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PokerStars: The Art of Multi-tabling

03/02/2012 09:53:00 Celina Lin

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When people ask me about the number of tables I play online at Pokerstars they are usually in shock. “How can you play 15 tables at once?” they say. “I can’t even manage 2!”

Some may argue that playing multiple tables doesn’t allow you to play your best. Multi-tabling does mean most of the time you are relying on automated decisions based on position and stack sizes. It doesn’t allow you to play your A game, but if you can play well across many tables the profit will exceed your best game at 1 table. Professional poker players choose to give up a small edge and gain a better hourly rate with more tables.

For example, let’s say that I could make $100 per hour on a single table. Now if I had to play 2 tables I’d have less time to pay attention to every piece of information but that reduction is only worth $10. But the important thing is hourly rate and $180 per hour (2 tables x $90) is clearly better than $100 per hour.

If you are new to the online poker world then the transition from live poker to multi-tabling online can be very daunting. Remember when you first learnt to play poker? Multi-tabling online poker could make you feel like that all over again.

The key is to get use to the environment. Familiarize yourself with the action and build upon the table numbers one at a time. Once you feel like you have become accustomed to the speed of the game and actually have extra time between actions then it may be time to add another table. If you feel like you are always in a rush then you are probably better off remaining at the same number of tables or even reducing by one.

Like the example above, your expected value is going to be less when you add tables. Going from $100 down to $90 per hour is acceptable. But if you are going from $100 to $20 per hour it obviously makes more sense to be playing fewer tables.

Making correct decisions is the difference between a winning player and a losing player. So you need to be able to clear away all the easy decisions quickly so that you have time to deal with a tough decision that requires more thought.

If you are playing too many tables and auto piloting all decisions then that’s where you will start to see a decline in your profits. It is very important to find the optimal number of tables to play to make the most profit. Poker still requires thought and each decision is important.

Multi-tabling techniques will improve with practice and it will get easier each time. I am looking forward to seeing you on lots of my tables soon!

Best of luck on the felt,

Celina

Celina Lin is a Team PokerStars Pro and one of the most recognizable faces on the Asian poker scene. Lin is the first female to win the Macau Poker Cup - Red Dragon event and is annually listed amongst the best on the Asia Player of the Year rankings.

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