The Benefits of Multi Tabling
59.26% of online poker players say they play more than one table at a time. A little more than 11% of players say on average they play 3 tables at a time. But Why? Over half of the online poker players say they do.
If you are playing two tables than you are playing double the hands an hour than if you were playing one table. The odds of being dealt a pair of aces in Hold 'em are 220-1. By playing two tables you divide this ratio in half. Now the odds of you getting dealt the best hand in Texas Hold 'em are 110-1. If playing 3 tables the odds of one of your hands being Aces are now 73.333-1.But what about pocket kings? Queens? What about all the other monster starting hands? You will be seeing more of these in an hour than you would if playing one table.
Another reason for Muti tabling applies to the conservative player. Playing one table if you are a tight player can be boring. Playing three different tables at one time gives you the opportunity to play other hands when your cards are in the muck.
Obviously this is close to impossible in a live game. You'd most likely get kicked out running back and fourth from table to table trying to play hands (though the exercise would be good.)
Though playing more than one table at a time can be rewarding there are also downfalls to playing this way too. One of them is the Tilt factor. Experiencing a bad beat at one table could force you to lose all your money at a different one. If you were playing three different tables you could lose three different stakes!!!
Also remember a key factor to winning at Hold 'em and poker in general is knowing your opponents. Playing two different tables at once may not give you the opportunity to learn how your opponents play and their betting style/pattern. A way to overcome this is play one table for an hour or so before playing a new table to go along with the table you are by now comfortable with.
I myself would never play more than 2 tables at once. When your playing a bunch of hands at once it gets very annoying. Once I even mixed up flops and lost my entire stake. Some people can do it without blinking an eye and if you can more power to you.
MultiTabling can be very rewarding if you are good at it. I warn amateurs from doing it for the simple reason that you are probably not yet comfortable with the game. For long time players or pros multi tabling is a great thing to have. My maximum is two tables at once. To me it can get overwhelming with three. But as the beggining of the article said you will see more hands... which means you will see more good hands. The debate continues on whether or not it's a good thing to do. Once I saw a pro (Clonie Gowen) playing 5 tables at once on full tilt. This is a lot to handle but she could have made 5x as much or lost 5x as much. It's a calculated gamble to multi table. But if you can do it well then the rewards can be great.
Good Luck at the Tables,
Justin
