‘Pitch-and-toss’ is a gambling game in which the player who manages to throw a coin closest to a mark gets to toss all the coins, winning those that land with the head up.

In the poem IF, the poet suggests that we should learn to take big risks in life to achieve even greater heights. In a game like this, we may lose everything or win big. We have to take the risk and even if we lose, we should not utter a word about it, but start it from the beginning again. This actually hints at the mental strength one needs to win this world.