why can't i mulittable?

[hhboy77]

over the last year, i've played a combination of 55's and 109's on partypoker and in 500 55's i had an roi of about 21% and in the first 220 109's an roi about 25%.

all of these were basically played one table at a time. however, i spent a two week period in the middle playing two 55's at a time and over that period my roi was something like 1%.

after returning to playing just one table at a time, i've taken another shot at 2-tabling and over the last week or so i've lost about 1000 dollars. i know these are short trials, but i just can't seem to understand why i cannot win even playing two tables at once.

does anyone have any general insight on what is going on for me?

[SpeakEasy]

I can rarely multi-table either. Your not alone. I like to focus on the action at one table, and I inevitably essentially ignore the other table. My results are MUCH better with one table. If that's how you play best, play one table and don't worry about it.

[jadowa]

I usually play 2 tables at once on $10-$20 tables on PP. What I do is stager-start the games. I start one game and then wait until level 3 to start the other game. I pay close attention to the game that in the later stages.

I actually play better this way than with one table at a time. It keeps me more disciplined in the hands that I will play in the early stages. Of course I don't have as good of a read on players in the later stages, but good players will change their style of play throughout a sng anyway.

[pshreck]

You can't multi table effectively until you've spent a ton of time learning the game, how the SNG works, how to handle key situations. Succesful multi-tablers have the ability to make key decisions based on their knowledge of poker and the 'average' opponent. If you are still relying a lot on reads, then stay away from multi tabling, until you don't need reads as much to make succesful plays.

[Chu]

I also have severe problems multi-tabling. I have a nice ~30% ROI at $33 over at party, but I have trouble handling two $6's at a time. Oddly enough, I discovered I can do the following easily:

1. Multi-tabling with different games. I can play a $11 7-card hi/lo $11 omaha and $33 nl hold'em at the same time without a problem.

2. Multi-tabling on different sites. I can play $33 over at Party and a $27 turbo over at PStars without any problem, with one or two other random tables at other sites.

I guess my problem has something to do with partationing, i.e. the information you take up subconsciously can't be partationed very well when the tables you are multing are identical. I have no real proof of this theory, but it would be something interesting to investigate.

[bmedwar]

[ QUOTE ]
1. Multi-tabling with different games. I can play a $11 7-card hi/lo $11 omaha and $33 nl hold'em at the same time without a problem.


[/ QUOTE ]

That's funny. I seem to do better when I play 2 tables if one is a $55 buyin and the other is a $25. I agree it helps me quickly identify them. I especially hate it when I play two tables, same game, same limits, and some of the players are the same.

[AJD51]

I'm with you brother. I have a very nice 42% ROI at $30+3 SNGs on Party playing one table at a time (~120 games). I've recently tried 2 tables without very little success. Listening to all the 6-8 tablers makes me feel a little inadequate but I finally realized that it is better to make money slowly than lose it quickly! Seems kinda obvious, doesn't it?

One at a time for me.

[Irieguy]

My opinion is that you can't multitable well until you've played at least 5000 SNGs.

It's not just an intellectual game, it's also a motor skill.

The smartest doctor in the world could read everything there is to know about performing surgery, and he or she will still suck at it compared to a moron who's done a thousand surgeries.

Irieguy

[ThorGoT]

Irieguy, I agree with what you say about surgeries (based on no personal knowledge, at all). But I don't see how that translates to multitabling. Move the mouse, click on the button. How is that hard?

[Irieguy]

Surgery is not hard either. It just takes a lot of practice.

With regard to SNGs, what happens with experience is that pattern recognition becomes a bigger part of your decision making. Figuring out how to play TPTK out of position takes some thought for a few thousand hands... but after a while you can do it automatically. When you multitable, you need to be able to correctly play hands after the flop without having to make a conscious decision. That's not possible unless you have played in similar situations before when you DID have to make a conscious decision, and now you know what to do without thinking about it.

It's like a video game. You have to concentrate at first, but once you've played a thousand times, you can play while you have a conversation or do something else... even if the video game requires decision making.

Irieguy