long suit

long suit

A subject, activity, or field, at which someone is particularly skilled or adept. Working with computers was never my long suit, so this receptionist position is going to be a real challenge for me. Movie trivia is one of Sam's long suits, so I think we should ask her to be on our pub quiz team.
See also: long, suit
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

long suit

One's strong point or advantage, as in Organizing has never been Nancy's long suit. This expression alludes to whist, bridge, and other card games in which holding numerous cards in a single suit may convey a strong advantage. [c. 1900]
See also: long, suit
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

long suit, one's

One’s particular strength or advantage. This term comes from whist and related card games, including present-day contract bridge, in which holding a hand with numerous cards in a single suit may convey a strong advantage, particularly if that suit is the trump suit. The term began to be transferred to other enterprises about 1900.
See also: long
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • long suit, one's
  • strong suit
  • be (someone's) strong suit
  • be your strong point/suit
  • be (one's) strong point
  • strong point
  • better than
  • lose a step
  • make an appointment
  • make good as
References in periodicals archive
The Long Suit (2003) is Davison's third novel to feature Fielding, an "understrapper" for MI5, a "contractor without a contract" in the character's own words.
Horn also knows that we cannot escape conundrums embedded in what we know of Mark Twain's other intellectual interests and habits: that his reading was wide, unsteadily intense, and chaotic, that ideas (intellectually-respectable and otherwise) flowed over him from every quarter, and that philosophically-rigorous habits of inquiry were never his long suit.
While self-awareness has never been Helga's long suit, her efforts to understand her emotions and to make the right choices about her life become disastrous after the destabilizing shock of Anderson's rejection.
Team spirit will be Scotland's long suit in the games with Holland, Switzerland and England.
Regardless of cost, collecting on bad checks isn't necessarily the supermarket industry's long suit. "When you're looking at a typical collection situation, you're running about 45% to 48% [of check face value] without fees being added in, and between 58% and 60% if you add the fees back on top," says Burnside.
Grandeur had never been Toronto's long suit. Grand designers were foiled again.
That looks to be her long suit and she can be forgiven a poor effort when sixth at Kempton last time out over this trip as the ground would have been quicker than ideal and the tight track would also have been against her.
While his human namesake's forte was very much a turn of speed, the Sue Smith-trained seven-year-old's long suit is stamina.
But then we knew attacking and guile were not England's long suit.
Geography might not be a footballer's long suit but surely the fact that the World Cup is in the `Far East' should have given Keane a clue that it was not going to be a day-trip to Killarney.
He wanted something sexier, it seemed, something crisper, but coherence was not his long suit. He never finished a sentence, really; he didn't have to.
But that was long ago & luck is not our long suit. Here, when the beloved dies, we strangle a stranger.
Sir Kezbaah coped with the longer trip when fourth in decent company at Newbury next time and showed stamina might be his long suit over two and a half miles at Lingfield last time.
Sagara again showed stamina was his long suit when staying on to be beaten a length and a half with a very conservatively ridden Zambezi Sun back in third.
Many years ago Harrison-Gray proposed that when you are one short of your contract and nothing else seems to be sensible then you should run your long suit. Note the effect here on North.