Multitabling

Target Audience

This article is intended for low limit players above $1/2 who are thinking about multitabling (that is, playing more than one table at once) in order to make money faster.

You should ask yourself whether it makes sense to significantly increase the number of tables you play at once since the PartyPoints increase proportionally therewith.

Co-criteria for multitabling

A few limitations right up front: if at least one of the following points fully applies to you, it would be better for you to invest your time in practicing poker or with other articles here in the forum...

- You're a newbie on your current limit (less than 5k hands)

- You have little experience with more than two tables (less than 5k hands in all)

- In the past you have noticed a sharp increase in mistakes when increasing the table count. By this I meant misclicks, timeouts, and "chaos situations" where you just make decisions intuitively.

- You want to relax when playing poker and maybe have a bite to eat on the side – forget multitabling!

- You want to improve your game and work on your leaks – forget multitabling!

- You want to tailor your game to your opponents. (I don't think this is necessary in the lower limits to realize at least a modest winrate. If you're already well versed in the application of PT/PA then this is not a co-criterion)

- Your greatest weakness is a lack of aggression – the danger of calling instead of raising increases when multitabling, in my experience.

The following criteria shouldn't present a problem outside of the beginner area, but are still important co-criteria for multitabling:

- You still regularly consult the SHC and ORC (in my experience the ORC is useful in multitabling for FR on .5/1 but not necessary)

- You think from situation to situation and street to street in post-flop, and not in so-called lines and standard situations. To you the game appears "different and new every time."

- You take a long time to calculate odds and outs and you sometimes run out of time.

Are there weaknesses that don't speak against multitabling?

A weakness can even be improved by multitabling: playing too loose! The first time you get enough tables open at once, you'll thank the Poker God for every time he permits you to fold a hand. You'll let go of "marginal" hands more easily and it's hardly about just the one pot anymore – often you'll only notice that you've won in the periphery. In most cases, the opposing hand is relegated to the background. But more on that later.

Basic requirements

What are the basic requirements for multitabling?

First, of course, the lack of the aforementioned co-criteria. Additionally:

- a quiet, comfortable "work-"place (proper posture is especially important to such concentrated activity!)

- a good table layout (more on that in this thread)

- 100% attention, 0% distraction ("no, daddy can't fix your dragon right now...")

But how large can the difference in winrate be?

I think the substantial difference in a game against 50 or more opponents at the same time is that you almost have to play autistically. I make moves regardless of who's sitting across from me. If someone really makes an impression on me, then sure, but the rest I would just give a standard label of "thinking TAG" to slightly loose passive. Grant a few extra BB to those who gain a slight advantage on you for it – your true hourly winrate will increase or you'll get the $200 for the promotion.

And if a table deviates sharply from this pattern? Either adjust your game (only advisable once you've gotten used to many tables) or just move – other tables also have nice fish.

All in all, I think that an ideal winrate for .5/1 to 2/4 is around 2 BB/100. How much your own deviates from this depends on how good your A-game is and how many mistakes the multitabling produces. The more static your game so far the more constant your winrate. Are you proud of being a particularly tricky player with exceptional hand reading skills? Then you'll have to reckon with a larger fall in your WR. I know that I'm not able to study hand histories while playing 6 tables...

If you overdo it with bluffing then your winrate might even increase. You'll concentrate on the present (you'll have to) when multitabling, and for this mastery over the standard moves in HU is highly advisable – in my estimation it's one of the most profitable articles in the advanced section, especially where the effort to utility ratio is concerned. Accept that you will be predictable – in these limits it is not a terrible mistake.

I noticed a cool side effect the first time I tried to play 6 tables: my game became very decoupled from the outcome of individual hands. Everything seems substantially more abstract, the most evil of bad beats is perceived with just a raised brow, but you don't have time to get mad because there are blinkings that need attention everywhere...you have to check your account standing regularly but only for one reason: to make sure you don't overlook the need to re-cash. But that, too, is not a problem since you'll manage to get another table nicely in the plus. In sum, the tendency is for the results on several tables to level off. If this is not the case and the stakes are sinking on a wide front – there's nothing like closing tables. He who would fly into such turbulence must be thusly disciplined.

The principle of the true hourly winrate

In general, we follow the principle of maximizing payoff, expressed as the true hourly winrate (THW). In the mid- to long term range, other factors come into view, namely the further development of your skills and climbing to higher limits. Entering the realm of multitabling should therefore not be viewed as a standard solution since it really only offers short term solutions. Increasing the table count should be done in a measured fashion when the situation demands it. It is a discipline in itself, in which there is much to learn - and at the beginning many mistakes to make. Only practice makes perfect.

