Advantage of Multi-Tabling

I am a fish at ring, probably in tourney's as well, but I claim no prowess at ring. However, due to the silly Stars promotion, and my greed, I have been multi-tabling Stars micro's, in hope of being in the right place, at the right time.

But damn if I haven't won a few bucks! And maybe learned something along the line.

I found, as far as I go, that when multi-tabling, I don't have time to think myself into silly stupid moves. I still find your AA, but even then, I'm getting in with a pretty good hand.

If I were to single table, I'm sure I would donk out right fast just because I would over think things. Multi-table is mainly about the odds, largely involves reads, and because I have another move to make, I can't spend the extra time that usually gets me in trouble trying fancy zhit.

The micro tables are fast as it is, no one is paying much attention, and at the speeds involved, my stats on the tables don't decide all that many hands for me, but they have made some critical decisions much easier, both in mucking, and raising. Definitely +EV.

So, for me, 2 winning sessions in a row is heady zhit. Even though I started with 'Not Much', I have increased that by almost 40% in those 2 sessions.

Lesson learned is twofold. First, I tend to overthink things. SOmetimes the simple straightforward approach is the best. Occam razor like.

Second is that multi-tabling is tuff. At times the action is being thrown at me too fast to think. And I'm only 6 tabling! But it is getting more familiar, and I can see that within this Stars Promo thingy, I could get to ten tables maybe. Eight no problem.

It boggles my mind that there are some folks here who are doing 20 tables at a time.

I love multi-tabling, but at the moment, I'm stuck at 8 or 9 tables. I can handle the play at the tables ok, but the micro tables at PS break down so fast, I have to be constantly joining wait lists to keep myself active. Oh, and adding notes to a player based on the previous hand when a half dozen windows are popping up can be a little frustrating.

DJ, I'm using the BetPot scripts to avoid using that awful bet slider, and it's a godsend. It literally took me 10 minutes to install it and figure it out.

Now, if I can just find a good script to auto-join waitlists, I might get somewhere.

I am using table ninja which automates bet sizing pre-flop, flop, turn and river *(you can set up amounts in however many bb or as a %of the pot) Not sure what else it can do yet ....right now it is being beta tested and is free...but it works great for multi-tabling.

not good enough to multi table yet to confusing tried it tables popping up hittting wrong buttons in wrong tourneys but then again all new to me this computer online stuff

Jeeze, how long has PokerStars had a layout manager? No more dragging and arranging tables for me.

Jumping from playing 1 table to 6 tables is quite a big difference. Why not play 3 or 4 for awhile? Are you referring here to 6-max or full ring?
Playing too many tables in 6-max is too much for me. I like to stick with just 3 at a time, as I find there's alot of action in 6-max and I want to be paying close attention to what's going on.
Full ring.. different story. I'm still wanting to play close enough attention to see who most likely I'm going to be making my money from (it's not my cards I'm going to make money from,.. it's the players on the tables and I like to have them profiled pretty much to help get paid off &/or take pots).

I tried a full screen of 9 tables yesterday, I could possibly fit 12 screens on my display, but 9 was too much. I did 6 fairly comfortably, but your right, it is the players that you make you money from, and at 9 tables I couldn't read my HUD's fast enough to make them useful. At 6 they are fairly comfortable to deal with but from an ergonomic POV, 4 would be the right # for these old eyes, and tired brain.

All my games were full ring tables, but as someone else mentioned, they break down fairly fast, and smaller tables require more attention. SO for 6 max, I can see that my max would be 6 tables, and expect that would be hectic.

The most i play is 2-3 tabbles, always SnG and MTT. I cant even imagine how people play 20 tables, but if work for them...

i play 4 tables at a time at the most..

dj, you know what they say that the lower the level the more ABC you play. So it makes sense that multitabling would work for you as that's all you have to do is play ABC. I'm working at 8 tables at 05/10 across two monitors right now and until the recent downswing I was having a lot of fun with it.

Last night I was trying Table Ninja and loaded up 4 01/02 and 4 02/05 tables for one of the promotion hands and it's pretty cool. It automatically enters my preferred raise/bet sizes for each street as a default bet before I even get there, and then I just have to click bet, check or fold.

Well I prefer to mulitable since I can put more volume of games in to raise up my profit. Also if im playing low limits which I mostly do, i think its a lot less boring.

