Leveled thinking is common in competitive games, for obvious reasons. There's no better illustration of what you're talking about than the poison scene in Princ

Leveled thinking is common in competitive games, for obvious reasons. There's no better illustration of what you're talking about than the poison scene in Princess Bride: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMz7JBRbmNo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMz7JBRbmNo The way I've heard most competitive gamers talk about the line between leveling and tail-chasing is to play at level 2: Level 1: The obvious strategy Level 2: Strategy that beats the obvious strategy <-- Default to this level Level 3: Strategy that beats level 1 The problem is, if you're playing in a competitive environment, everyone knows about leveling, so you may actually gain more edge by picking a strategy randomly. I've heard competitive Magic player Huey Jensen would make random plays when he was behind on the chance he could throw his opponent off and trap them in leveling second-guessing.