Cascading vs tiling tables.

Recently I switched from playing poker on my home pc to my new laptop.

I rarely multi table but occasionally I will and I used to tile the tables on my larger monitor but on my laptop I have to cascade them.

It occurs to me now that I've tried both that cascading them is better as I often can no longer see the results of my decisions. This forces me into worrying about making good decisions and not being so results oriented.

Just wanted to share that and I'm wondering if that's the general consensus.

I like to tile so i can see whats going on in advance, but i only 4 table

I prefer tiling, as i can see the action, helps me keep more notes etc.
But i've had to switch to Stacking, due to strain on my eyes, and the fact i probably need some sort of glasses.

I prefer keeping a nice even stack(google, "the perfect stack" should be something about making perfect stacks on pokerstars), so i don't have to move my mouse around all the time. But yeah, your on the right track, for those of you who tilt easily, stacking is a great way to not focus on the result of your decision. I do find when you stack you need software like Table ninja, because the tables pop up over the top of each other easily.

And also, if you dream of mass multitabling, and you find yourself looking at how a hand plays out, you will time out a lot! another advantage of stacking. And lastly, with the notes system on both tilt and stars, you can actually review hands at a later date, and just input them straight into notes at stars, so your not missing out on that aspect either.

Another advantage to stacking is less mouse movement.

Personally I prefer to tile. But I only play 4 tables. If I was playing more than 6 then I'd have to stack them.

Tiling gives me the best look at all situations.

I like to know whats going on all the time...!!!

If playing more than 6 tables I would recommend stacking over cascading. I myself seldom play more than 5 tables at a time, but I have tried cascading, and I dont like it. Its just confusing.

I multitable 15 FR cash tables, maximised and stacked.

I don't even use a mouse cause I prefer the touchpad.

i used to tile all the time, up to 6 tables on my laptop. never thought i could play more.

then after a very long time i tried to stack them, and suddenly i could play up to 16 tables without a problem, even had to wait sometimes to take action.

most annoying was not knowing the result, so i found myself often clicking around, moving an "important table" to the right so i could see what was going on.

so, with 4-6 tables i would tile, more need to be stacked.

I go for tiling. I find it much better since I can see all of the games at once(up to 6). Just a lot more comfortable to keep all the tables up at once so i can still follow all the action.

I just grabbed an s-video cable, hook it up to macbook and get down on the bigscreen, much easier and less tempting to turn it on when action dulls down hahaha, only around 5$ at radioshack. great purchase.

I multitable six tables on my laptop

I prefer tiling tables and when I multi table I will only play up to 4 tables at a time. I usually just play 2 tables at once because it lets me completely focus on both of them.

I do this as well. If I am playing only two tables at once, I just cascade them on the laptop. But if I am playing three or more or deep in one big tourney, the s-video cable comes out and I play in hi-def 46" glory. I can clearly see all the action on 6 tables at once with tiling. I hook up my wireless mouse, sit back in the Lay-z Boy and click away.

I truely believe this is the best way to go for multi-tabling using a laptop. An RCA cable works as well if you have an older flat screen tv without an s-video hook-up. You won't get any sound through your tv, just the picture. But with the increased screen size, knowing where the action is will be easy even without the audio alerts.

^^^ Ugh. Don't know how you can tolerate s-video much less composite (RCA) video quality on a hi-def screen. It's really *really* low resolution (s-video is 400 pixels high), upscaled to your native panel resolution, which I just can't tolerate to look at. You guy should be looking into HDMI or DVI->HDMI cables, or at least a VGA connection as most hi-def panels still have VGA inputs.

thanks for the post and some ideas on how to change my multitabling.
gl all.

i like to tile but i only play 4

Tile 4 life!
cant stand cascade pop ups are so annoying

If playing STT/SNG, this is one of the things I actually like about stacking tables.

Personally I multi-table MTT's & always 'tile' them. I also play at 2, 3 or 4 different sites at the same time. 6 is the most I'm comfortable with at one time (on laptop) but occassionally use two laptops (one for two sites & the other for one or two others).
I prefer to tile because with MTT (esp.when deepstacked) I like to pick up any important reads with hands in action & just like to follow what's going on at all times (unless it's super micro donkament stuff like $4 & under buyins on Stars, then it really doesn't matter).

