When regular poker isn’t enough.
There’s nothing quite like the thrill of online poker! Not only is it a way to blow off some steam after a long day in the real world, but it’s also a nice way to make some extra money depending on what part of the world you hail you from. In fact, it’s as easy as finding a table, clicking the sit-down option, and getting thrown into the action when your firsthand is dealt.
Believe it or not, this action isn’t always enough and can sometimes get a little boring after a while. For some players, they like to live a little more dangerously and want a better chance of bringing home a nice big sum of money. For these players, the only way to satiate their need for more action is the option of multi-tabling, which can bring with it many benefits and drawbacks.
What is multi-tabling?
What is multi-tabling though, and why would anyone go through the trouble of doing it when they should be focused on one table at a time? While some players only feel comfortable playing one table at a time, and that’s perfectly fine, others find it much more beneficial to play multiple tables to increase their overall winnings.
For those that don’t know, multi-tabling is the practice of playing two or more tables of online poker at a time in order to increase your potential winnings. The practice also gives players the benefit of good decisions multiplying, shorter time commitments, and more bad beats. Although this might sound very beguiling to someone looking to make a lot of money, it does come with its drawbacks as well.
Multi-tabling isn’t beginner-friendly.
For example, first-time poker players should never consider this as an option when playing for real money. This is also a good way to lose money fast if a player is easily overwhelmed or have trouble making quick decisions, which is why first-timers are going to want to start off small with this strategy
One way to do this is by starting out with two tables and working themselves up from there. At least that way, they can see how they manage multiple decisions, gauge their success, and figure out whether to add a table or not. While this might seem silly or an unnecessary step, it is probably one of the best indicators as to whether a player will be successful with this strategy or not.
Once a player gets the hang of two tables, they can then work themselves up to three or four and see how they do with that. If they notice that they are losing money fast and finding it hard to be quick enough to make decisions, they should try going back to two or one tables. If the player finds themselves making a good sum of money at each table and staying cool under pressure, they can feel free to bump it up a little.
Multi-tabling strategies
Now, there are two strategies for multi-tabling, which are tiling and stacking. Tiling happens when a player fills their screen with minimized versions of each table and allows them an easy view of what is taking place. This could help the player see potential money-making hands, observe betting patterns of other players, and ultimately be in on the action more often when they get good cards.
And then there’s stacking, which is basically just putting each game window on top of each other and adjusting settings, so a player always gets notified when they need to decide. While this will render the player unable to study the behaviors of other players, it does reduce the amount of mouse use and lets the game flow a little more naturally.
Which style of multi-tabling is best though? The only true answer to that is your personal preference which will come down to multiple sessions of experimentation. If a player feels themselves getting frustrated with one style of multi-tabling, they should try the other. The point is to be as comfortable as possible and able to focus more on key decisions.
Focus on decision making
One crucial aspect of multi-tabling is the art of decision making. Of course, players will be required to make a multitude of decisions in a short period of time, but there is a difference between important and non-important. For example, raising on a pair of aces pre-flop is much more important of a decision than whether to fold on an eight and a two after the flop.
What players really need to do is seek out their tough decisions and focus their time on them. Not only will this help them make big money decisions, but it also gives the player a chance to minimize the bad ones in their mind. Once a poker player achieves this, they will be able to successfully key in on big hands and fold on the bad ones without much thought.
Keep your risk appetite low
We all know that some players will feel the urge to bet it all on a few tables, especially since they might have four or five windows open, but this is a very risky way of playing the game. It could also result in losing mass amounts of your bank account in only a few hands and force you to rely more on the few tables you have left open.
This doesn’t mean you can’t go in on a pair of aces if the pot is raised, or go all-in if the situation is right, but try to avoid doing this too often. Furthermore, try to keep yourself out of sticky situations and just focus on accruing a little money every couple of hands. Yeah, it won’t be instant money-making, but those earning will start to add up if you do this a few times a week!
Don’t get distracted.
Everyone probably already knows that distractions are the enemy of any good poker game and this sentiment is multiplied when playing at more than one table. In fact, between needing to make a multitude of decisions in a short period of time and deciding which ones are most important, it’s safe to say that players can afford distractions.
Therefore, players would be doing themselves a big favor to turn their phone to silent, put it out of their sight, don’t leave any other web browsers up, and make sure that they are in a quiet area. Unfortunately, this won’t work forever, and fatigue will eventually set in when multi-tabling, but it is still a way for a player to be on top of their game for as long as they can.
Slow and steady wins the race, and that is exactly the approach players should take when attempting multi-tabling. It is also a somewhat sound strategy when starting out. Finally, it allows a player to grow into the type of gameplay and make themselves comfortable while accumulating a decent amount of winnings
Conclusion
In the end, what matters is focusing on those good hands and seeing them through in a proficient manner. Whether that means raising on a pair of aces to scare the other players into folding or sticking it out to win big money after the river, the point of multi-tabling is to increase the likelihood of these events taking place.