Multitabling - multitasking or brain-power?

Gorblid

Gorblid

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So I know there are a lot of online pros that can multi table unrealistic amount of tables....
I wonder what skill a person need to be successful at playing over 4 tables...
I am pretty sure its not really multitasking...

It is an age old complaint - that men are incapable of doing more than one thing at once.

From Wiki:
The idea that women are better multitaskers than men has been popular in the media. Recently, a study by British psychologist Professor Keith Laws at the University of Hertfordshire was widely reported in the press to have provided the first evidence of female multitasking superiority.




Are there any women that are multitabling over 4 tables successfully?
Is there any female poker player that is somewhat close to multitable like the Elki(this dude is the shit at multitabling as I remember he he did something like 24 tables?! with amazing winning rate 10+1 sng i think)
 
tbdbitl

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I am pretty sure its not really multitasking...
Atleast with cognative tasks this is not true or programming either. As a programmer I cannot multi-task. I can code only one thing at a time. I can have 10 things on my plate and switch between them.

There have been studies on this too that point out that as another task is added productivity across all tasks decreases. I think this is the same with adding each table when multi-tabling!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95256794
 
A2345Razz

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Im just starting to play 4 tables at a time(I used to be primarily a live cash player/Razz reg/Mixed game players), so my experience isnt great, but I believe SOME of it is IQ and some just learned behavioral skills based on video gaming that many of the younger players have attained before starting out in poker via WoW or starcraft...or whatever games are huge these days.


IMO anyone with a decently high IQ should be able to play 6-8 tables if they are really concentrating and not proccupied with emails/texts/porn/reddit or whatever else people seem to do while they play.
 
C

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Continuing the aforementioned programing analogy, it's not really multitasking, but time slicing.
Two Processors in a computer can run two tasks simultaneously, but one processor would have to split its time between the two tasks to carry them out concurently.
People can multitask, like breathing, walking and talking because different areas of the brain control those functions autonomously.
But we can't even use our two eyes to look at 2 tables at the same time.
So when multitabling we are spending small amounts of time considering each table, and switching attention between tables.
This is fine when there is no action on most of the tables, but could be a problem when several tables need attention at the same time.
And probably missing some of the information normally gained by watching the action around the table even when not personally involved in hands.

So there needs to be an ability to maintain an overall awareness of everything and to make decisions and act quickly.
Which is like a mother having an awareness of several childrens antics and rapidly reacting when required whilst also doing other household chores, and less like a hunter stalking a single prey to come back to the aforementioned stereotypes. But in the modern world keyboard and mouse dexterity and video gaming skills are probably more appropriate.
 
Charade You Are

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Totally agree with the video game analogy and the skills players learned playing video games helping them multi-table. If you are multi-tabling 24 games you are not playing poker you are playing a video game using HUDs, experience and instinct as your guide.

My bet is when the hand histories are looked at, for example, premium pockets would have been unknowingly folded/timed-out more than once. But multi-tabling is all about volume.

Course since I've only watched people play 24 tables and not actually done it (4 is my max, and I hate 4), I could be full of it.
 
Poker Orifice

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Totally agree with the video game analogy and the skills players learned playing video games helping them multi-table. If you are multi-tabling 24 games you are not playing poker you are playing a video game using HUDs, experience and instinct as your guide.

My bet is when the hand histories are looked at, for example, premium pockets would have been unknowingly folded/timed-out more than once. But multi-tabling is all about volume.

Course since I've only watched people play 24 tables and not actually done it (4 is my max, and I hate 4), I could be full of it.
It depends upon what game they're multi-tabling as well as it depends on who is doing the multi-tabling. I've watched training vids. of Glitlr playing 20tables or more (sng-stt-turbo) & can't recall him missing anything (or even misplaying anything)
 
Charade You Are

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Are the tables stacked or multiple monitors?
 
A2345Razz

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Are the tables stacked or multiple monitors?

