimes you have good cards and sometimes you don't. If you do, then you have a "good hand". The metaphor being used is that the person speaking is saying that the other person's hand is so good that it would cause another player to "fold" - to throw in their cards without bothering to play because they are sure they will lose.