Poker Tactics - May you survive the good times

There is an old saying, when I first heard it it was called a farm saying:
"May you survive the good times".

It' s meaning may not be clear at first but when you ponder it a while the deeper meaning is clear.  There will be times, like on a farm, when you have a bumper crop as they call it and you have been shown some good fortune after hard work.  This is a time to celebrate.

But there will be other times when there is a drought on a farm and that causes smaller crops and even famine.  The deprivation may last for a while and you may suffer if you are unprepared. For some farmers a drought meant starvation and death.

Often times farmers might spend too much of that extra celebrating, but later on when there isn't enough that unneccessary spending may cost you the farm.

In my opinion, the saying is a warning that you need preserve enough, to save enough, of that good fortune in the times that are good to hold you into the next good fortune.  I hear droughts can last seven year

The smart players talk about stack management and this is just another way of saying it.  It is a great thing to win $25,000 at a poker tournament except when you blow it all on bad decisions and don't have enough saved up for the next one.

My biggest strength is being able to drive up large pots and win them, not all of them but enough of them to shoot up a tournaments rankings.

My biggest weakness is I fritter away some of those large pots playing low probability hands against opponents who have waited all tournament play pocket aces.  It's not a good thing to lose it all in a few bad situations. It's worse to let that happen again and again.

There is a simple set of rules to change how much your stack varies at the poker table:

Stick to a set list of good cards
Fold really bad hands after the flop
Restrict the amount of bluffing you do
Fold when you suspect you are beaten

In other words, play really really boring and conservative.

If you want to win at it, and that is what all players wish, then you need to be disciplined.