2 x 30 inchers can tile up to 32 tables comfortably...and you can use a laptop for all your other stuff and just drag it in or out.

I personally use a laptop with a quad core, and a 23 inch external which is fine for all my needs. I can comfortable play 8 if I was so inclined with pretty high resolution.
 
Poker Orifice

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Are the tables stacked or multiple monitors?
It's set up so there's 4 tables tiled & stacked. (each table is a stack of 5 tables)
2 x 30 inchers can tile up to 32 tables comfortably...and you can use a laptop for all your other stuff and just drag it in or out.

I personally use a laptop with a quad core, and a 23 inch external which is fine for all my needs. I can comfortable play 8 if I was so inclined with pretty high resolution.
2 monitors off of one laptop? What do you need to add for that to work?
 
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I don't believe that male or female really makes a difference.

Its the ability to make a decision with the limited amount of information you have available to you while playing online.

I have noticed that my initial decision is almost always my best decision, single table or multi-table. I have noticed with multi I have LESS opportunity to outguess myself and screw up.

I am speaking from experience. When I was more wrapped up in the newness of it all I multi-tabled at 30+ with my tables stacked and simply rotated through them. Now I am more comfy between 4 and 12. Only one table is too slow, unless I am playing live ala brickandmortar casino.
 
Shells

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Household chores, paying bills, running errands, scheduling and recalling without the calendar, etc., all can be done with ease. Ask me to run more than 3 poker games at one time..not a chance. Especially, if different kinds of games.
 
dmorris68

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2 monitors off of one laptop? What do you need to add for that to work?
Virtually any laptop with an external monitor jack. Almost any recent vintage model can run one external in addition to the laptop LCD, while many like mine have multiple monitor outputs and can run 2 additional monitors (for a total of 3).
 
Ducky7

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I have played 24 tables on a regular basis and this is an interesting concept to me. I have always been considered by my friends as a mad man for playing it and i believe (without blowing my own trumpet) it takes skill to successfully multi table a lot of tables. I played 24 tables at the Micro's (cash games) and have quickly beaten the limits. I have never made any costly mistakes and can think of very few occasions where i missclicked.

Totally agree with the video game analogy and the skills players learned playing video games helping them multi-table. If you are multi-tabling 24 games you are not playing poker you are playing a video game using HUDs, experience and instinct as your guide.

My bet is when the hand histories are looked at, for example, premium pockets would have been unknowingly folded/timed-out more than once. But multi-tabling is all about volume.

Course since I've only watched people play 24 tables and not actually done it (4 is my max, and I hate 4), I could be full of it.

This seems like a very good analysis and explanation as i have always played fast based computer games and had to make quick decisions on those, which may have led to my ability to multi table and be profitable at the same time
 
Poker Orifice

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Virtually any laptop with an external monitor jack. Almost any recent vintage model can run one external in addition to the laptop LCD, while many like mine have multiple monitor outputs and can run 2 additional monitors (for a total of 3).
I was referring to Virtually 2 'external' monitors. Just haven't come across any laptops (stock) that were able to run 2 external monitors & was wondering, "what do you need to add to it for that"
Perhaps I wasn't specific enough.
 
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I think multi-tabling is a different skill to actually being good at poker. Quite often you're making average decisions as oppose to optimal decisions.
 
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Find I seem to do real well while mult tabling and others not so. I actually sat out from a table today so I could concentrate on two tables. Had four of them, one ended soon after the three others started. Two tables is tough, three sucks. Many folks here I am sure do very well playing a many tables.
 
Nathan Williams

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I 24 tabled full ring for years, not so much anymore though. Not because of an inability to do it just because the games are tougher and I want to concentrate more by playing less tables. I just built up starting from a small amount when Stars only allowed like 5 tables or something. I stack tables, and use some scripts to customize hotkeys and reduce on useless clicks like clicking 5 times to sit down, buyin and post the blinds.

