To Force One's Hand

Does any one know the origin of the term "to force one's hand"? Might it have some thing to do with card games? Thanks in advance for any assistance.

It might well. One of the meanings given in the American Heritage Dictioary for the verb "to force" is this:-

8. Games. To cause an opponent to play (a particular card).

You will occasionally hear bridge players say something like "He ran his last two trumps and forced my king of diamonds."

This doesn't definitively state that "to force someone's hand" is an idiom from the world of card-playing, but it tends to support that theory.

The Oxford Engl. Dict. has this as sense 3 of "force" as a verb: "To constrain by force (whether physical or moral); to compel; to overcome the resistance of. 'To force (one's) hand': to compel one to act prematurely or to adopt a policy he dislikes. Cf. Fr. 'forcer la main a quelqu'un.'" Sense 3c of "force" is a collection of three meanings limited to "Card playing, esp. in Whist." So there's no suggestion in these definitions that "to force one's hand"originated with cards.