Treading water online

[bdk3clash]

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Your swings per hand or per 100 hands would stay the same, but your swings per unit of time would actually go down when multitabling.

First part is right. Second part is wrong. Every hand you play adds to your variance. It doesn't matter if you play them sequentially, or all at once.

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Yeah, I figured I'd screw something up. What is the verdict in terms of needing or not needing a bigger bankroll when multitabling, as opposed to playing one table?

[Bob T.]

You either need the same bankroll, or you need a slightly larger one for multitabling. Because your variance per hour is higher, and there is that ugly possibility that you will experience a bad swing all at once on three tables, I think that you having a bigger bankroll is better at least for psychological reasons.

I am pretty much a bankroll wimp, and I keep mine at about 1000 big bets, and nothing bothers me day to day. When I paid a bunch of bills, and made some other withdrawals, and I got down to 600, I felt like, 'Wow if I run bad now.....', so I like having the big safety cushion, even though it might not be necessary mathematically.

[eyeski]

I've had a similar experience with a "ceiling" I was unable to break through. Started w .25/.50 with $100 bankroll and have moved up when I get 300BB for the next level.
I got stuck at about the $2000 bankroll playing 2/4 and 3/6, then lost some down to about $1200 and stepped back to playing 2/4 and 1/2 kill.
Back up to 3/6 when my bankroll got fat again and then had a great weekend where my bankroll ballooned to over $4000. Been hanging around 4000-4500 now playing 3/6 and 4/8 miniblinds, getting more experience at this level even though I have the roll for 5/10 now.
Point is you will experience variance throughout your poker career and the most important thing is to protect your bankroll and not go up in limits until you're ready, both mentally and bankroll wise to sustain a run of bad cards, or even worse, good cards that don't hold up.

[Cosimo]

If you can't break past $1000, then you aren't a winning player. It sounds like you can beat the lower-limit games fine, but every time you step up you lose. This suggests that you can beat the low limits but not the high ones.

Standard Operating Procedure is to accumulate 300BB at the next level before you move up. Once at that level, if you drop below 200 or 150BB, move back down to the previous level. Keep moving up and down as necessary. Personally, I'm staying at one level until I beat it for 3BB/100h over 10,000 hands and have 300BB for the next level. This means that I pull cash out of my account on a regular basis as bonus money and low (but positive) win rate pad my bankroll. Whatever works for you.

Finally, it takes about 100,000 hands to have an accurate idea of what your win rate is. That's about two months four-tabling full time. If you play one table for five hours a week, it'll take about seven years for you to get that many hands in. Session-to-session swings can be extreme.