10 tabling strategy

I've been playing online for over 2 years now, I've never really looked into multitabling veyr much. Naturally I always play about 3-5 tables, but 8? and now 10!?!?

My preflop strategy for 4 tables looks like Skalansky's suggestion for a tight/agressive table. (VP$IP = 17%)

Im going to start increasing how many tables I play. Could some of the 8-10tablers post their preflop strategy and/or their VP$IP.

[shant]

Why would how many tables you are playing change how you play your game? Just add one table at a time until you're comfortable playing your normal game across more tables.

[Borodog]

Like it or not, multi-tabling does, and I claim should, affect the number of hands you should play.

When I am playing a single table, my VP$IP may be as high as 23% (depending on the game). There is no possible way I could profitably play those marginal hands with my attention split over 8 tables.

I know that in multi-tabling I am folding marginally profitable hands. I trade quality for quantity. I know this. To think that you can play your normal game, 8 at a time, is unrealistic.

My VP$IP 8 tabling is just under 15%. My PFR is 8% (although I've been consciously trying to raise more hands of late, so this is a little low by my new standards).

[TheHammer24]

Yeah I don't see how you don't fold some neutral to slightly EV+ hands that you would normally play when you are playing 8+ tables.

However, I would reccommend moving up 1 table at a time.

Ofcourse no one could play 20% of their hands on 10 tables, I dont want to debate that. I also dont plan to play an extra 5 tables starting tomorrow. This much is obvious, but I am not sure 10 tables is actually profitable, and I'd like more comments from peopel who have a lot of experience playing 7+ tables.

If playing 1 table of 5/10 a good player might make 1.2 Big blinds per hour. $12/hr
Playing another table might not change any strategy but u would cost u a little ev, lets say .1BB per table per hour. $11x2 = $22/hr
Another table might cost another .1BB per table per hour. $10x3 = $30/hr
if this continued uniformly it would look like this
Tables|EV/table|wage
1,$12,$12/hr
2,11,22
3,10,30
4,9,36
5,8,40
6,7,42
7,6,42
8,5,40
9,4,36
10,3,32

The drop off is obviously steeper than is realistic, but whether you play a tighter strategy (to prevent being overwhelmed) or lose EV from being overwelmed, it is certain you will lose EV as you increase tables. I think the exact spot to maximize wage is when your hourly EV per table is (roughly)equal to the number of tables you play. If this is true, playing 10 tables would only be profitable if you can make $10+/hr on 10 tables or $100/hr.
things like personal sanity, rakeback, personal sanity, computer capability, personal sanity and personal sanity among other things also effect the optimum number of tables to play too.

I dont think there will be many comments on this. Im only really interested on what experienced 8-tablers have to say about the specific and concrete strategy changes they make. For example: "I dont raise TT utg" or "I don't call utg raises with AQ even against loose players"

The only reason for my explanation above is to prevent this thread from filling up with questions and like "why change your strategy at all?" etc

[Borodog]

I am an experienced 8 tabler. I've played many tens of thousands of hands while 8 tabling.

To answer your question, I think you're thinking about it the wrong way. The reason that you play fewer marginal hands is that you want to spend your precious attention playing non-marginal hands correctly. These hands contain the vast majority of +EV, and you want to play them well. I do NOT make any special adjustments in strategy when I play a hand like TT or AQ. These are premium hands, and I forgo playing 75s so that I can play these hands well.

[shant]

What is your VPIP playing 4 tables? I wouldn't want to 8-table if I'd have to drop to a VPIP of 15%.

[Borodog]

My 4 table VP$IP is probably something around 17-18%, but that is a guesstimate.

As for dropping to 15% when I multi-table, I really don't have time to worry about it. I ran the numbers before, and I figured that the marginal hands I don't play would probably amount to a total of about 0.5BB/100HP. My 8 table winrate is around 2-2.5BB/100HP. So 1 tabling I could make let's say 2.5-3BB/100HP. This is a sacrifice of around 20%. But 80% of 8 is far better than 100% of 1.

Another consideration is that my variance is FAR smaller while 8 tabling because I'm not playing those most marginal hands that contribute more to variance than EV.

[shant]

Ah OK, my 4-6 table VPIP is around 18-19%, so that would be a big drop for me. Are you avoiding marginal blind steal situations, or just not limping QJo on the button after 3 limpers? 2-3% seems like a big drop in VPIP, but also I could be rambling.

[Borodog]

[ QUOTE ]
Ah OK, my 4-6 table VPIP is around 18-19%, so that would be a big drop for me. Are you avoiding marginal blind steal situations, or just not limping QJo on the button after 3 limpers? 2-3% seems like a big drop in VPIP, but also I could be rambling.

[/ QUOTE ]

I definitely avoid marginal steal situations. I try to pick tables where I don't get the chance to steal much, and unless I get get some tighty-whitey in my blinds, I really don't like getting chips involved with marginal hands. I don't play suited kings (which people will tell me all day and night are profitable, and I'm sure they are; I just don't have the attention for them) even from the button after limpers (unless they're broadway, obviously). I won't play an offsuit hand with a ten in it, except ATo. I will limp QJo on the button after limpers. I ain't that dumb. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

There are also some marginally profitable suited-connectors and small pairs that I could probably play from a position sooner or one caller fewer, things like that.

I will have to look at the numbers in the long run, but I suspect my VP$IP for 8 tabling may be creeping upward along with my PFR as I get more and more comfortable. My variance definitely seems to have taken an uptick lately, as I've been breakeven with wild swings for the last 10,000 hands. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]