Level of Thoughts at Poker Table

“You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em. Know when to fold ‘em. Know when to walk away. Know when to run. Every hand’s a winner. And every hand’s a loser.” Knowing what you’re up against is the biggest key to knowing how to play so that you can win”- The Gambler

The ability to think through situations makes the player do well at the poker table. Think every hand you lose is down to bad luck or a bad beat. You will have made errors, made poor calls, raised bets unnecessarily, and slowly played until somebody caught up. After a while, you will be able to look back on your hands with a rational mindset, learn from the mistakes you’ve made, and use them as a positive. With experience, you develop a better approach and strategy to play.

Thought Levels of Poker

Don’t know what your opponent is working out or maybe holding on? to This factor relies on your ability to think on several different levels. Also, it is important to know the different levels of thought so that you can save yourself from playing incorrectly against different types of players.  To beat each type of player, you should always stick to thinking at one level above your opponents only.

Level-1
These players focus only on the cards in their hands, not thinking at all about what they may have and whether it’s better than theirs. They will have difficulty in bluffing, as their bluffs will be made regardless of what they think their opponent may be holding. You can make a lot of money playing against them.

 Level-2

Such players will think about both the strength of their hands and the strength of their hands. These are better players. They’re at least paying attention to both of those things so they are less likely to pay you off with a really big hand because they’re thinking about whether you’ve got them beat or not. They do have not much knowledge of the game yet to use the correct strategy.

Level-3
These are much better players because now they’re thinking about how you’re thinking about the hand as well as thinking about theirs. They are more aware of optimum situations for bluffing and can make more accurate value bets.

Level-4
This is the highest level of poker.  Such players think about what they have, what others have, what others think they have and how can they make them think they have something different than they have. It is about how you can manipulate other players into thinking about the hand wrongly, into misreading you. The better you are at all of these factors, the more likely you are to win.

Advanced players will be able to grasp hold of the thought processes at this level and use it to their advantage. The higher the level of thought you can use effectively the better, but also be prepared to adapt depending on the level of your opponents.