Beginner multi table question

When playing multi tables, how much of your play is determined by other players? Is the strategy mainly to only play premium hands depending on position?

[Webster]

I play multi table exactly as I play 1 table. Start out slow - play tighter then normal. You will find that 2 tables rarly come in conflict with each other.

One table will grab your attention more then the other but keep both on your radar. Play only a short session and then relax back to 1 table. you will soon find that 2 tables is easy, then, pop in a 3rd for a tiny bit.

[SteveM]

I agree with Webster. When you're ready to multi the micros, you should be able to do it without having to deviate from your tight aggressive strategy. I also advocate a gradual buildup. I now comfortably 4- or 5-table but at first 2 seemed hard. Your winrate per table will probably drop a bit because you might miss out on a few reads, but really it should only drop a BIT. If you find yourself making mistakes, drop back down again. Also FWIW, I find that I can handle multi-tabling much better in limit ring games than in NL sit and gos, where the play is faster and reads are more important. Two SnGs at a time is about all I can handle. Good luck!

Thanks for all the great advice everyone! I've been playing two tables and doing quite well. My play has actually gotten better and my winrate has definitely improved, whether I play one table or multiple tables. I'm working on three tables by just watching the third one right now....got to get a monitor with higher res so I can do away with the overlap.

[OrianasDaad]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for all the great advice everyone! I've been playing two tables and doing quite well. My play has actually gotten better and my winrate has definitely improved, whether I play one table or multiple tables. I'm working on three tables by just watching the third one right now....got to get a monitor with higher res so I can do away with the overlap.

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Before you get excited about multi-tabling, realize that you cannot play enough hands in six days for any change in winrate to be signifigant statistically.

In fact, you'll probably only hit a signifigant number of hands for determing winrate in a reasonable amount of time by multi-tabling.

I was eager to jump up to multi-tabling, once I got the basics down, and added table after table. Eventually, I was playing eight tables with:

-Only statistical reads.
-No note taking.
-Compounded mistakes due to frequency.
-No table selection.

Realize that with each table you add, you'll be doing more of what I describe above and less:

-Reading players' hands.
-Taking notes.
-Taking the time to find good tables.
-Avoiding mistakes with careful consideration.

Not that there's inherently anything wrong with multi-tabling, but for a beginner it forms some bad habits that are incredibly tough to break, and are plain bad at higher limits.

[uuDevil]

You want to gather and use as much information about your opponents as you can, but obviously this becomes more difficult as you add tables. One of the heads-up display programs combined with PokerTracker can really help with this.

[Webster]

My winrate actually went up LOL. Playing tighter on two tables cured a leak!

[McNeese72]

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My winrate actually went up LOL. Playing tighter on two tables cured a leak!

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I only play two tables but I find that with one table I'll get bored and be more tempted to play more questionable starting hands just to play because of the boredom factor. With two tables going, I won't get tempted to do so.

[AKQJ10]

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I only play two tables but I find that with one table I'll get bored and be more tempted to play more questionable starting hands just to play because of the boredom factor. With two tables going, I won't get tempted to do so.

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Not to be too dogmatic, but you might want to work harder to build up the discipline to not play hands despite boredom. I don't fault you for getting bored, or for that matter for playing hands you shouldn't, but multitabling seems like it doesn't really fix the root problem, just hides it.

What I will do sometimes to keep from playing bad hands is start up a play money room and mutli one real table and one play money.