Questions about multitabling

[UMTerp]

How many tables do you play? And for those that vary in this regard, exactly how much does it affect your ROI?

Lately, I've been 8-tabling the Turbos at Stars - usually a mix of about 6 $27's and two $55's, sometime four and four if I'm feeling really mentally sharp. It's exhausting though. I can't go for more than six hours at a time. Also, I'll usually finish up my whole "octet" before starting a new one, so I can take a 10 or 15-minute break if I need it. Each one gererally lasts about 45 minutes. I'm haven't decided if it's worthwhile to take a few breaks, or if I am giving up too much (hourly) by not starting a new SNG as soon as I bust out of one of my eight. Occasionally, I will start up a new one if I lose one of the eight in the first level or two, but I just consider that as part of the same group. The only time I really feel overwhelmed is if I'm 4-handed or less at five or more tables at the same time, which is not all the infrequent. I have a feeling I'm slowing up play a little bit when I get to that point, because it's really rapid-fire on the screen.

Also, do you stagger your starts? I don't because I like the option of a "break" occasionally.

FWIW, thru about 1,200 SNGs over the past month, I'm carrying about a 25% in the $16's, 22% in the $27's, and 18% in the $60's. About a 500-500-200 breakdown, but most of the $16's came early when I was building bankroll.

Just looking for the optimal multitabling strategies, actual play non-withstanding. Any opinions?

I'd imagine AleoMagus' spreadsheet will be beneficial to find out some of the optimal multitabling strategies for me, but I was planning on waiting til the new year to start using it - kind of a "fresh start" for 2005.

[Marcotte]

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I'd imagine AleoMagus' spreadsheet will be beneficial to find out some of the optimal multitabling strategies for me, but I was planning on waiting til the new year to start using it - kind of a "fresh start" for 2005.

[/ QUOTE ]

I usually don't multi-table, though I'm starting to double-table more and more. As for the spreadsheet, why not just start your fiscal year in December /images/graemlins/wink.gif?

Actually, I don't think there are any stats computed on the spreadsheet that will directly tell you how multi-tabling is working. Probably the best thing to do is to keep two spreadsheets for a while. One one keep track of all your 8-tabling sessions. On the other keep track of only 6- (or 4-) tabling sessions. Then you can compare your ROI and (more importantly) $/hr and see which is better for you. It sounds like you are playing enough to get significant data within 3-5 weeks (assuming 4-6 hrs/day, 5 days/week.)

[ghostface]

The hourly rate stat in the spreadsheet accounts for multitabling.

[SmileyEH]

Those numbers look fantastic.

-SmileyEH

[rachelwxm]

You are a money making mechine! It's interesting that your ROI does not drop much as you move up. Do you think it reflect the level at those limit? /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Marcotte]

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The hourly rate stat in the spreadsheet accounts for multitabling.

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Yes I know, I wrote the formula /images/graemlins/grin.gif. But unless you compare your hourly rate while playing 8 vs playing 6 (or some other number) it doesn't give you the complete picture. Certainly it gives you valuable info. But that info would be more valuable if you had a benchmark to compare it to.

[e_fermat]

I am currently 4-tabling most of the time with a mix of $60's, $27's and $16's and will occasionally do 6 tables. I don't like 6 tabling all that much because of the overlap on the screen (running something like 1750 x 1400 resolution). If I setup dual monitors that may be better.

I assume that 8-tabling you are either running two monitors or a very high resolution CRT?

I do not stagger the starts for the same reason that you do so that I can take a break whenever I want (granted I only play 2 or 3 45-minute sessions a day max and about 250 SNG's per month).

I don't have empirical proof but I think a tiny bit of game selection has helped my result of late. Just going through my pokertracker summaries, I've identified a handful of people who seem to be regular winning players at the $60's and $27's and generally try to avoid them (you included). I won't unregister if someone i know registers after me but when there are 4 or 5 people registered, I'll do a quick scan of the names and proceed with caution if I see one name i recognize. If I see two names, I definitely just wait until the next one.

Currently my ROI is about 20% on the $16's and $27's and closer to 15% on the $60's.

[captZEEbo1]

I've been playing 8 tables at once. You lose a bit on the reads, but not a lot I think (as they aren't crucial, you really just need ABC poker). By the way, I only have one monitor, and was curious if that's all you had UMTerp.

My ROI goes down a little bit I think, because all my decisions are less focused. It does help in early rounds, so I don't start playing crappy hands (out of boredom). I never stagger starts, but what I do is play all 8 through. That way as I get knocked out, I can focus slightly more on my shorthanded game (when there is 2-4 opponents you want to be focusing a little more, and picking up some reads). The other thing is, once I'm done with the session of 8, I take a slight break, bathroom, food, or whatever. Then I compute my net earnings/losses for the 8-tabling session. Then I start up a new one. One problem is sometimes when I go on tilt at one table (after some bad suckout or something), it can affect my play at other tables, so it will affect that many more games than tilt normally would. Another problem is, when I'm not playing my A poker game, it gets noticed over more SNGS quickly (if you know you're not playing your A poker game, you can stop after one or two losses, but if you know you aren't playing your 8 poker game, you might have to play 8 or 16 sngs before you stop).

[Mr_J]

I made a post about this just before you did, but no-one replied /images/graemlins/frown.gif

If we're multitabling at a good number of tables, we'll be playing ABC poker. This doesn't improve skill nearly as much as a thought through, one-at-a-time sort of approach. So, I was thinking play a couple of games at a higher level each day (1 or 2 at a time). Comments?

[Contact Print]

Mr J. makes a good observation. ABC poker will take you a long distance in the poker world, but it will not take you to the top. To compete with the best, you need to learn to play with the best. That said, you can make a lot of money just playing ABC poker.

I'd like to see a discussion sometime about the education of a poker player. What are some of the paths to the top in terms of learning and mastering the game? I think there is a split developing in the poker community. Many long time players have, until recently, only been able to play one game at a time and thus were paid highly for learning the subtleties and truly mastering the game. In a world where we can play 8 tables at a time filled with plenty of weak players, poker pros are being paid highly to stick to the script of ABC poker. So there is a bit of a split developing. While multitabling is an amazing tool for learning poker and improving your game simply by seeing an amazing amount of hands and situations, if one wants to train to beat the best they are going to have to train in observing the best in action and catching the subtle reads, etc. This requires much more time per hand. Multitabling is great, but perhaps we do need a bit of highly observant single tabling. It's too bad (rather it's a good thing) that most opponents aren't sophistocated enough to study and observe.