WSOP Europe / Matthew Pitt / 18 September 2008 / Leave a comment

Texas Hold'em is a game that, on the surface, is very easy to learn. This simplicity makes it appealing to scores of players worldwide. However, things are not always as they seem and once you start to delve deeper and deeper into the psychology of the game, you will find that some of the levels of thought are extremely complex.

David Sklansky first penned the idea of the five levels of thinking in poker in his book "No-limit Hold'em: Theory and Practice".

When facing the average player in a poker tournament, it will be a rare occasion that you will have to think above the first couple of levels. However, if you find yourself playing in a pro-heavy festival, such as the World Series of Poker Europe, you will need to be aware of the different levels of thinking even if you do not use them yourself.

Level one is the base level of thinking and consists of knowing what your hand is, nothing more nothing less. Obviously thinking about poker this shallowly will not yield the best results but it is a sound foundation to base the next stages on.

The next level starts to incorporate the holdings of your opponents. Thinking at level two means you know what your hand is, the possible hand of your opponent and if you have the potential to win the hand. The vast majority of poker players fall into this category.

Better players will then begin to think much deeper and start to consider what their opponents thinks that they hold. Thinking on this level means that you will be aware of how your bets look to your opponents and will therefore be able to disguise your hand better than the average player.

Once you pass level three, the level of thinking starts to become even more complex. Sklansky describes the next level as thought as "what does my opponent think that I think they have?" As overwhelming as this sounds, the actual theory is actually quite simple. At this depth of thinking, you are trying to put your opponent on a hand, thinking about what he or she is trying to represent with their betting and whether or not you believe them.

The final level sounds ridiculous and is usually reserved for the top professionals competing in the biggest games for the largest prizes. When Annette Obrestad faced John Tabatabai heads-up for the £1,000,000 first prize and the coveted WSOP bracelet at the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe, the level of thinking was incomprehensible.

During each hand, both players would have been thinking along the lines of "what does my opponent think that I think they think I have?" As stupendous as that sounds, when top players collide at the table it is more than the cards they hold that matters.

So when you see a top player raising and re-raising with eight-six off suit on an ace-high board at the 2008 WSOPE, do not think they have gone mad, they are merely thinking on a level that is way above us mere mortals!