Multitabling

Introduction

In this article

• What requirements are essential for multitabling
  
• How multitabling can affect your winrate
  
• What to pay attention to when multitabling
  

This article is aimed at advanced low limit players, who are thinking about making a start at multitabling, i.e. playing at several tables simultaneously, to a) make money faster or b) produce a higher number of raked hands or PartyPoints at short notice, something which is needed to clear most bonuses and promotions. Taking on more than 3-4 tables max. (!) is a no-no for beginners. 

Every player will ask himself at some point whether it makes sense to significantly increase the number of tables he's playing at, as raked hands and PartyPoints will then also increase proportionally. This article will look at the pros and cons of this. 

Arguments against multitabling

Let's look at some drawbacks beforehand: if at least one of the following aspects applies to you, then you'd be better off investing your time in playing poker and reading some of the other articles in the Forum here...

• You are new to the limit you are currently playing at (less than 5k hands)
• You don't have experience with more than two tables up till now (less than 5k hands in total)
• In the past you have noticed that you made a considerably higher amount of blatant mistakes when you took on an additional table. I am including situations such as tells, time outs and "chaos situations", where you are only making intuitive decisions.
• You want to play a relaxed game of poker, have a little lunch break from time to time - forget multitabling!
• You want to improve your game, work on your leaks - forget multitabling!
• You are currently on a downswing and want to get up again as soon as possible - forget multitabling!
• You want to play the game with a strong focus on your opponents, improve your hand reading skills.
• Your greatest weakness is a lack of aggression - the danger of just calling instead of raising tends to increase when multitabling in my experience.

The following criteria should no longer be problematic if you are not a beginner, but would also be further arguments against multitabling:

• You still have to consult the SHC regularly.
• Your thinking postflop is still very much based on the situation from street to street rather than on so-called "lines" (bet sequences) and standard situations.  The game seems to "always be new and different" to you.
• You need a long time to calculate odds and outs, and sometimes you run out of time for this at 2 or 3 tables.

One weakness can actually be improved by multitabling: playing too loose! Once you have enough tables open at the same time, you will almost be grateful to the Poker-god for any hand that you are able to fold. It will be easier for you to part with "marginal" hands and it won't just be about one pot anymore - you will often only marginally be aware of whether you've won or not. The opponent's hand tends to become completely secondary. But more on that later.

What requirements should be met when multitabling?

First of all the absence of the above-mentioned criteria of course. Additionally the following:

• a tranquil, comfortable, "work"place (good posture is especially important for an activity that requires such high concentration!)
• a decent monitor (a 15" monitor can handle a maximum of 6 tables in my opinion, with a 19" or bigger monitor you can have 9; individually there may be some considerable differences.)
• a simpler table layout if needed
• 100% attention, 0% distraction ("no, Daddy can't repair the kite right now....")

But how does multitabling affect my winrate?

In my opinion, the essential difference when playing against 50 or more opponents at the same time is that you have to play almost autistically. I make my moves regardless of who is sitting opposite me. If someone really blatantly stands out, then I take note of that of course, but, according to the limit, I would categorise the rest of my opponents from "thinking TAG" to slightly loose-passive as a standard.

Give the few players who will have an advantage over you because of this their couple of BBs more - in return you will increase your "true hourly winrate" (see below), or will get the needed raked hands for your bonus or the current promotion. And if a table deviates considerably from this pattern? Then you need to try to either adapt your game (this is definitely not recommended until you've got used to all the tables) or you simply move - other tables have good fish too.

All in all I think a winrate of between 4-7 PTBB/100 ought to be possible if you play like this at $0.10/$0.25 to $0.25/$0.50 (1 PTBB = 1 Pokertracker big bet = 2 big blinds). How strongly your winrate deviates from this depends on how good your A-game is on the one hand, and how many additional mistakes you make at several tables on the other. The more static your game has been up till now, the more constant your winrate will remain.

