[Doc]

obviously you don't get to do the calculations at the table like this - but the whole point about doing this is that you improve your play away from the table, as well as at it. Poker can be very deceptive - psychologically we are wired in a way that doesn't always work for poker. For example, if we do something 'wrong' (i.e. it will usually lose money for us) that actually works in our favour - we will tend to disproportionately value that action. Conversely, when we do something wrong that loses us money we are more inclined to dismiss it as bad luck. In a sense it comes down to intellectual vanity - in the former we like to think of ourselves as super-clever and in the latter, we reassure ourselves that it wasn't our bad play, just bad luck.

Doing this type of analysis away from the table is a powerful way of counteracting those tendencies so that when a similar situation comes up at the table next time, we have something rational to draw on where our instincts on our own might fail us.