Tit for Tat

  Poker is a game of changing fortunes, both in the sense of luck and in the sense of wealth. Your luck will change over the course of the game, going from bad to good or vice versa. Your wealth will change as well. Hopefully, your pile will grow, but in some cases, it will shrink. Controlling your changing fortunes, then, is a matter of controlling the flow of your chips, because you cannot control your fortune.  This means you need to adopt an attitude of "tit for tat" when it comes to outgoing chips. If an amount goes out, an equal amount must come back in. If you lose chips on one hand, you must make them up on another. Thinking this way prevents you from overextending yourself.  The reason why you don't want to overextend yourself is because you will lose your ability to apply pressure and control pots. Now, ideally, you want your income to be greater than your outcome. Breaking even is not your goal when playing poker, but before you can worry about this, you need to make sure you bring in as many chips as you lose. If you're not earning tit for tat, you'll never earn your keep.