‘Multitabling’ Difficulties

In my last column, I suggested that you discover your optimal number of tables to be playing online. Just in case you weren’t convinced, in this column I’m going to discuss some of the difficulties of excessive “multitabling” (playing multiple tables at one time).

I’m probably hurting myself by writing these two columns. Since I play so many hours online, I’m kind of hoping that people don’t listen to me, especially if they play at my tables. A large portion of my profits comes from good players who would give me a harder time if they were playing at a reasonable number of tables. But, because they are playing more tables than they can reasonably manage, they give up a significant edge against players of comparable skill who are playing far fewer tables.

Nevertheless, I have an obligation to give reasonable advice. Of course, whether or not you choose to follow it is entirely up to you. Here are four reasons not to multitable excessively:

1. You fail to study your opponents.
Since you are almost always involved in a hand, you never get the downtime necessary to follow what your opponents are doing. Sure, you might get an overall sense of who the live one is, but you’ll fail to identify the individual playing characteristics of your other opponents. You need a sense of who plays more hands than they should, who is tighter than average, who double-barrel bluffs and who doesn’t, and so on. Simply put, you need to know who is capable of what.

You also want to have a chance to look at previous hand histories. If you missed the action at a given table, you want to be able to review it and see what went down. And if a hand went to showdown, you want to see what cards your opponents had. Their actions, combined with the cards they had, can give you a clear picture of their playing styles. But when you have more tables open than you can handle, accomplishing all of these tasks becomes nearly impossible.

2. You fall into an overly formulaic style of play.
In my Book of Bluffs, I mention that two important keys to long-term poker success are uncovering your opponents’ patterns and avoiding predictable patterns of your own. When you play too many tables, you fail at both tasks. You cannot possibly vary your play as much as you should. Too much energy is expended simply keeping up with the action.

You might be able to succeed for a while with formulaic play. But, assuming that you regularly face some of the same opponents, they will be watching you. They will take notes, they will know what your playing style is, and they will make adjustments. Basically, if they are playing fewer tables than you are, they will be doing the things that you can’t. Over time, you could be playing right into their hands, and you might not even realize it.

3. You will face too many tough decisions if you play too many no-limit hold’em games.
A session of no-limit hold’em is usually comprised of many small confrontations and a handful of bigger ones, and the bigger ones often determine your overall results. A solid, aggressive style might make you a winner in the small confrontations, but when the bigger ones arise, you are going to wish that you knew more about your opponents.

This goes hand in hand with point No. 1. By playing so many tables, you don’t give yourself the chance to really learn about your opponents. So, when one of them makes a large bet or raise, how are you going to handle it? You can take a guess at what your opponent has, but it can never be more than a guess, and a fairly uninformed one. Everyone inevitably makes some mistakes — calling with the worst hand or folding the best one. But the more tables you play, the more mistakes you will make per table. One or two of those extra mistakes will inevitably come during your big confrontations, and they potentially will wipe out any advantage that you have in the smaller pots.

4. You will run into difficulties trying to play different games.
If you specialize in one form of limit poker, this doesn’t apply to you. You’ll clearly have an easier time multitabling than someone who prefers a little variety. As a fan of mixed games, I know that I am sacrificing the ability to multitable efficiently. But as long as I recognize the trade-off, I’m better off than someone who tries to manage too many tables of varying games.

For example, if I’m playing strictly 10-handed Omaha eight-or-better cash games, I can comfortably handle four at a time. But if I’m playing six-handed eight-game rotation, any more than two tables would give me difficulties. I can follow two games, but I usually end a session feeling mentally drained. Thankfully, I haven’t made a critical error, such as thinking I was playing stud when I was playing stud eight-or-better, or Omaha eight-or-better instead of pot-limit Omaha. However, I’ve seen my opponents do that numerous times, and I’m positive that they make that mistake because they are playing too many tables. When the game switches on a given table, they fail to notice it. I’ll take that advantage every time.

Of course, you don’t have to be playing mixed games to have this potential problem. If you have a stud and a stud eight-or-better table open, it’s easy to sometimes confuse them. The same thing could happen if you play five-card draw and triple-draw lowball, or Omaha and badugi. You get the idea. Any two games that could be confused with one another shouldn’t be played simultaneously.

Don’t fool yourself.

You may be thinking, “Yeah, all of this stuff happens, but not to me. I’m smart enough to avoid these problems.” One of the best cash-game players in the world wrote about playing $200-$400 H.O.R.S.E. and mistakenly thinking he was playing stud eight-or-better instead of stud high. If it can happen to him, you’d better believe it can happen to you.

If you still think you can avoid all of the difficulties I mentioned, you might be smart, but you’re probably not as smart as you think you are. And as I said at the beginning of this column, that’s fine with me. If you’re at my table, that will only work in my favor.

Matt Lessinger is the author of The Book of Bluffs: How to Bluff and Win at Poker, available everywhere. You can find other articles of his at www.CardPlayer.com.