To play the game single-handed. A simile taken from the game of euchre.

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1855.  

          When crack! a ball through his frontal bone
Laid him flat on his back on the hard-fought ground,
  And left Captain DAVIS to go it alone!
F. S. Cozzens, ‘Captain Davis: A Californian Ballad,’ Knickerbocker Magazine, xlv. 335 (April).    

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