If you are learning the game there is something to be said for tiling your tables so you can see everything that happens for a while, learn the flow of the game and hopefully pick up some reads of people and start to understand what mistakes you are making. Many good players here advocate cascading for the reasons pointed out above especially so your not focused on being result orientated and just making the right play.

Also if you are playing alot of poker your wrists and fingers going to be angry at you down the road.

Considering that FT (where I play) is pixelated anyways, the s-video does nothing to detract from the pic quality. It just makes the pixels larger, which is ok when you're on a larger screen. I don't play poker for the graphics anyways. If I want to see quality graphics I'll play in my PS3. Regardless of pixelization, multiple screens are still easier to see vs. a laptop.

Also, most older laptops (2 or more years) do not have HDMI output. Nor do older televisions. RCA, or VGA (forgot about that) should be compatible with most older tv/laptop setups.

FT isn't that pixelated, then again I don't use the default skin because I thought the default looks horrible. But regardless of pixelation, the issue is with the size of the tables. Although yes I am a visual quality snob (which is why I've spent so much on our various TVs, and run 3 ginormous monitors on my main desktop rig), besides looking awful, 400 pixels means you'd absolutely have to stack. I don't see how you could possibly tile even two tables on a 400 pixel high display and see what's going on.

Even if your TV doesn't support full HD (1920x1080p) over VGA, it should support at least 1280x720 or something similar, which will look a LOT better. Try VGA and I'm reasonably certain you'd never consider s-video again. You can get long cables cheap at Monoprice, though with VGA being analog I would caution against buying longer cables than you need. Of course the same is true for s-video and composite, both of which look worse than probably the crappiest VGA signal.

Oh and my 2 year old laptop does have HDMI. Though I do realize that obviously many didn't back then, but more and more do now.

I tile since I tend not to play more than 4 tables at a time. One Table per corner works fine for me.

I tile with 4 games on each screen. I find using 2 screens easier than any other method i have tried.

Totally agree here. Stacking and cascading is terrible for beginners. Personally, I think it's generally bad for all cash games no matter what. Nanonoko and Leatherass9 are both mid-high stakes cash game players who have awesome success and they both tile 12-20 tables on a few monitors. Stackers are typically multitabling SNGs where most of the decisions are push/fold.

I tile 12 on my iMac which is maxed out on 21". I've tried stacking and cascading and just hated it. I like to be able to hit check/fold button in advance when possible to concentrate on more important upcoming actions. Plus, if you goof up on stacking, suddenly there's one table where you are sitting out on that you are unaware of.

LONG LIVE TILING!

I prefer tiling, but beyond a few tables it gets cumbersome, even with multiple monitors. My poker rig has 3 monitors -- two 24" flanking one 25.5" in the center -- all running 1920x1200 resolution, and I used to tile across all three. This was a pain in the neck... literally. My head was constantly swinging back and forth across nearly 5 linear feet of display, and it was exhausting. I wound up tiling 9 tables on the center monitor and the rest on the right monitor, leaving HEM, lobbies, etc. up on the left. I had to shrink my tables down a bit smaller than I preferred, but it was better than swinging across all three. I told myself if I was going to play more than 12 tables on a regular basis, I'd look into stacking. However I took a break from multi-tabling cash and now play mostly SnGs just 4-6 at a time, so I can tile on my main monitor just fine. I'm going to learn to stack if I go back to high volume cash again.

I'm a tiler, 6 table when just with my laptop but I occasionally hook up another monitor and 10-table. I have found that my ROI is much higher when I 6-table, but just as a test, I did a 3 month run, with experimenting between 10 tabling with one month and 6 tabling with 2...these are all SNGs between 27-180.

May - 160 games ROI 34% Net: $117 (6 table)
June - 338 games ROI -1% Net: -$8.34 (10 table)
July - 194 games ROI 78% Net: $266.88 (6 table)

Granted, I don't grind or play every day, but I'm finding that 6 tabling is pretty optimal for me, even though I might suffer a bit more variance. Stacking and cascading just don't feel right.