multi tabling

    • charlieharvey
      charlieharvey
      Bronze
      Joined: 06.02.2012 Posts: 6
      hi all i have a couple of questions. firstly is it possible to be successful at poker and make money without multi tabling. reason being i find it difficult to make the right decision on more than one table at a time.

      second question, i keep reading and hearing about software such as holdem manager etc. do i really need any of this or are there successful players who dont use them.

      Thanks
  • 8 replies
    • Skodljivec
      Skodljivec
      Bronze
      Joined: 17.12.2011 Posts: 5,709
      1st question:

      Probably no; you'll have to learn this, unless you play tournaments with a decent BI.

      2nd question:

      I really think HM is a must if you are serious about poker
    • ThatGuyMatt
      ThatGuyMatt
      Bronze
      Joined: 03.12.2010 Posts: 3,765
      Hey charlieharvey,

      You can make money playing just 1 table by all means, but you will not be able to put in enough volume to make shed loads, unless you start playing in higher limit games.
      Alot of players find Multi-tabling difficult to begin with, just play one table until you feel comfortable you're playing well, then load up another, practice with these 2 tables running and see how it goes! you can always close one if it gets a bit chaotic for you :)
      Out of interest, how many tables did you attempt to play, 2? 4? 6? :D 24? :P

      As for Tracking Software, they are not essential, but they are of great use to any player. They will help improve your game dramatically, allowing you to review your sessions and find out where you're going wrong. Your hands are also saved in the Software you can also upload alot of hands to our Hand Evaluation forum to help you improve even more. Thats just some of the Reviewing side of Tracking software, this is so much more! You also get a HUD(Heads up display) that will help you make some decision against specific players, such as how often they Limp, 3Bet, CBet, Fold to CBet, the list goes on!

      I love Tracking software, it has helped me improve my game soooo much, I highly recommend you test one out :)

      You can download our very own Elephant software for free here;

      http://www.pokerstrategy.com/software/9/

      Enjoy!
    • ExternalUseOnly
      ExternalUseOnly
      Bronze
      Joined: 30.01.2010 Posts: 3,373
      It all depends on what you class as successful and how much money you want to make.

      If you are playing just one table this is fine and you can make money of course, but you will need to put in a lot more hours than somebody who plays, for example, 4 or 6 tables to get in a decent amount of hands to see if you are really beating the games.

      Just looking at the Pokerstars lobby now the ring games range from 70 to 150 hands per hour, so you would have to play for 1000(ish) to get a really good sample size of hands, if you are just playing 1 table. However if you can train yourself to concentrate on 2 tables or 4 then you can see how much more hands and most importantly experience you can get.

      It is important to not play more than you can concentrate on though, what i did when starting to play was play 1 table then if i found i had time to check the forums or facebook or anything other than concentrate on the game i added another table.


      As for tracking software, i think the software is essential because it keeps every hand you have played for you to review and study your game. The HUD however (which shows you the stats of other players) is certainly less essential but i believe it is -EV to not use one. All those stats available to you mixed with your own notes on a player will give you so many reads on them.

      There are some very successful players though who claim to have never used one.


      At the end of the day like a lot of things in poker you just have to try them out and see if you are comfortable with it and if it works for you

      Regards
      Carl
    • charlieharvey
      charlieharvey
      Bronze
      Joined: 06.02.2012 Posts: 6
      thanks for your replies everyone, very helpful. Matt, i started playing just one table and was doing very well so i opened up another. with the two tables open i thought i was holding my own so i opened a third and then things went horribly wrong! I found i was in a situation where i had jj in the cut off on one table and saw that there had been a raise from mid one so i re raised. I didnt see that there had also been a raise from utg1 who of course pushed all in. i folded and it turned out he had aa. Whilst this debacle was happening i had kk on another table which was folded as i didnt act in time. So i closed off two of the tables i guess with a mixture of panic and frustration.
    • Wurble
      Wurble
      Bronze
      Joined: 04.04.2009 Posts: 457
      Originally posted by charlieharvey
      thanks for your replies everyone, very helpful. Matt, i started playing just one table and was doing very well so i opened up another. with the two tables open i thought i was holding my own so i opened a third and then things went horribly wrong! I found i was in a situation where i had jj in the cut off on one table and saw that there had been a raise from mid one so i re raised. I didnt see that there had also been a raise from utg1 who of course pushed all in. i folded and it turned out he had aa. Whilst this debacle was happening i had kk on another table which was folded as i didnt act in time. So i closed off two of the tables i guess with a mixture of panic and frustration.
      Multi tabling gets a lot easier with time. I was a bit of an extreme case, and not in a good way! From two tabling I crept up to 4 and within weeks I was playing 24. Btw 4 FR tables back when I first started felt really frantic, now 4 FR tables would put me to sleep! It's all about experience and getting used to standard situations you find yourself in a lot.

      I'm not saying playing 24 tables is easy btw, just because I did it doesn't mean I was good at it, it's just that it is possible to play ok like that with practice, even though 4 tables now feels too much. I find now that after quite a few years my actual optimal is 6 SH tables so I can watch all of the action and take notes which is something I never used to do.

      As others have said, just build gradually. Eventually you will be bored playing just one table and this is the time to open another. Just make sure that you are always aware of what's going on at each of your tables and keep taking notes!
    • charlieharvey
      charlieharvey
      Bronze
      Joined: 06.02.2012 Posts: 6
      thanks again :)
    • surfwell1818
      surfwell1818
      Bronze
      Joined: 18.11.2009 Posts: 137
      Hi Charlieharvey,
      My 2 cents is Start at 1 table and take heaps of note s on the players there.Such as their buy-in amount, how they have played previous hands you have studied in the replay when you are folded out of the hand.The hands they take to show down and bet sizes , etc etc there is heaps to observe.
      I don't use a HUD/Tracking software.The pokerstrategy Elephant does not work at my site and I don't want to use one right now any way.
      I have used the elephant at my 2ND and 3RD preferred site to play at at the moment and have found it pretty confusing.This would be due to lack of use obviously,BUT, my notes give me some kind of confidence because I made them, they are in my words and I can update them as I see people play differently.
      Don't know if this will help but basically, take notes and heaps of them on all the players.Watch replays constantly , then open table 2 on another session with mindset of having extracted as much info from table 1 before opening table 2.
      There are heaps of excellent articles in pokerstrategy and videos of pros multitabling to help you out.
      Also don't play tired, rushed for time, drunk, angry, when you should really be doing some thing else etc etc.At these times you will almost always play your absolute worst and your confidence will dive.
      Peace
      Simon
    • ThatGuyMatt
      ThatGuyMatt
      Bronze
      Joined: 03.12.2010 Posts: 3,765
      Hows the Multi-Tabling going charlieharvey? Still on the 1 table, or have you managed to move up 1, 2 or 23? :D