Playing multiple tables or not

[leatangclan]

I think this is the right forum for this question. I have been playing NL holdem for less than a year now. Before then, I was playing strightly limit for another year.

I have moved down to $0.1/$0.25 NL to buildup my skills and experiences. I want to play at least 10K hands with +ROI before moving up the level. So one way of getting to 10K hands quickly is to play multiple tables.

I don't know if it's me but right now I am not at all comfortable with even two tables. I have problems even just betting. And I have made incorrect calls and lay downs. So nevermind trying to get a read on opponents to figure out their betting patterns. I don't think I want to rely on pokertracker strictly for this aspect.

So should I stick it out and play multiple tables until I get better at it? Or playing multiple tables is not a good idea for the reasons I mentioned? Or am I a donk for not being able to do so [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. TIA!

[Harv72b]

The first time I tried playing 2 tables at once, I was completely lost. Pretty much exactly what you're describing...the second time wasn't much better, and so on. But eventually it became second nature, adding the third table wasn't very difficult, and the fourth table just came naturally. I really have no interest in playing more than that.

Nowadays I generally just play 3 tables, which can seem slow enough at times that I end up playing some solitaire or surfing.

All that said, some people just can't or don't want to handle the adjustments needed to multi-table. If you aren't comfortable doing it, don't--you're playing recreationally now with the aim of bankroll & skills building, so there's no real need to add tables just to increase your hourly earn.

If you do decide to stick out for a while longer, it will probably come easier. Invest in PokerAce HUD if you haven't already; it's an add-on for PT which overlays stats on your opponents directly onto the tables. Make sure that you have things set up so that there's no overlap between your tables, as this will also make things much easier. Whether that means adjusting your resolution or resizing the tables, it's worth doing.

[foal]

Play one table for awhile. Your decisions (aside from the big/tricky ones) will start to become more mechanical and your thinking time will decrease. That's when you can add another table. There's no reason you have to play multiple tables. Don't do it just to get 10k hands, do it because you think you could make twice as many decisions in the same amount of time.

[leatangclan]

Thanks for the great advice - especially re PA HUD. I will definitely get that.

So if I understand, you guys pretty much mainly rely on PT with PA HUD overlay to get a read on villans, more than actually observing their play? And you probably have all of the odds and combo percentages memorized and recall at a moments notice. I'll still working it.

[Harv72b]

[ QUOTE ]
So if I understand, you guys pretty much mainly rely on PT with PA HUD overlay to get a read on villans, more than actually observing their play?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not at all. It takes a while when you start multi-tabling, but believe it or not after a while you'll get so used to it (and so many of your actions will become automatic) that you can still do quite a bit of observation on your opponents. That, along with note-taking and of course the PT stats, is what forms my online reads.

To give an example, let's say I'm playing limit hold'em. It's folded to an opponent in MP who raises, and I have 99 on the button. I reraise, the blinds fold, he calls, and we're heads up.

I see from my PA HUD overlay that he's got a VPIP of 36, a PFR of 17, and a postflop aggression factor of 1.8--a LAG. My notes on him say "will take ace high to the river, will bluff any street if shown weakness, including check/raise bluffs." The flop is good for me, 522 rainbow. He checks to me, I bet, and he calls. The turn is a jack. He checks to me, I bet, and he check/raises.

I bring up my popup stats on PA HUD, and it shows that he only wins 43% of the time when he raises the turn. That, plus my note & his general numbers, tell me that he's bluffing often enough to make the calldown. I call his c/r. The river is an 8, he bets, I call. He turns over KQo & I win.

In a hand like that, I'll instantly recognize that I need to 3bet preflop based solely on his preflop stats (and the strength of my hand/position). The flop bet is routine & requires no thought when he doesn't cap it preflop. Really, the only point in the hand where I'd even pause would be after the turn c/r, and even then only a second or two to click on my popup stats. Knowing that he's prone to bluffing, the river call is also automatic once I've decided to call the turn c/r.

Admittely there's a bit more to it when you're talking about NL, but I see enough very good players crushing NL games while 6- or 8-tabling to be convinced that it's very possible.

[leatangclan]

Harv, that was an awesome resopnse. It's a mini tutorial actually. It was very instructional. I am going to sticky this response and refer to this when I setup my stats sfotware. I hope the other beginners would read this and learn from this. I have. Thanks again and hope you will respond to my future posts.

[B_ing]

I really still feel like I cant get notes while 2-tabelling too!

What i do to get them is quite simple - Do it when you are reviewing your session! Works very good for me, because you have acces to all hands one player has in your database.

Hope this helps!

[demon102]

move done to the 2 cent nl games on stars and play 8 tables at once and get used to it, first time I did it I lost almost all my money on the tables buy I got used to playing lots of tables really quick

[Se7enTwo]

When I grow up I wanna be just like Harv.


(LOL)

Just kidding. I wish I had a "poker brain" like that.

I'm still a one table guy. Learning & more learning.
Read / play / read / read/ play [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]