Why?

‘Why?’ is the most important question in poker. You should always ask yourself ‘Why?’:

Why did you bet?
Why this guy is watching TV when he's involved in massive pot?
Why preflop raiser checked on the flop?
Why are you so upset by bad beat?
Why are you so happy after winning pot?
Why do you keep playing at this table?
Why do you play poker?
etc

Great self check indicator is if you have done some action (like check, bet or fold) and you don’t have a good answer to ‘Why did you do that?’ question –  you made a mistake.

Finding correct answers to all this questions can be challenging but the biggest challenge for a poker player is to make an effort to find correct ‘why?’ questions. This takes a lot of practice. So next time something happens stop and ask yourself ‘Why?’.