The pro’s and con’s of multi-tabling

Great article on multitabling. I myself usually multitable 4 tables at a time.
I have been thinking all day about the part you wrote on bankroll management when multitabling. I am not sure I agree with you, but I haven’t been able to formulate a good argument yet to substantiate my thoughts. Maybe it will come after a good night’s sleep:-)

Oh and one more thing. The reason I multitable is actually to keep my focus on the tables I play. I quickly get bored when I play only one table and then I usually start surfing around on the Net. Multitabling keeps me focused on the game at hand. Multitabling is very well suited for a short stack strategy approach since you will mostly be either folding or pushing and not spending time on reads and medium hands.

You, of all people, should be following some sort of Bankroll Management when playing multiple tables. The only exception to this rule is that if you are playing at the lowest BI that YOUR rules tell you to play, then you don’t worry so much about it when multi-tabling. This, by the way, is where I fall, so 2-3 $2 tables doesn’t bother me even though my BR doesn’t really support it. I can usually break even or have little loses over the many tables, that my BR doesn’t move much in either direction. But the skills/experience I gain from multi-tabling is well worth the BIs

I agree with you, I used to play up to 4 tables at once in a whirling mix of cash poker and tournaments and the results were not good. One needs to concentrate and watch other players betting patterns at the table. I only play one poker game at a time now and the results are much better.

First of all congrats on writing a post that is ranked number 4 on the first page on Google when searching for “bankroll management multitabling” and number 6 when searching for “pros and cons of multitabling”.
I have come to the conclusion that you don’t need a larger bankroll when multitabling, provided that you can maintain your A-game on all tables. You have just as big a risk of losing 4 buyins on a single table due to bad beats than losing 1 buyin on 4 tables. Multitabling will just get you there faster.
Of course if you cannot maintain your A-game on all tables, you will need a larger bankroll to accomodate for the bad decisions you might take.

Good article!

One factor that some people might point out is that when playing multitable you give some information away to the skilled player…

What kind of poker players multitable? I would say players who can maintain a strict ABC poker style of play. Hence you fit into a certain category where the good player could take advantage of this.

What do you guys think of this?

I somewhat disagree with you Michael. You can’t tell me that the players who are playing more than 4 tables at the same time are playing ABC poker. These guys are playing position poker and don’t worry too much about their cards. They have numbers on most of the players at their tables and know how to exploit them. This is where the benefits really come it. I do agree that when you are first learning to multi-table, you are playing ABC and do give away information to better players, but as you progress, you become better and no longer need to play ABC over many tables.

Great post and conversation here. I’d like to pose a question. What’s wrong with playing ABC poker? I know this style will get you deep into a lot of tournaments. I personally have found the most profitable tables for me ar 6 player $5 tournaments precisely because I can almost always (no kiddintg) get to the bubble (top 3, these tourneys pay top 2) simply by playing ABC poker. Playing ABC poker reminds me of 2 poker sayings that I try to remember when playing. You can’t win a tournament early but you can lose a tournament early. Good decisions before the flop make for easier decisions after the flop.

Also, the best bluffs are completely random and infrequent, hence not easy to detect, right? I am not a multi-tabling pro but I can say this, when multi-tabling I have told myself, I’ve folded a lot on this table, time to mix it up. Maybe I didn’t explain that well but I think you can play ABC poker and still find ways to throw in the odd twist while multi-tabling.

I think another point to make about the best multi-table players is that they also learn when they really need to focus on a particular table.

For the record, I never said it was wrong to simply play ABC poker, I mostly play this way. But really think about who is playing ABC poker, the beginners to intermediate players, not the pros. There is nothing wrong with playing that style as it will get you ‘in the money’ in many STT, which is great when you are multi-tabling tournaments.

Getting back to the core of this article, multi-tabling is a great way to become a better poker player, as it forces you (early on) to play and understand ABC poker. Over time, your style will adapt and with the new found knowledge gained from playing many hands concurrently, you will be able to adjust and pick your spots to maximize your ROI.

I agree with you, my comment was more aimed at Michael who said “What kind of poker players multitable? I would say players who can maintain a strict ABC poker style of play. Hence you fit into a certain category where the good player could take advantage of this.” I don’t think that’s necessarily true, and I guess I took a long winded way of saying why.

Took me a minute but I figured out what I was trying to say so I’ll try again in a different way.

For good players (and I hope I am at least on the verge of being one of those) I think most pre-flop decisions are pretty easy to make, so call it playing ABC poker or playing good poker, playing at 1 table or 4, it doesn’t matter. Here’s an interesting challenge for anyone reading this post and thinking about playing at multiple tables, play a single table tournament tonight with a notepad beside you and add a check mark to the page everytime you are faced with a tough decision you really had to think about. I bet most players will find that these hands don’t come up often enough to warrant having to reconsider playing at multiple tables. I am going to try it myself tonight.

Nice post and comments.

Just one word about ABC, this strategy is not profitable at higher stakes, so it is not sufficient for good poker.

Multi-tabling is a very exciting topic, I do between 6 and 12.

I am totally amazed by some guys who do 24, with no HUD and with huge profits. I think when you have played a few million hands (as this is what multi-tabling leads to), you start to develop an instinct of the game, enabling instant-decisions.

I play against those multi tabling fishes every day on cash game tables. Their game looks like this: Fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BIG raise! Now what can he have…lets guess AA or KK? Everyone folds.
Fold, fold, fold, fold, call, flop 2-5-7 and he starts to bet BIG. Lets guess…what can he have? 22 or 55 or 77.
Well they aren’t getting my money at least…

Luckily not all players have the same eye for reading their opponent’s hands as you do otherwise it would be pretty tough for multitablers to make a profit.

Mark

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