There is a nice article on the different levels of poker thinking in the November magazine. However, it occurred to me last night, while I was playing live NL200 at the local cardroom that there is another level that is not covered in that article. This level is especially prevalent in live games:

Player (about 300 behind) raises in LP and is called by the big blind who has him covered. Flop comes JJ2, check, check. Turn = another 2, small bet and call. River a 5, bet from small blind, raise from LP. The big blind goes into the tank for about 5 minutes about whether or not to call $10 for a $35 pot. Eventually he folds JT face up!!!!! Everyone at the table is stunned. He proceeds to explain that he was sure that his T kicker was no good. So, I introduce the "level 0 thinker" - he doen't even know what he has in his own hand.

Sorry for wasting your time, but I thought this was hilarious.

The level 0 thinker only thinks about his hand....so...would this be a level -1 thinker?

Remind me to laugh at that at the tables.

Sorry, I thought that the guy who only thinks about his own hand was the level 1 thinker (my bad). Anyway, level -1 sounds better.

Maybe level -1 doesn't think about his cards or his opponents cards.

I've had people call me with nothing because they thought I was bluffing. Unfortunately, they couldn't even beat a bluff!

This is very true. I remember a couple of weeks ago at the same card room, playing an MTT, I open raised from the button with K9 on a steal. BB called, I paired my 9 on the turn, and he called 2 pot sized bets on the turn and river with K8 (no 8 or K on board). When I turned over my winning hand, he looked at me triumphantly and said "I knew you were just stealing with nothing from the button" - lol

You see this kind of thinking all the time in the micro tournament play. I used to play those 4/180s on Stars almost exclusively- how I build my bankroll, and people would call with all sorts of trash putting you on a steal.

I remember opening for a steal with Q7 or some aweful hand, and a short stack pushed back into me. Getting 4 to 1 I call, of course, and he flips over Q9. Then goes on and on about how he caught me stealing. I say "I can't believe you pushed your entire stack in with Q9 knowing you'd get called" and he simply said "I knew you were weak".

But these players are how I managed to get a bankroll