But ultimately it's just pretty straightforward/easy for me, all my decisions are basically automatic from years of play. I do have a big history in competitive gaming, especially games requiring high APM (actions per minute) like Starcraft. I am actually fairly old by the standards of most online mass tablers at 33. But I know guys in their 40's who 24 table as well. I don't think age is that big of a factor. Experience is the most important imo, not having to think about decisions.
 
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I put it down to the playstation generation lol

I'm playing 20 tables with ease right now using tableninja to do a lot of the sitting down and time banking for me, I also have it set up so that I can have 1 big stack in the middle and have 4 spots around the stack for me to drop tables in and out of where I need to concentrate a bit more.

I've been playing computer games all my life and when I discovered online poker and tableninja/hotkey programs I was playing 10 tables at least straight away. When I take my next 25nl shot I will drop tables I think but in my opinion, as long as I keep stacking them theres no difference between 10 and 24 tables, i dont have a chance to take detailed notes whilst playing and I go by the HUD and experience.

Its undoubtedly not great for my game in the long run but atm im just trying to build my roll at 10 and 16nl again for another shot at 25nl, I may even just take my next shot playing 20 tables and see how it goes, as I didnt play that many on my first shot and it went ****ing horribly anyways lol
 
dmorris68

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I'm quite a bit older than most of you (including you BlackRain!) but also come from a gaming background, so maybe there's some truth to that theory.

I used to 12-16 table 50NL on FTP, but after a pretty big downswing I took a hiatus to both give my psyche a break and to spend some time reconfiguring my game. When I came back I switched to tournaments, mostly SNGs and DONs, and at first wasn't able to comfortably play more than maybe 4 tables due to the need to adjust individually to each game based on blind levels -- tournaments are a lot harder to multi-table than cash, or at least take a different kind of practice to get used to them.

Gradually I've increased that comfort limit to 8 MTT/SNG/DONs at once. Whatever game I'm playing, I find myself incredibly bored and even somewhat tilted when playing only 1 or 2 tables. Once you get accustomed to the volume and speed of multi-tabling, I'd argue that it's about as hard to go back to single-tabling as you single-tablers think it is to play 20 tables. :)

Unlike most of you, I don't care for stacking, even with software help. I much prefer the "peripheral awareness" that tiling provides. My main poker rig has 3 monitors each at 1920x1200 and I use TableDroid to manage sizing and placement of 6 tables per monitor, using HM2 as my tracker/HUD.
 
tbdbitl

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I can hardly touch a number of you when multitabling. Although I know one member I can bury. That aside, Tony Guerrera preached using TableNinja along with poker tracker software.

TableNinja is software the allows you to fully customize hotkeys and has other tools. Tony used it specifically on pokerstars. I think it can be used on other clients too.
 
dmorris68

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I can hardly touch a number of you when multitabling. Although I know one member I can bury. That aside, Tony Guerrera preached using TableNinja along with poker tracker software.

TableNinja is software the allows you to fully customize hotkeys and has other tools. Tony used it specifically on Pokerstars. I think it can be used on other clients too.
TableNinja was available for FT too, but IMO it's a resource hog especially when running alongside a tracker and playing lots of tables.

There are a number of TN alternatives that do the same things, ranging from the old-school AHK scripts (actually TableNinja was just a compiled AHK script) for those that like to roll their own, to MergeKeys (Merge only) and the aforementioned TableDroid that I use. These tools are a huge help for multi-tablers, and of course a tracker is a given.
 
BelgoSuisse

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Multitabling is not multitasking in any way. you always do the same task - play poker - on all the tables.

The only trick is really to make your decisions fast enough. That comes from experience.

If you tile it also takes quite a bit of dexterity with your mouse or keyboard, but I tend to stack my tables and that requires no dexterity whatsoever. It does require a slightly better visual memory to remember the action on each table as they pop up to the top of your stack.
 
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