The Book Fiend Info Center

Poker is often a mind game where psychology and analysis of one’s opponents are crucial factors in how to play a hand. This type of poker thinking can be broken down into several levels. The higher levels of thought are more complex and sophisticated and take significant experience to attain – though there are the rare folks who have natural “poker instincts” who automatically tune into these higher levels of thinking.

Poker thinking is classified into three levels, with a base level usually dismissed as not thinking at all. The base level is where a player simply plays the game according to their cards. They only bet certain cards and they don’t take into consideration the actions or thought processes of their opponents. Most amateurs who are new to the game stick to this base line of play.

Poker thinking entails trying to get inside your opponents’ minds. The first level of poker online thinking is to consider what cards your opponents might be holding based on what you have observed about their previous actions and the way the board is shaping up.

The second level of poker thinking is where you try to grasp what your opponent thinks you might have based on the image you project by the cards you typically play and how you are betting each hand.

The third level of thinking is to gain insight into what your opponent thinks you are thinking about your opponent’s hand based on how each of you responds to the other’s betting.

The higher levels of poker thinking are what enable sharks to successfully execute bluffs and more often deceptively out play their opponents.

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