1996, A.J.P. Taylor, Origin Of The Second World War, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 251:
On 29 August, Goering, anxious for a compromise, said: "It is time to stop this va banque". Hitler replied: "It is the only call I ever make". It was Hitler's misfortune (and not his alone) to encounter in the Poles political gamblers of the same school. Va banque was not merely the only call they made; it was the only call they could possibly make if they were to maintain their illusory position as an independent Great Power.
2007 December 5, Donald Loewen, The Most Dangerous Art: Poetry, Politics, and Autobiography after the Russian Revolution, Lexington Books, →ISBN, page 135:
"No, she went va banque, she bet on the unknown, on herself . . . on the unrealized son Alexander. . . ." Maria Aleksandrovna bet everything on her ability to shape her daughter into a musician, resisting to the end any recognition[…]
2010 September 9, Ernest R. May, Richard Rosecrance, Zara Steiner, History and Neorealism, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 161:
When the date for the invasion of Poland was definitively set for September 1, despite the news that Britain would not stand aside, Hermann Göring warned him that he should not play va banque (go for broke). “All my life I have played va banque," was Hitler's reply.
2020 December 15, Eero Medijainen, Weaving the Iron Curtain, the Allies, and the Baltic States, 1939–1944: Public Opinion, Propaganda, and Caricatures, Lexington Books, →ISBN, page 109:
Now he went va banque, risking the failure of the negotiations. Eden proposed to sign only a mutual military assistance agreement for twenty years and not to mention political questions or questions connected to borders at all.
mentions
1793, Faro and Rouge Et Noir; the Mode of Playing, and Explanation of the Terms Used at Both Games; with a Table of Chances Against the Punters, Extracted from De Moivre. To which is Prefixed, a History of Cards, page 72:
[…] It is a law at this game that the banker cannot refuse any stake, so that it does not exceed his fund. A punter may say, Je va la banque. Va la banque; or Va banque; meaning that he will go all the money on the banque or table, or abide the event of winning or losing as much.
2013 January 16, Julia Landmann, Twentieth Century Borrowings from French to English: Their Reception and Development, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, →ISBN, page 142:
Va banque, literally 'go bank', is "a bet against the whole of the banker's stake" (OED2) in baccarat and chemin-de-fer. The OED2 evidence consists of examples in which va banque is used figuratively, e.g.: "1946A. J. P. TaylorCourse of German Hist. ii. 38 Both dynasties desired the defeat of Napoleon; but the Hohenzollerns, having nothing more to lose, were ready to bid va banque - the Habsburgs were not." The figurative use of va banque occurs above all in corpora of recent usage. By metaphor, the verb phrase to play va banque means 'to go nap', 'to put all one's eggs into one basket', […]
1781, Karl Emanuel Traun, Die Macht der väterlichen Liebe: Ein Schauspiel in drey Aufzügen:
Belw. Allerdings, nun was befehlen sie?
2ter Engl. Ich will es dir nachmachen.
Cleon. Und ich setze zwey hundert Dukaten auf den Zehner.
1ster Engl. Va Banque auf den Buben.
2ter Engl. Und ich va Banque auf den König.
1791, Anekdoten zur Lebensgeschichte des Fürsten G. G. Orlow, page 191:
Eines Tags zeigte sich eine Maske, die eben nicht zum allerbesten aussah, zog eine Karte, und rufte : Va banque ! Der König, welcher den Mann doch kennen wollte, der ihm über so große Summen, die da lagen, Va banque rufte, demasquirte sich, und forderte es auch von der Maske.
