Levels of Thinking: An explanation of sorts
I like many of the other people in the BC have probably heard one of the mods or more experienced players talking about levels of thinking, and if you are like me, you might not have understood what they are talking about, other than knowing that you need to think deeper in some aspect.
Over the past few days, I have been reading some books and watching some videos and found a decent explanation of levels of thinking, that with some tweaking and examples, I thought could be very helpful for other players; so here it goes.
(mods and more experienced players, feel free to correct me)
Ground level (or level 0): What do I have? What cards do I have in my hand and what is the stregnth of my hand given the cards on the board?
Example 1: Hero has :7c: :8c: on a :9h: :6c: :5s: :ad: :kd: board.
Hero thinks to himself..."Gin! I have the nut straight!"
Example 2: Hero has :kd: :qd: on a :8d: :3d: :as: :tc: :4d: board.
Hero thinks to himself "Not bad, I have the 2nd-nut flush"
First level thinking: What does my opponent have and how does it relate to my hand?
Example 1: Hero has :7c: :8c: on a :9h: :6c: :5s: :ad: :kd: board.
Level 0: Hero thinks to himself..."Gin! I have the nut straight!"
Level 1: "Villain is tight and raised UTG, so he probably has AK, AA, KK, or QQ. How do i get the money in the pot..."
Example 2: Hero has :kd: :qd: on a :8d: :3d: :tc: :as: :4d: board.
Level 0: Hero thinks to himself "Not bad, I have the 2nd-nut flush"
Level 1: "I raised and the villain called on the button. He always does that with suited aces, so I could be up against a better flush."
Second level thinking: What does my opponent think that I have?
Example 1: Hero has :7c: :8c: on a :9h: :6c: :5s: :ad: :kd: board.
Level 0: Hero thinks to himself..."Gin! I have the nut straight!"
Level 1: "Villain is tight and raised UTG, so he probably has AK, AA, KK, or QQ. How do i get the money in the pot..."
Level 2: "Villain knows that I only like calling raises with pocket pairs, and that I will reraise him with QQ, KK, AA or AK, so he probably is putting me on an JJ or TT overpair, or a set.
Example 2: Hero has :kd: :qd: on a :8d: :3d: :tc: :as: :4d: board.
Level 0: Hero thinks to himself "Not bad, I have the 2nd-nut flush"
Level 1: "I raised and the villain called on the button. He always does that with suited aces, so I could be up against a better flush."
Level 2: "I raised UTG, and I am a tight player so the villain probably thinks that I have AA, KK, QQ, or AK.
Third level thinking: What do I think my opponent thinks that I think that he has?
Example 1: Hero has :7c: :8c: on a :9h: :6c: :5s: :ad: :kd: board.
Level 0: Hero thinks to himself..."Gin! I have the nut straight!"
Level 1: "Villain is tight and raised UTG, so he probably has AK, AA, KK, or QQ. How do i get the money in the pot..."
Level 2: "Villain knows that I only like calling raises with pocket pairs, and that I will reraise him with QQ, KK, AA or AK, so he probably is putting me on an JJ or TT overpair, or a set.
Level 3: "Villain checked behind on the flop, because he always does this whenever he misses with AK. He then bet the turn to represent TPTK. I think that he believes that I am putting him on AK that turned two pair on the turn and river."
Example 2: Hero has :kd: :qd: on a :8d: :3d: :tc: :as: :4d: board.
Level 0: Hero thinks to himself "Not bad, I have the 2nd-nut flush"
Level 1: "I raised and the villain called on the button. He always does that with suited aces, so I could be up against a better flush."
Level 2: "I raised UTG, and I am a tight player so the villain probably thinks that I have AA, KK, QQ, or AK.
Level 3: "Villain knows that I will fold overpairs to a big bet when a flush draw comes in, and that I get suspicious when he flat-calls two potsized bets on the turn and river. I think that the villain believes that I think that his flush draw came in."
Level 4 and above get very complicated and I would need some help from people to fill in examples.
Obviously if you are playing in the lower levels, most of your opponents are not going to be thinking very highly, so you can use one higher level of thinking to better make reads and adjust your play. However, you have to remember that you can't use third level thinking against a first level thinking player, because you are missing information. A villain won't be thinking about if you think that he has a set, because he is only thinking about whether you have a flush or a straight.
This might be basics for some people, but I have only begun to understand this and I hope it is useful to someone!
