[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"][COLOR="Purple"][SIZE="3"]Test, operate, test, exit. Basically a recipe. Like with scrambling an egg:
Test - do I have the ingredients: eggs, oil, skillet, working stove, fork or spatula.
Operate - heat skillet, add oil, crack and stir egg, etc.
Test - is it done? No, keep cooking, Yes, ...
Exit - remove from heat, serve.

The pop song The Gambler has something like:

"If you're gonna play the game, boy
You gotta learn to play it right
You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run
You never count your money
When you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealin's done
Every gambler knows
That the secret to survivin'
Is knowin' what to throw away
And knowin' what to keep
'Cause every hand's a winner
And every hand's a loser
And the best that you can hope for
Is to die in your sleep"

OK, looking at the lyrics, the gambler is broke! Bums a smoke, shares the narrator's booze. And, right after the first chorus, he must have died at the best he could hope for, in his sleep. Look:

Faded off to sleep
And somewhere in the darkness
The gambler he broke even
But in his final words
I found an ace that I could keep …

This reminds me to seek out Maria Konnikova's book on how she learned poker, The Biggest Bluff.

Here are some clippings from a interesting 1902 book: the Gambling Impulse. Thanks google for posting this. Uhho. Tried to get my png clippings converted to a pdf, then to text. Not happening. Therefore, over the next several visits I'll type them in.