Barricades
In poker, there are times you have to prepare for. There will be times you will want to get the most money in with an edge, and you need to be prepared for that. There are also times where you’re going to face a marginal situation and need to know how to lose the least amount of money; you’ll need to be prepared for that too.
What we often don’t talk about though, is the need to put up the sandbags to prevent ourselves from getting into those marginal situations in the first place. Sure we won’t be able to avoid them all, but with the right preparation, we can avoid some of them.
With that in mind, let’s talk about prevention of money leaking like from your stack like you had a bad water pipe. When you’re in a situation where you have a garbage hand, and you know your poker online opponent has a garbage hand too, you want to avoid a showdown. Why? Well, if you go to showdown, his garbage may be better than your garbage, and you end up losing. If you play with aggression here, you have a better chance of getting someone with a garbage hand off of their hand and folding. No need to leave bad money on the table without a fight.
Mike Caro also posted some great insight that deals not with play specifically, but with the player to the left of you. The player to the left of you always has positional advantage over you. It is in your best interest not to piss him off. Avoid checkraising this person, and declaring all out jihad. Instead, befriend him. Being cordial here can save you some big money as he’ll be less likely to use his advantage against you. It’s just human nature. All about prevention at the casino.