Remove obstacles to absolve the playing cards (5,3,5)
I believe the answer is:
clear the decks
'remove' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'obstacles to absolve the playing cards' is the wordplay.
'obstacles' becomes 's' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'to' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'absolve' becomes 'clear' (to absolve is to cleanse or clear of blame).
'playing cards' becomes 'deck'.
'clear'+'the'+'deck'='clearthedeck'
's' after 'clearthedeck' is 'CLEAR THE DECKS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for clear the decks that I've seen before include "Tidy up after card-games" , "Get ready for action" , "Tidy up all suits on hand to" , "Prepare for something by dealing first with matters outstanding" , "Prepare for action - these crackled (anag)" .)