I agree that multitabling can help you play better hands. When I started out playing 1 table, I though I'd be able to concentrate better, but the reverse is tru for me. I definitely enjoy playing 4 tables more than 1, keeps me tighter and forces me to take my first read seriously so I am not wasting time wondering or overthinking.

Yep, multi-tabling is online poker's biggest advantage over live poker. One downside for me is that if you start going on tilt, you're playing badly at 8 tables instead of just one!! hahah

i think that i can play up to ten tables at a time as long as they are not heads up or anything because then i have to constantly move back and forth and change my strategy and decision making

I was playing 2 tables regularly, and I was playing 4 for some of the time, I built up a reasonable amount of cash most nights that I played but by the end of the night I always ended up getting sucked out on, I ended up losing most nights.
Well done on the win DJ

dj if u constantly add more tables, like start playing 2 more tables every month, u will reach 20 tables and u would see that it really isnt that hard to do

I find that I have an older age issue here. Not that my mind cant handle 10 tables, (but at this point it is not comfortable) but rather that my eyes can't handle the really small everything at that point. I got a new monitor last year, WS 22", and sitting at a single table at FT (does the best full screen table) is almost as good as a live table.

As my eyes, and my stamina change daily, depending on how tired I am, I find this to be my limiting factor. It may be that instead of tiling my tables, I will want to cascade my tables, but I have not tried that yet.

But again, for me, the overwhelmingly best advantage is that it prevents me from over thinking so much.

You need very high levels of focus, concentration, and attention to multi-table. Some people have a lot of these things, some have a little, and some are in between. So it really depends on you if multi-tabling is right or not. 20 tables at a time is really overdoing it though. You should start with just 2 tables. Then move up to more if you are sure you could handle it. Even if you could handle it I still wouldn't recommend doing too many because it really affects your game.

I am struggling to juggle multiple tables. So far, I can only handle 3-4 at a time.

I noticed last weekend that 4 tabling full ring "fast" tables started to get pretty boring, profitable but never the less I had more than enough time to play more tables comfortably. I'd catch myself paying a little attention to the TV in the background between plays which is not good, IMO. (not turning to look at the tv, just listening to it a bit more which might mess with my game focus).

Next move is to either 6 fast or 8 regular full ring for a test run. If that goes well then I'll play it for a month and add 2 as per Pantin's advice.

Great topic post DJ!

Multi table tournament is very good for learning poker.
But 1 st of All is better to learn some lesson of poker play.

Many fishes are thinking, that AK or AA or KK must win in all cases and Go to
ALLIN.
But they often end tournaments early.
So it is better play to play tight and after you have any chips, you can start bluffing.

I prefer to multi table as well. Unless I'm on only one really weak table, I get board and raise with a lot of hands like 6-5 suited. The crazy me comes out when I get board, which end up costing me. More tables allows me to stay busy keeping me from being hands I shouldn't be in.

I am for and against multi tabling.For because it keeps ur mind actice and not forcing things on that on table,but I kinda dont llike doing it because it is easy to make a mistake and misreadd someone because you cant get good reads on any one table because you have so much goin on.

I'm for multitabling. Firstly, if u're a winning player, it means higher winrate or more $/hr. Second, for those who tend to get bored, its a good way to keep yourself focus.

I'm like begley, if I'm not kept busy I tend to play in hands I have no right being in and tend to be too loose or over thinking the hand.

While multi-tabling I keep busy, play better hands and bring in profits more often.

I started with 2 tables, found myself carrying my laptop around the house doing other stuff and losing money. I switched to 4 tables, got used to it, started carrying the laptop around doing stuff around the house. Moved up to 6 tables, same thing eventually happened. Now I'm doing 8 tables, having a slight struggle, am not bored, don't have my mind on other things other than poker, etc; and doing well again.

So my advice is this: if you find yourself doing other things while playing (watching tv, cooking dinner, reading a poker book, posting on a forum, etc then add another table or 2 to keep your mind focused on your poker playing. If you find yourself struggling to keep up with your tables, you haven't got an idea of the type of players at each table, or the like, then get rid of a table or 2 until you find the perfect balance for you.

I play 5 to 6 tables at a time i have three screens makes it allot easier. i dont use any program or any bots.