How can you define what level you think at?

[kinboshi]

Everyone is capable of anything at a poker table, so you need to respect your opponents all the time - giving people a little too much credit, speshly live, will always be better than under-estimating them.

That's an interesting view, as it's something I know I do - but probably too much so it's to a fault (imo).

Most people on here (I'm talking about the good players) seem to do the opposite as a default position though, or at least that's the way it comes over.  Or am I wrong?

[BorntoBubble]

the key really is what level your opponent thinks on and what you think your opponent thinks you think on.

Any higher levels of thinking should be saved for people who have history between each other then it can be left to leveling and becomes a hole different ball game!

[ManuelsMum]

The greater your facility for heading to the deeper levels, the more prone you'll be to yawn at this picture. Cool huh

[zerofive]

Coming late to this thread to offer my 2 cents. Obviously Dave is spot on, when is he ever not. It's hard to define what level you think at, even if you're very conscious of your own abilities. Even harder to define the level of thinking of a recreational player, simply because they might be out of the loop a little bit. When I was a dealer, I remember one of the nicer fish saying to me "have you ever called to bluff? Like, called a bet on the flop and sometimes on the turn and then fire it in when they get scared on the river?" Of course, to an intermediate player or a passionate amateur, he's just described "floating," arguably what would be defined as a level 3 play. But the same guy used to go broke with AJ preflop all the time because he just didn't realise it's a rubbish hand.

Any of the "i know that he knows," or "what he thinks i think he has," stuff defines a level. Every time you say "know," or more accurately "think," you are adding a level, potentially infinitely, but usually only up to 4 or 5. The problem a lot of intermediate players struggle with, especially against ABC players is "levelling." Ideally you want to be thinking on the level above your opponent. If all they're thinking about is their own cards, then all you need to know is what they're likely to have and you can play the hand perfectly. If they're thinking about your cards as well, then we need to be thinking about what our hand looks like to them, etc. Levelling occurs when they're thinking on level 1, and you're thinking on level 3. Villain only cares about his cards, but you for some reason care about credibly representing a hand. Or you might hero call in a spot where you're miles ahead of your range and he could be betting a missed draw, but all villain knows is that he has a pair.

Conclusively, even if you're a supercomputer and you're capable of thinking on level 128, against most recreational players you'll be on level 2 using some level 3 elements.

Can't really remember what my point was, but that was fun to write.

[kinboshi]

I often call on the river to bluff. That's really high level stuff.