up one's sleeve

Of course, as Mr. Guttman well knows, it pays to have a few tricks up one’s sleeve.

Ok congress is to be made new again, not John Boy, wasn't that wise of those Dead old white men, bravo to the Times, for reminding us that it's just an unreasonably tough go to be elected without some prior claim to fame or other trick up one's sleeve.

In the interview, Dr. Tu told New Scientist that she reread a particular recipe, written more than 1,600 years ago in a text titled “Emergency Prescriptions Kept Up One’s Sleeve.”

Like the extensive writings of legendary Scientific American columnist Martin Gardner this book seeks to make mathematics come alive for an intelligent and curious audience by engaging the reader in a lively informal style, and with irresistible invocations to roll up one’s sleeve and experiment.

Who we are being so many hard facts held like candies or coins, just up one’s sleeve — one’s father, one’s mother, all the things that might quaintly be termed one’s station.