One of the major benefits of online poker is that you get many more hands than you would in a live game. In a casino you may be dealt 30 hands an hour, but an online game can often deal 100 hands an hour. You can also play more than one table at a time. Multi-tabling allows you to see several hundred hands an hour.
More hands = More opportunities to make money = More money
Is Multi-Tabling Right for You?
Playing multiple tables is not recommended when you are new to the game. When you are learning it is especially important to observe your opponents. You will also be slower at making decisions when it is your turn to act. When you are playing more than one table, you are missing out on observing all your opponents and you have less time to make decisions. For an expert player, these disadvantages are made up for by the extra money won due to being dealt more hands. But for a novice, multi-tabling can be very costly.
When you are showing a steady win rate from playing one game at a time, you are ready to see if multi-tabling is for you.
How Multi-tabling Affects your Win Rate
For every additional table you add, you will decrease your win rate for each table. The key is to find the balance where even though you make less on each table, your overall hourly rate has increased.
Here is an example:
Let’s say your average win rate in a Limit Hold ‘em game is 1 big bet (bb) for every 100 hands, and you are dealt about 100 hands an hour. If you start playing two tables at the same time, you may find that your win rate drops to about .75bb/100 hands. But because you are now seeing 200 hands an hour, your win rate has increased overall to 1.5bb/hour.
Now let’s say you decide to add a third table. You find that you have trouble keeping up and some of your hands are getting timed out. You are making snap decisions and you don’t have any spare time between hands to watch how your opponents play. You find that your win rate has dropped to .25bb/100 hands. Since you are now being dealt 300 hands an hour, your overall win rate is .75bb/hour, which is less than you were making when only playing one table.
In this example, your win rate is optimized by playing two tables at the same time.
Some players are better suited for multi-tabling than others. You will need to see what works best for you. Your computer may also affect your ability to multi-table. A faster processor and more memory is always preferable when running many tables simultaneously.
There is also a variety of poker software available to help your online poker game while multi-tabling. Poker Tracker is one essential program for multi-table play and for anyone serious about making money playing online poker.
