[stigmata]

I personally find that 4-tables of 6-max is where I begin to max-out. Two tables is much more optimal for me (reads are as perfect as they can be), but what I lose 4-tabling is obviously gained in hands/hour.

One way of looking at this is that you have to find your maximum hands/hour. This rate should then apply to some extent to both full ring, 6-max or even 2/3 handed. I find that 400 hands per hour is where my game begins to fall apart – my reads are poor, I get tired quickly, my concentration doesn’t last etc.

Therefore I find playing 6-tables of full ring somewhat similar to playing 4-tables of 6-max. In fact, the whole “you can win more at 6-max because you play more hands/hour” is actually a fallacy (because you can comfortably play more tables at full ring to overcome this effect). However, the fact that you are involved in more pots with bad players is obviously true. Also, the correlation between hands/hour at full ring versus short-handed does not quite hold because you are involved in more pots/marginal decisions at short handed.

However, I do feel that working out your personally optimal hands/hour is a pretty useful statistic to think about: Feeling tired? Reduce the figure by 25%. Feeling fresh after coming back from a run? Increase by 25%. You have some buddies playing on full ring and 6-max: Add up the hands/hour so that you are playing an optimum number of hands/hour.