Thinking Through a Poker Hand

In order to progress in the game of poker you have to think beyond the cards that you play. There are many situational factors that you have to take into affect when determining the expected value of your decisions. These factors may be different depending on whether you are playing a tournament or a cash game. To focus this lesson, we will concentrate on tournament play. infrared contact lenses

Situational Factors

There are many different factors to take into effect when making decisions about a poker hand. In fact, it’s the layers of complexity involved in poker that make this game so fun. You may have seen lists similar to this, but the following (inspired by Harrington on Hold’em: Volume 1) are the primary situational factors to consider during tournament play.

The stage of the tournament (early, bubble, final table, etc.)
Number of players at the table.
Playing styles and personalities of the players on the table.
Your image at the table.
Your stack size in relation to the blinds & antes.
Your stack size in relation to the others at the table.
Your position relative to the other players.
Action that has occurred before you.
Number and type of players left to act after you.
The pot odds.
Your position after the flop.
Tells you may have picked up.
Your cards.
Levels of Thinking

In order to get beyond the cards, there are different levels in which you should be thinking about the players and the situation. Please see our lesson on levels of thinking for more on this fundamental concept, but here’s a quick re-cap. trick cards

1st Level – What cards do I have?
2nd Level – What do my opponents have?
3rd Level – What do they think I have?
4th Level – What do they think I think they have?
5th Level – Yes, you can keep going and going…
Ideally you should only be thinking one level deeper than your opponent. If they aren’t capable of thinking about what cards you have (2nd level thinking) then there’s no point in thinking about what you think they think you have (3rd level thinking).