Levels of thinking.

manolo salazar

manolo salazar

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Some authors write in their books about the different levels of thinking such as:
1) What do i have?
2) What does my opponent have?
3) What does my opponent think I have?
4) What does my opponent think I think he has?
I have tried hardly to imagine what cards my opponent has because at least I know what I have.
There are some players which can understand very well this topic. On other hand, there are players that we cannot understand very well this. Moreover, we don't know how to develop or dominate most of these levels.
How can we master each level of thinking?:confused:
 
This Fish Chums

This Fish Chums

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Levels of thinking

Understanding the different levels of thinking is a very complex subject, but I'll try to give some advice on each.
1) What do I have - To master this level you must peak at your cards, though not in a way as to allow your opponent to see them.
2) What does my opponent have - There are really two key aspects to this level of thinking.
A) First, learn how good players play pre-flop. Good players use mathematics to help them understand what bets to make pre-flop. If you understand these bets you understand how good players will play. A goo place to start understanding this is at https://www.cardschat.com/preflop-mistakes.php . From there take a look at the poker odds calculator and basic pre-flop chart https://www.cardschat.com/poker-odds-calculator.php . If you master how the good players bet pre-flop you will have a good idea of how they will play pre-flop and get a better understanding of "What does my opponent have"?
B) Post-flop (and not-so-good pre-flop players) is a whole different ballgame. Anything goes in these situations and the only way to figure out what people have is to watch them very closely. Pay attention to how the person plays their hands when you do get to see them playing post-flop. For instance, does this person raise aggressively when they have a good hand, or do they lay back and try to lure other people into betting by trying to trap them? Does this person bluff when there are 4 to a straight on the board? Things like that. I don't have a list of what to look for but to learn how to do this well, start by always watching the person to your left very closely. If you watch them for a good 5-10 orbits you may be able to pick up some information. Once you can reliably "read" that opponent, start also keeping track of the opponent to your right and build from there until you are capable of watching all players at the table.
3) What does my opponent think I have? - This one is very difficult because it relies on playing against good players.
A) If you are playing against good players then think about how you've played the flop the same way you're thinking about how the other players play. Then, occasionally do the opposite to trick them into thinking the wrong thing. This means they only know how you are playing the current hand.
B) If the other people at the table haven't mastered #2 above then they won't be able to know what your cards are intuitively, they can only rely on how you play the current hand. So to handle this, think closely on how you've bet the current hand and what would you think based on this limited information. for instance, if you were playing against someone and they bet 3 BB pre-flop, 1 BB on the flop, then came in with a big pot-sized bet on the turn, what do you think they had happen with their hand? Would you think they hit big on the turn? Would you think they were trapping? Whatever you would think they would do, there's a good chance they are thinking you've done that.
4) What does my opponent think I think he has? - Ummm . . . ask him maybe? This one I have no clue.

So, as you can see, the levels of thinking get more and more complex as you progress through them. And they also rely on each other so it is important to master one level before moving on to the next.
 
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