Having trouble multi-tabling

I have noticed that I am unsuccess-full when I am playing more than one table. All I play is tourneys, sometimes 10 man stt and some times I am playing in a MTT (most of the time either stt's or sng's though.) I look back at hand history and some times I will make a few poor plays, and some times I have hard luck.

It's not than I am a bad player, because the first time I ever had money on a online poker site to play with was when I won $6 on a CC freeroll on Carbon a few months back and now I have a little over $250 on there.

I just seem to do better by playing one table, sometimes it can a little boring because of slow play but I usually do better by playing just one table.

So my question is do you think I should keep trying to multi-table and just try to get better at it as I go or should I just stick to one table?

If you are bored and playing close to optimal poker then try adding one table at a time. If you don't use a HUD and want to play more than 4 tables, I suggest getting one.

When I first started I couldn't even imagine playing more than 1 table. Now 4 is slightly boring. Can barely keep up with 9, but still slightly profitable. You will not always catch the little things on multiple tables, but as long as $ per hour goes up little mistakes are fine.

Also, the more you play the easier it gets. Once your decision making process is almost instant in most situations, then you are ready to add another table or two.

So long story short is only you really know the answer to your question. Another thing is if you are learning a new format or game is best to keep with less table until you get used to it.

I think most of us started playing just 1 table, thinking that playing any more than 4 seems insane. However, like Jimmy said, as your decisions become more automatic, you need to just add one table at a time until that becomes easy. I started with one and after a while, I was able to play 16 tables with no problem.

Among other things, some key areas that need to become automatic to you will be having a clear understanding of your playable hand ranges at the various stages of a SNG, have a good understanding of ICM, and being able to quickly react to playing your effective stack compared to the blinds. Also, something that really helped me was taking a lot of notes and color coding players so that I could easily scan the tables to understand the playing styles of my opponents. Obviously a HUD can help with this too, but I played over 17k SNGs and I very rarely used a HUD. For me it was all about the colors and notes as I was jumping between 16 tables.

So, work on your game and as you feel more comfortable with your decision making, add one table at a time. GL

I kinda have the same problem but adding one table is never a problem as u have ample time to examine each move and think long and hard before acting (in full tilt at least)...So I'm pretty sure u can stick to good play that's similar to live poker on two tables.

More than that and you have to rely on your hud and become automatic and I dare not try it again cuz I can't seem to do it but I think you should try 2 tables

One table, I think, helps you learn about poker. Playing multiple tables, you are using what you know about poker, but I'm not sure how much you are growing as a player. I suppose looking back at hand histories is a learning tool, as can be the poker software available to analyze one's own play as well as that of their opponents.

Myself, I tried to go with the $/hr wisdom and got it up to 8-9 tables, but it was just too stressful -- if I got called away by kids or the doorbell or whatever, I was frantic. I've since scaled all the way back to one tournament at a time, and it's much more relaxing and enjoyable for me.

I'm taking notes, thinking about hands I'm not involved with, and playing in a style that more closely imitates what I would be doing at a live table, which is why I started playing online in the first place. Hopefully, when I do get to the WSOP, this will all work in my favour

Thanks for the feedback. I am going to try to just play two tables for now and see how that goes. If I am making some solid profit than I will maybe try 3 or 4 tables, if I am just breaking even or losing than I will just stay at one table.

I just wish there was some more traffic on Carbon, takes forever.

Yeah, on Carbon, etc. it would be extra tough because by the time something fills up you're likely a good number of levels in, so you're thinking between tables as well as different blind/stack amounts.

Good luck!

Stick to one until you're comfortable, there's no point rushing the process because it will only cost you money through bad plays and inattention.

A good rule of thumb is if you're finding yourself getting bored, surfing the web, watching TV or whatever between hands you've probably got the spare mental capacity to replace those activities with another table.

Alright...thanks for the feedback