Learn to multi table

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Learn to multi table

by Jared Tendler

People who suggest that mass-multitablers are playing a 'mindless' form of poker, don’t really understand the skill behind it. The truth is that successful multi-tablers, like my good friend and Pokerstrategy coach, Dusty "Leatherass9" Schmidt, have automated an incredibly complex decision-making process. That makes Dusty, and others, look like they’re playing mindlessly, when in reality they’re making tons of complex in-game decisions instinctually and with very little conscious thinking. It’s not mindless, it’s instinctual.

The first time I watched Dusty play 16 tables was an incredible thing to witness first hand. I was exhausted after 45 minutes! After closely studying what Dusty, and other mass multi-tablers are able to do, I’ve learned the skills behind their “talent.” Over the past several years have coached many players to reach SuperNova, SuperNova Elite, and other rake race or volume type goals/prop bets. In this article I lay out some of the key skills that will help you to learn how to increase your volume and multi-tabling powers.

Automation

In order to become a successful multi-tabler you must have a large part of your poker skill mastered. When a skill or habit is mastered, thinking is no longer needed. The brain can go into 'autopilot' and not waste valuable mental space to perform these skills or habits correctly. A good grinder is able to make 100’s of decisions quickly because their decision making process is so well honed they’re able to instantly analyze prior action, bet sizing, hand range, and other details of the hand. There is very little conscious thinking, but there is a ton of decisions made instantly.

Without the ability to autopilot, the mind gets overwhelmed by the sheer number of decisions that need to be made. Not surprisingly that’s a common problem described to me by players who are playing too many tables.

Automation is the only option to successfully multi-table because there is a limit to how much you can think about at one time. The thinking part of the brain has a limit of between 5-9 pieces of information that it can consider at one time. (That number is even less when tired or tilted.) The only way to get around this limitation is automation. You must be able to have decisions made without any thought.

The other advantage of having a large chunk of your decisions automated is that it actually saves mental energy. Decisions that require thought, burn more energy than decisions made automatically. This is one important key to being able to play longer.

Here are a few tips to train your poker skill or decisions to become automatic:

The fastest way to automate is to focus on the mistakes in your game that are most obvious. These mistakes are obvious because you already have a ton of knowledge around why they are mistakes.

These are your ‘C’ game mistakes. Write a list of these mistakes that you find yourself making regularly, review them before you play, and then under no circumstances are you to make these mistakes while you play. If you have more than 3, then prioritize the 3 that are most obvious.

There is no substitute for sheer repetition because training mental skills, like a poker decision, is no different than training physical skills like a golf swing. Practice makes automatic.

Increasing Volume

When increasing tables or time, the goal is not just to increase volume, the goal has to be to increase volume while maintaining quality. It’s easy to play a ton of hands, and be a losing player. There’s no skill in that. Sure some drop off in the quality of your play is likely to happen as you increase volume, especially at first, but you’re striving to minimize this drop off as much as possible.

Of course that’s not how many players think about it. They expect it to be easy because they see many players who can play 12 tables for 6 hours at time without a problem. Only what they don’t realize is that by currently only being able to play 12 tables for 3 hours or 6 tables for 6 hours, they’re expecting a 100% increase in their capacity to happen automatically. This fantasy is the equivalent of believing they can walk into a gym and expect to easily bench press 400lbs when they only lift 200lbs. No one in their right mind would even think that were possible, but, that’s exactly what poker players do all the time.

Increasing the mental strength to grind happens in much the same way that muscles grow stronger: by steadily adding more weight. In this case, you’re steadily adding tables, time, and/or quality. The key is to thinking of increasing volume, like you’re creating a mental workout for yourself. Have some fun with it. Here are a few ideas how:

This step is extremely important and it’ll come as no surprise that poker players tend to overestimate their ability. Spend some time looking through your poker database, or thinking about the amount of volume you’ve put in over the past 6 months. Specifically you want to determine how many tables you play on average and how long you can play that average number of tables while maintaining at least your B-game. If tilt or other mental game issues are a problem, you MUST account for them in your calculation. Mental game issues are often a big barrier to increasing volume.

Obviously increasing mental capacity by 100% is ridiculous, so what’s the number that make sense? It’s hard to say precisely, but it’s closer to 5-10% than 100% that’s for sure. Working from the number of tables and hours you’ve determined, make a plan to gradually increase that number. If you play 4 tables right now, playing a 5th table is a 20% increase. That may mean, you have to decrease the amount of time that you play, or that you play lower stakes until playing the 5th table becomes as comfortable as playing 4 is now. I’m very aware that it may seem ridiculous to go this slowly, but in my experience this way proves to be the fastest way in the long-run, and it’s the method that causes the least amount of chaos to your win-rate. Of course, if you want to push yourself harder, go for it. Just realize that you’ll have to be even more aware of how you’re playing and any mental game issues than may cause problems.

When working out in the gym, you get the most benefit during the last few reps. By pushing to complete these last few reps when your muscles are tired and burning, you stand to gain the most from that extra effort. Playing that extra table, or extra bit of time is going to put a strain on your mind. You have to fight for the progress. If you only do what comes easily, you won’t increase volume. The only way you can make improvements is to continually push yourself past the point where you are comfortable and then rest, so your mind can recover well enough to push again.

Here are a couple sample workouts to give you an idea of how you can apply these principals:

REST

Rest is essential. Without it your mind and body will break down and burn out.

Muscles only get stronger following a workout when they are given time to rest and recover. However, if you work out too intensively for too long (relative to you), then your muscles get weaker, you’ll run slower, or you’ll get tired quicker. In other words, your body is burning out and needs rest in order to recover the lost speed, strength, and energy. The same is true with the mind. If you play too much poker, for too long without sufficient rest (relative to you) your mind will burn out. If you burn out, the next time you play your mind won’t be as sharp, the action will seem to move too fast, or you get distracted or tilted much more easily.

You don’t have an infinite supply of mental energy available. Just like have to fill up the gas tank in your car, your mind needs rest to refuel your brain with enough mental energy to perform. Knowing how much rest, when to get it, and how best to do it, takes some experimenting. There’s no one size fits all method that works for everyone. Here are a few ideas to help you decide for yourself:

Athletes ice and stretch their muscles after playing to help the body recover quicker. Poker players who grind a lot of poker need to help their mind to recover after long sessions. One simple way is to take notes soon after your done playing about key hands played, poker mistakes, mental game mistakes, your opponents, or anything else that’s running through your mind. By writing about this information your free your mind from having to grind on it long after you’re done grinding.

Spending time away from the computer and away from poker is essential to helping your mind rest. Hang out with friends (but don't talk poker), go to the gym, or watch a movie. Poker players generally know they should be doing this, but often have trouble breaking out of the habit. But they’re often quick to take action once they realize how much mindless browsing, excessive time on forums, etc, is actually hurting your win-rate/hourly rate because their mind is tired and burned out.

You can’t exercise every day of the week as intensively as you play poker, so don’t expect your mind to be able to hand playing or even just thinking about poker every day. Sure you can go stretches of time—one month, for example—where you can play poker every day, but at some point your mind will start to break down. I recommend taking a minimum, on average, of at least one day off per week, five days off per month, and one week in a row off per quarter.

Good sleep is of paramount importance. Sure you can get away with a few days of less than optimal sleep, but eventually it’ll catch up with you. Lacking sleep is like a car running on empty. With too little energy in the tank, how can you expect to consistently grind a lot of hands and play them well!?

Jared Tendler is a mental game coach and author of The Mental Game of Poker. You can currently get a copy of it for free on audio book by following this link.

You can save 10% from the softcover version by entering promo code 2011 here.