Exploitable Strategies and Multi-Tabling

[karlson]

It seems obvious that there are many strategies in holdem that are extremely profitable against opponents that do not adjust, but absolutely terrible against opponents that do not find the proper counter-strategy. All the 2+2 books mention this.

It can take a good number of sessions of single-table live play to detect some of these things. I'm not talking about stuff like raising every hand, or always calling from the blinds. I'm thinking about things like only putting in a fourth bet on the flop when planning to take a free card, or always check-raising the river with a made draw, or never checkraising the turn at all. (These are all examples of things that aren't super important (i.e. you're not costing youself a ton of money by not picking up on them). But they do count for something. And I can come up with more costly examples. E.g. see my mid-high stakes post). Most of these faults are going to be of the "not varying one's play enough" variety, but they're not the only possible ones.

So now you're multi-tabling online. The chances of spotting something like this seems to be pretty close to zero. So how much do you think this costs you?

Also, do you think that some of your opponents consciously not vary their play, or use some other exploitable strategy knowing that even good players won't pick up on it, because they're not paying enough attention?

Do you yourself find yourself using strategies you wouldn't use live, because you know that most opponents won't catch on?