Any good poker player's nightmare...

Okay, so I was just playing a quick session of cash games, 4 tabling the micro stakes. What I'm thinking is "Haha, it won't be long until I take all of these little fishies' money!" (well, not exactly, I leave my ego out of my game, but anyway...) Then I think "I bet these donks can't even multi table!! They don't have the concentration in takes to play more than one table at once!", and I decided to verify if what I was thinking was right.

So I searched the guy on my right and he was playing 6 tables at once. "That's alright", I think, "just bumped into a rare high volume player around here!". Then, I searched the guy on my left. And he was playing so many tables I couldn't even count them. "Okay, two players who multi table, that's a sight! Let me see the rest of the table now that I'm at it...". And so I did. And everyone was playing more tables than I was.

What the hell? How come even the micro stakes games, who are supposed to be filled with beginning players and drunk guys who think they're Phil Ivey, are loaded with decent, experienced players? I know multi tabling doesn't equal skill, but it takes some kind of skill to play like this.

What I then thought was something that had already cross my mind, multiple times - what if, someday, in the near future, thanks to the poker boom, nearly everyone at the tables is a good, thinking player?? That would make the already good players, like I consider myself to be, break even players. NLHE is already a lot tougher than it was a couple decades ago, who guarantees that the average poker Joe won't be better in a few years? I know poker is nearly perfect ecosystem, but I cringe at the thought that the fish will grow sharp teeth that will try to bite me!!

Yeah, yeah, I know it's an extremely long shot and it's just me panicking, and I've read about some professionals saying this will never happen, simply because fish keep coming in, in the form of rookies and donks who just won't evolve. But still, I don't consider the majority of these micro stakes players to be complete idiots, and nearly everyone multi tabling just proves it. Maybe it's just Pokerstars that has better players, I should check out some other sites. Oh, and I hear PLO is extremely profitable right now if you're willing to learn how to play it; people say it's the game of the future, and the average skill level there is the same as NLHE's was 30 years ago. Maybe I should check that out as well and gain a head start on the competition...

Post your thoughts ladies and gentlemen.

As others get better, the way to beat them is get even better. Never stop improving and getting better. I'm confident that I can outwork the majority of poker players, so yes players will get better but if you continue to work hard and improve you'll be getting better as well.

Also, what do you define as microstakes? Are you talking the penny tables or like 25nl? Just because someone multi-tables doesn't mean they make money. Sometimes it's more of an ego thing.

Yeah what stakes were you at? At the 25nl tables I see a lot of regulars at FTP and I have thousands of hand histories on those guys. Sadly not most of them show a profit. I'm really beginning to buy into the theory of table selection more and more.

For example, last night around 11pm PST I'm seeing mainly "regulars" at FTP $25nl that I was playing (I 4 table), and they were all 4 to 8 tabling it up. On one hand, the action IS tougher, but at the same time I'm thinking hey if I want to be a winner I need to hang with the regulars.

The result?

Well, if you take away my horrific 2 outer bad beat at the river for 2/3 my stack, I was breakeven the rest of the night. Not bad. Weekend day play shows the recreational types and man they pay off well - or it turns into bad beat hell.

I don't know about the game getting too tough but I do agree completely with one point you make: PLO is where it's at right now.

I've been playing .1/.25 PLO Hi almost exclusively for weeks since I finished reading Amazon.com: Pot-Limit Omaha Poker: Jeff Hwang: Books (excellent BTW). I had been hitting a real downer playing NL Hold'em so I thought a change of scenery might do me good and it certainly has. If you're willing to be patient and tight (I'm seeing about 30% of flops including so many free trips from the blinds I can't count) the money is very easy. The only real problem is that it's so hard to find several good tables going at any one time.

I consider myself to be a solid beginner, but i tend to do better at the 50nl tables then the lower ones. I try to stay out of them cause my bankroll really cannot support it, but to me it seems abit looser there then the lower ones.

Could it be because loads of skilled players are infact multi tabling at the lower limits? something to look into at least

I finally can do well at 9 tables (all that I can really do with my monitor, unless I want to hook another one up beside it), but I have realised that that really isnt anything special. I mean I see the same names at every table, so they are playing probably at least 9 or more.

I'm gonna start playing 25NL now. Yeah, I always try to learn and gather as much help to improve my game as I can. Still, even if I feel I have an edge against the rest of the people, I wish it could be bigger...

I feel I have very little edge in NL holdem as compared to PLO. In NL Holdem players no much better as when to fold, but in Omaha and especially HI/LO they will chase almost any second best hand at the lower limits. All you have to do is limp in and wait for the nuts and then extract chips.