The THW, expressed in big bets per hour, is the product of the winrate in BB/100 hands and the count "n" of hands player per hour.

The formula is:

THW [BB/h] = WR [BB/100] * n/100 [Hands/h]

Multiplying by the size of a BB in $ yields your average dollars per hour. n increases proportionally to the number of tables; in FR games 65 hands per table per hour is realistic (or around 100 hands per hour for 3 tables).

Bonus Whoring or Skill Improvement?

Before I address the topic of payoff maximization any further, I will first deal with the great question of conscience: is it not better to build up one's bankroll strictly through poker winnings and not with bonuses or promotions?

Nothing can be said against working your way through the limits as quickly but "honestly" as possible and working intensively on your skill. In fact quite the contrary; whoever follows this strategy should not seek bonuses that he would not normally have reached through playing hard. But sometimes an interesting promotion sends out its siren call, or you want to make a bonus despite limited time. In these cases, multitabling is a useful tool.

Payoff maximization

There are 2 typical scenarios in which I might be interested in short- to mid-term payoff maximization and not the long term development:

1. I've reached the limits of my comfort and can cash out what I need for my purposes. It is more important to maximize my THW than worry about further climbing the limits or the improvement of my skills. I must underscore though, that these players are those who have already left the advanced stadium in the dust and are not the target group of this article.

2. After a downswing with a reduction in limit I once again have a stable and clearly positive WR and am sure that I can win continuously on the current limit. I want to get back to my old limit as quickly as possible.

In this case, the question must be how to most effectively build up my bankroll again. My usual 3 tables might bring in a WR of 1.5 BB/100 for a THW of 1.5*200/100= 3 BB/h. If I play poker 4 hours a day, I can raise my bankroll by 60 BB in 5 gaming days.

But with only 2 hours a day to play it could take a long time under certain circumstances until I reach the desired limit. But for 2 hours, I could concentrate on 6 tables at once. With a little practice I should be able to make a WR of at least 1.0 BB/100, giving me a THW of 1.0*400/100 = 4.0 BB/h. Thus, I can use the little time I have more effectively. The price is that I must concentrate all on my own actions and will not learn as much - except that I will reduce my rate of mistakes when multitabling during these times.

The high multiplier of the table count on the winrate should be noted. This is a dominating factor, for which reason it can be seen that overdoing multitabling to the point of a negative winrate is counterproductive, even if this or that bonus is lurking around. As long as I can play +EV though, promotions can be so lucrative that it's worth it to take a hit on winrate in the short term. In my experience, every player who wins continuously at his current limit with a WR of at least 1.0 BB/100 can take on the adventure of multitabling.

Here goes: table selection

Table selection is not so important for multitabling in the low limits. But: if you conclude that one table continuously has unpleasant situations and few standard scenarios, then switch it out; you just can't muse about the killer move of your favorite maniac or to calculate whether pot odds of 28.5:1 are enough for your questionable draw every second hand because 5 or more fish are fighting about the pot every time. You should also avoid SH arrangements since they lead to more action and furthermore, require a more concentrated, opponent tailored game. Besides this, every PartyPoints is more "expensive" when fewer opponents are at the table, since the points accrued are independent of the table size.

In the past I would open my 3 tables and only add another once I had a few reads on my opponents. This is not part of proper multitabling. Without PT/PA you don't really have a good way to pick a table anyway. I just open every table with a reasonable average pot. Then I take a quick look which nations are represented and if a place is already free, whether the position is to my liking. A table with slightly above average criteria is enough for me to sit down, the masses will do the rest. I'd rather change again later if a particular table has a bad feel to it.

A few more tips on starting out

Take a little time to figure out the best layout for your tables. I personally like to arrange the tables so that I end up sitting close to the center of the screen. If I have a spot in the lower right of the table, I would place it in the upper left of my screen. Otherwise I'm always looking for where I'm sitting – sure revealing the cards will show it but the arrangement mentioned above reduces the distance my eyes need to travel on the screen – and it brings some things together.

Besides that the brown buttons give a good indication of what's going on. Often you'll just see a part of the table. I try to arrange my multitabling so that I can always differentiate a table in at least 3 ways:

- no visible buttons: I can't make any decisions – table is momentarily uninteresting

- small buttons (6 of them) indicate a possibility of making a pre-selection – I'll take a look when I have time. In principle I use only the fold or check options as pre-selections, but that can save a lot of cleaning up later on.

- big buttons (3 of them) mean that a decision is due on this table now. These tables take priority over all others.

Of course the principle behind the buttons is clear to all of you, but my tip is just to focus on these buttons because they are the ideal indicators for which actions are pressing.

Should you decide to multitable, I wish you good concentration and good cards for your new tables!