MultiTable vs moving up in limits ???

[smoothasglass]

Hi-
I am considering moving up to 1/2 but am not sure if I should stay at .5/1 and attempt 2 tables first (or perhaps even do both)?

My thought here is 2 table .5/1 may be a faster way to build bankroll due to the softer competition ....as well as ... the cheapest way to gain 2 table experience?

Does being a multitable player at a lower limit give you any advantage as a single table player at a higher limit?

Thanx for your thoughts!

[Milky]

I would definitely start multi-tabling at the lower levels before moving up because eventually you're going to want to multi at the next level, so why not learn at the lowest? I'd start with two tables then move up to four if you can.

[droolie]

The more tables you play the more you can make. That being said spreading your attention over multiple tables will most likely reduce your BB/100 rate. If the combined BB/100 of the multiple tables drops below what you make when you one table, your losing money due to multitabling

I think you should figure out the mechanics of multitabling at the lowest limit you're sure you can beat. Many of the better players at small stakes regularly four-tabled at every step of their development. If this interests you start out at .50/1 and figure out how many tables you can effectively play. I usually two-table and when the mood strikes me and I'm especially focused I'll three-table. The reason why two tables works best for me is that my monitor is smallish and I often get my attention dragged to family, etc...I also have poker tracker in game screens all over the place which gets my desktop very cluttered. I'm looking into getting a two monitor set-up at some point to make this easier in the future as I really think four tabling is doable for me in the right situation.

The cost effectiveness can be calculated pretty easily.

I would rather win 2BB/100 on 4 tables than 4BB/100 on 1. Figure out where your effectiveness dips below the value line. There's no reason to play even 2 tables if your BB/100 is negative when you do it.

[flair1239]

For me 2-tabling is ideal.

1. Holds your interest.
2. Not overloaded, still have time to think about hands and watch other player.

3. Still able to relax (bathroom, beer..etc) without missing any hands.

For me my win rate per 100hands was not affected (actually went up) by doing (2) tables.

But yes I would play for a week or so at .5/1 just to get used to it. It seems hectic at first, but you catch up to it quick.

[Milky]

I also have a smallish monitor (well if you consider 19" small, which I do, especially at the resolution I use) and I find Gametime + to be a lifesaver. It basically takes the relevant GameTime window information and overlays it on top of the tables you're playing at. No need to have other windows open taking up precious space. Works great too! You can find it at the PT forums.

[Madmartigan21]

Wow, all that sounds insane to me. I've only played 6,100 hands at $0.50/$1 at PartyPoker. I've got a BB/100 rate of 7.58. But the times that I've tried two-tabling, I've had disastrous results. I can't pick up enough information on enough of the players. It's especially difficult when I'm involved in two hands at exactly the same time. Once I flopped a set and FOLDED on the flop. I didn't realize I had flopped a set and the other hand I was involved with distracted me.

The losses I suffered really discouraged me from multi-tabling. I don't know what to do to rectify my apparent ineptness in this area. Any advice?

[Milky]

If you use PokerTracker (and my God why wouldn't you?!?!) your multi-tabling is greatly helped by a little app called GameTime+. It basically overlays info on each player/the table on top of your table window so it takes up no extra space. You can find it at the PT forums... should help your game a bit.

[TinyHorses]

using GameTime+ won't help prevent folding a set accidently on the flop though. That said, the only way to get better at it is to do it more. However, if you're still looking at odds/starting hand charts, or having issues counting outs and calculating odds you might be better off sticking with one table.

[Madmartigan21]

I am using Poker Tracker, but most certainly not to its full advantage. So far I'm using it just to track my own stats. I've found it a bit overwhelming. I don't have any settings for auto-rating players, because quite frankly I don't know what they should be.

[PuertoKid]

I prefer to move up in level than multi-table.

I would rather be totally in tune with one game than giving a fraction of my attention to multiple games. I enjoy what I'm going more that way, and I think I play better poker.

Sometimes I do multi-table at a lower level, but I'll divide that between a couple of different types of games: e.g. 1/2 and a tournament.

[Milky]

There are some great posts here on auto-rating players. I think there's also a webpage out there that can help but I have no links for you =( Do a search for autorate or auto-rate and see if you can find it. Makes PT so much more worthwile.

[droolie]

I finally got around to installing playerview on my pokertracker. I works great but was a big pain to get going as the .Net download was tough to find and install for some reason. The software forum on this site has all you need to know about playerview. It was well worth the effort I must say. Why I didn't do this earlier I'll never know!

Pokertracker.com has a forum and downloads to get your auto-rate function going which you will need to do before anything else.

[Evan]

I'm not sure if someone said this yet, so be forewarned.

I wouldn't move up AND add tables at the same time. Both can be overwhelming and doing them together is probably a bad idea. I just moved from 4 to 6 tables and I dropped down and played 1,000 hands at .5/1 then 1,000 at 1/2 and I've played about 2,000 at 2/4. I'll probably go back to 3/6 next time I play but I think that the move was really good since it allowed me to relax a bit more while I was getting used to the new setup.

If you're only playing 1 table now I'd reccomend adding more before moving up. Multitabling is an important part of playing online and you should get used to it now.

[droolie]

Thanks for the advice. I 3-tabled all last night and definitely would have done better if I was two-tabling. At one point I went on a tear and was up 100BB but by the time the pillow called I was only up 10BB. I really played badly in a number of the losing pots and three tabling had something to do with it. (Other factors were fatigue, beers and a mai tai. Should I admit this? I need to call my sponsor...)

However now that I've played 3000 hands at 1/2 I'm finally playing my normal game now that I'm used to the $$ shock and slightly different play. I dread the idea of going back down and having to readjust when I go back up again. Maybe I'll go back down and four-table for a while to really make the most out of it. Three tables just feels unbalanced. LOL.

[Evan]

If you feel like its too much then definitely play fewer games. Weird thing though, I feel like playing 6 rather than 4 has been awsome for me. I had a ton of downtime playing 4 and consequently spent more time focusing on AIM/2+2/iTunes/other random [censored] while I was playing than actually focusing on poker. Once I started with 6 and cut down the extra time a bit I really focused a lot better.

Do what's best for you though (obviously). Multi-tabling is a skill, just like any other skill. It takes time to learn, so don't get frustrated.

[Goon2]

Do a micro-limit search for the thread titled "Notes on Notes". You'll find lots of information and a sample set of auto-rate rules.

WARNING: be sure to read the whole thread. It's long but there's information in there about a few typos on bison's auto-rate recommendations.

I too was flummoxed by PT but have gotten used to it. Just play with it -- it is such a powerful tool. I haven't tried the GT+ thing but I think I will as I'm considering moving up to 2 tabling now that I've played 2,700 hands.