ergonomic, 99% mouse-free 4-tabling for $40

[theredbaron]

After reading a few posts and seeing a couple of pictures, I decided to try out a game controller/autohotkey combination.

At first it was a bit of a struggle, but now I play 4 to 8 tables without ever touching the mouse/keyboard (unless I want to chat).

I use a logitech cordless rumblepad ($39) which has two joysticks, a POV pad and 12 buttons.

Two autohotkey scripts do the rest.

Setup:

Right joystick acts as mouse.
Buttons:
Button 1: fold
Button 2: call
Button 3: raise
Button 4: ALL IN
Button 5: Cycle to next active window
Button 6: left mouse
Button 7: close current window (useful after missing a buyin)
Button 8: right mouse button
Button 9: Autobuyin to tournament in my favorite seat
Button 10: bring lobby to front and refresh game list
Button 11: autoarrange all open tables
Button 12: not used (yet)

Left joystick: not used (yet)

POV pad: raises lowers NL bet.
up/down by 100, left/right by 5

There is also a background routine that scans the tables and makes _darn sure_ that when I click a button, the table with the 'action buttons' is the active window. Further explanation: MTH brings any window requiring action to the lower right corner of my screen, but does not necessarily give it the input focus. My routine checks to see if the lower right table has the action buttons and if it does, then forces the input focus on it. This helps avoid misclicks.

It might not be the most 'ergonomic' setup, but it's really put the fun back in multitables for me.

Kudos to the autohotkey guys, and to all the 2+2ers that helped spark the idea. Mouseless poker rules.