Are you proud of being a particularly tricky player and do you have excellent hand reading skills? Then you can count on having a significantly lower winrate. I certainly can't study hand histories AND manage 6 tables simultaneously... 

If you tend to bluff a little too much, then your winrate might actually increase. You will (have to) concentrate on what is most important when multitabling.

I noticed a positive side effect when I first tried playing 6 tables at the same time: my game largely remains unaffected by the result of individual hands. Everything seems much more abstract, the worst bad beat is taken with a pinch of salt, you don't have time, after all, to get annoyed, as a whirlwind of activity is already going on all around you .. Account balances might be checked regularly, but only for one reason: to make sure you haven't overseen the need to perhaps top up on cash at any of the tables.

But even that is not a problem, as you will have good credit at another table. When adding up the tendency is for several tables to even out the result. If that is not the case and the stakes drop across the board, it's time to close tables. That is how disciplined you have to be when one has decided to get involved in the turmoil of handling several tables.

The principle of profit maximisation generally applies here and is expressed in the true hourly winrate - we will use the acronym THW from now on for this. There are other factors that stand at the focal point of considerations in the middle to long term: further skill development and moving up to higher limits.

Starting out at multitabling should therefore not be seen as a standard solution, as it especially gives you advantages in the short term. Increasing the number of tables might be a worthwhile scheme when the situation in question happens to call for it. It is an additional discipline from which you can learn a lot - and in which you can make quite a few mistakes in the beginning - . Once again it is practice that makes perfect here. 

The true hourly winrate (THW), expressed as Poker Tracker big bets (PTBB) per hour, is the result of the win rate in PTBB/100 and the number "n" of played hands per hour. 

Expressed as a formula it looks like this:

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

Multiplying this by the BB amount in $ gives you your average "hourly rate". n increases almost proportionally to the number of tables. In FR games 65 hands per table and hour is a realistic number (or about 200 hands/h at 3 tables).

Bonus whoring or skill improvement?

Before I look at further aspects to take into account when discussing profit maximisation, I want to bring a big moral issue into the picture: wouldn't you prefer to build your bankroll strictly from poker wins rather than from bonuses and promotions?

There's nothing wrong with the attitude of wanting to move up the limits as quickly but as "honestly" as possible and working as intensively as possible on your skill - in fact that is very much the right thing to do. Anyone who uses this strategy should not constantly be chasing after bonuses that he will not get by playing intensively in any case. But occasionally there is a tempting  and interesting promotion, or you might want to safeguard a bonus despite the limited time. Multitabling is a useful tool to use for a temporary period of time here.   

Profit maximisation

There are two typical scenarios where I could be interested in a short to middle term profit maximisation instead of a long term development: 

• I have reached my maximum "comfort level" and can cash out sufficient amounts of money as and when I need to. The maximisation of my THW might be more important than moving up a limit or improving my skill in this case. I do assume, however, that in this situation there will only be players present who have already gone well beyond the advanced stage, and therefore don't belong to this article's target audience. 
• I have a stable and clearly positive winrate after a downswing where I moved down a level and am sure that I am able to beat my current limit for a sustained period of time. I want to move back up to my old limit as soon as possible.

In this case the question arises as to how I can rebuild my bankroll as effectively as possible. My usual three tables, for example, give me a winrate of 5 PTBB/100 and therefore a THW of 5 * 200 / 100 = 10.0 PTBB/h. So if I have time to play poker for four hours a day, then I can increase my bankroll to about 200 PTBB within five days of playing.

If, however, I only play for two hours a day, I might need a considerable amount of time before I manage to move up a limit. I could also play at six tables simultaneously with the highest level of concentration for two hours though. With a little practice I should manage to reach a winrate of  at least 3.0 PTBB/100, which would give me the prospect of having a THW of 3.0 * 400 / 100 = 12.0 PTBB/h.

