Multitabling....necessary?

[gildwulf]

Multitabling isn't necessary; you just have to weigh the costs and benefits of single-tabling vs. multi-tabling and pick which one suits you best.

Mutitabling (good):
+Less psychological trauma when you go on bad runs (10k hands 4-tabling is a week at most...that can last much longer single-tabling). In my experience, multi-tabling is a good way to get less emotionally involved with hands.
+More money (duh)
+You will get way more experience with difficult decisions multi-tabling than with single-tabling. You may not always make the correct ones, but you will encounter them more frequently and, I think, this is a great way to learn faster as long as you make an effort to study these hands after the session.

Multitabling (bad)
-single-tabling will make your reads better
-everything that people have said already in this thread

My personal advice is to single-table, go over your sessions, and post on 2+2 until you feel comfortable enough with your game (that could be 100 hands, that could be after 10 thousand hands) and the majority of your decisions become automatic (and hopefully correct). When you feel ready to start multi-tabling, start two-tabling while increasing in limit (up to 5/10). When you feel like you've reached a limit that is appropriate for your skill level, start adding more tables. This will reduce boredom enough so you won't go insane, but also allow you to work on your reads until your decisions become better and automatic.

Also, PAHUD numbers are a surprisingly good substitute for solid reads.

Cheers,
Zach