Crossword Genius

Card player leaving feast cut turkey (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

flop

'turkey' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'card player leaving feast cut' is the wordplay.
'card player' becomes 'east' (bridge players are known by compass position).
'leaving' is a deletion indicator.
'cut' becomes 'lop' (lopping is a kind of cutting**).
'feast' with 'east' removed is 'f'.
'f'+'lop'='FLOP'

(Other definitions for flop that I've seen before include "Fail" , "Complete failure" , "crash" , "Collapse loosely - total failure" , "Utter failure" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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