The little time that I have available can thus be used more effectively. The price I pay for this, as already mentioned, is that I have to concentrate fully on my actions and that the learning experience is therefore minimal - except for the fact that I will gradually reduce my error rate more and more when multitabling.

You need to take note of the winrate's high multiplier at many tables. This has a dominant size, which is why it quickly becomes evident that overdoing it at multitabling until you have a negative winrate is counterproductive, even if I manage to get a bonus or two out of it.

As long as I play +EV poker, however, promotions can be so lucrative that it is worth putting up with a noticeable reduction of the winrate in the short term. In my experience, anyone who can beat their current limit for a sustained period of time and who has a winrate of at least 3.0 PTBB/100 can therefore venture into multitabling.

Off we go: Table selection

Table selection is not quite so important when multitabling at the low limits. However: if you notice that there are often unpleasant situations at a table and few standard scenarios, you're better off moving; You just don't have the peace and quiet to think about your favourite maniac's killer move or to calculate during every other hand whether the pot odds of 28.5:1 might not suffice for your poor hand after all. Why? Because every time there will be five or more fish fighting for the pot. You should also get out of SH situations, as they lead to even more action and demand a somewhat different - especially more opponent-based - style of play. Every PartyPoint will also get more "expensive" the fewer opponents there are at a table, as the points are largely given out regardless of the table size. 

In the past I always opened my three tables gradually, i.e. I didn't open a new one until I already had a few reads on my opponents. You can't do that when you're really multitabling. Without the PT/PA there are hardly any tangible clues for selecting tables in any case. I simply open every table that has a reasonable average pot.

Then I have a quick look at what nationalities are represented at the table and, if a seat has already become available, whether or not I like the position. A table that has slightly above-average criteria is enough reason for me to join it; the bulk is what counts after all. I'd rather move to another table later if a "bad feeling" creeps in at a particular table. 

It is, however, also possible that particular situations will occur so often at certain tables that you can adapt your game to it. These situations might for example be a blind defence that is too small or an over-proportional respect for raises from early position.

A few more tips to get started

Give yourself a little time to find out what arrangement of tables would suit you best. Personally I prefer to position all tables in such a way that I am sitting close to the middle of the screen. So I prefer to place a table at which I have managed to get a seat in the lower right-hand corner in the top left-hand corner of my screen. Otherwise I often end up looking for where I'm actually sitting - sure, the exposed cards show me that too, but the above-mentioned arrangement means my eyes don't have to move about the screen so much - and this way I can fit quite a lot in.

The brown buttons give you a good clue about what is going on at any given time. You usually only see a part of the table. I prefer the grid pattern when multitabling in any case, as that allows me to always recognise at least three circumstances per table: 

• No buttons visible: I cannot select an option at this table at the moment - the table is not interesting right now.
• Small buttons (6 in total) indicate the possibility of making a pre-selection - I will pay a visit to this table when I have time. I will only use fold or check as a pre-selected option, but this means I have to do a lot of cleaning up beforehand.
• Big buttons (3 in total) mean that you need to make a decision at this table. These tables are to be prioritised.
• Of course you all understand the principle behind buttons. My tip is to simply focus on these particular buttons, as they are ideal indicators for how urgently you must act at the various tables.

Summary

Multitabling is not a silver bullet with which you can make huge amounts of money, but it is a suitable tool for effectively reaching short-term objectives. The all-round poker player will want to improve himself in many areas, and multitabling is just one of them. After reaching an objective with the help of the advice given here, it may be worth concentrating on the quality of your game a little more again, and limiting yourself to 1-3 tables. 

If you find the autistic style of play mentioned above isn't challenging enough, even when playing several tables simultaneously, you can always dedicate your time to studying hand histories after a session. So even when multitabling there are still plenty of possibilities to refine your game. The first steps to take toward this are improving your attention to position, number of opponents, preflop action and the inclusion of opponents' stats.

I wish all those who want to take up the multitabling challenge high levels of concentration, the best of cards and the best of luck!