Why is most of the thinking done, most poker questions asked and do most tough decisions in poker occur on the river? It is because we often are too focussed on what we should do on the flop or turn without taking in consideration what consequences our current action will have for the EV of our hand on later streets.
We should take an example of chess players. Chess players often think 10 moves ahead, as they are aware that a move they make now could lead to being in a bad (low EV) position 10 moves later on in the game. When we are in though spot on river, this usually means the situation has low EV either way, if not, the decision would be easy.
In these situations, we have to start analyzing how we got in this situation and if this situation was likely to occur and could have been prevented by taking a different decision earlier on in the hand?
I often find that the majority of discussions are "as played" scenarios, meaning that we made a mistake on a earlier street, and thus are in a situation we shouldn’t be in, and if we learn from this, are not going to be in again in the future. However, we then still waste 50 posts, and hours of our time trying to come up with the correct as played river decision which is close/low in EV either way.
So, are you guilty of not looking ahead and wasting time on as played scenario’s?