Of course, you don’t want to quickly run out of the money you’re bringing to the table. You want to make it last, and you also want to grow it.

To stay in the game, Sheddy said to make sure the stakes you are playing are affordable in the long term.

“Every now and again when you are feeling confident and might be on a ‘hot’ streak, it’s fine to ‘take a shot’ at higher than normal stakes for you,” he said. “But remember that poker is one long game and the cream will rise in the end.”

By the same token, however, Sheddy warned against playing stakes that are too small for you to take the game seriously. Because if the stakes don’t mean much to you, it can be difficult to learn from your mistakes and “impossible for you to make progress in the long term.”

So be sure to keep in mind how much money you have in chips, and to let your chip count influence your actions during every hand.