Online Poker Tournament Strategy Multi Table

When multi-tabling in poker. Setting Up Your Tournaments. When multi-tabling a turbo tournament or regular blinds level tournament you should try and start all of the tables around the same times. If you can play 6-20 of them within an hour or two of each other, you’ll have the right mindset on what needs to be done at specific times. Until the advent of online poker that is (where you can play up to 24 tables at a time). The reason to play more than one table is simple: you take a small hit on your win rate per table for an increase in the number of hands you can play. This should increase your hourly winrate. But the question is ‘ how many tables should you play?’. Multi-Table Tournament (MTT) Strategy Multi-Table Tournament (MTT) Strategy The multi-table poker tournament – or ‘MTT’ – is a staple of both the online and live poker worlds and without it the poker industry wouldn’t be where it is today. A Dead Simple Guide to Poker MTT Strategy: Level 1 to Final Table The early blind levels in a multi-table poker tournament are the easiest blind levels to play. You really want to fold most hands in this blind level until the fishy players are weeded out. The key is to stay calm, collected and in the zone until the middle rounds. Multi table tournaments are one of the most popular forms of online poker, because they give players a chance at a huge score with only a minimal investment. Early Stages MTT Strategy The early stages of a poker tournament are when you should be taking things easy and looking for simple opportunities to win pots.

• Online Poker Tournament Strategy Multi Table Games
• Online Poker Tournament Strategy Multi Tables
• Online Poker Tournament Strategy Multi Table Tennis

In this section of our Advanced Guide to Online Poker, we teach you the exact strategies and tactics used to make deep runs in multi table poker tournaments at all levels. Multi table tournaments are one of the most popular forms of online poker, because they give players a chance at a huge score with only a minimal investment.

Early Stages MTT Strategy

The early stages of a poker tournament are when you should be taking things easy and looking for simple opportunities to win pots. Don't overdo things early, because busting out at this point is almost unforgivable.

Middle Stages MTT Strategy

Once you advance to the middle stages of a poker tournament, you should still play fairly conservatively, but it is time to open things up a tad bit. Don't get your money into marginal situations, but don't blind your stack away either.

Playing the Bubble in MTTs

When you get to the bubble it is time to really kick things into a higher gear. The blinds are worth stealing now, and most players will tighten up on the bubble to slide into the money, so there are tons of opportunities to win chips.

Late Stages MTT Strategy

Now that you have made the money, it is time to start prepping for a final table run. This article will teach you how to steal blinds, grow your stack, and set yourself up for a chance to win the entire tournament.

Final Table MTT Strategy

Congratulations if you have made it this far. At this point you are guaranteed a good return on your investment - your next step is to advance up the ranks and ensure yourself a major payday, or even a 1st place finish.

Taking Calculated Risks in MTTs

At some point in every single tournament you play, you are going to have to take a risk. By taking smart risks you put yourself in position to improve your situation and go deeper in the tournament.

Short Stacks vs. Big Stacks

Online Poker Tournament Strategy Multi Table Games

Playing a short stack is a totally different situation than playing a big stack, and this article explains exactly how you should play each stack to give yourself the best opportunity for a big tournament score.

Luck vs. Skill in MTTs

Everyone knows that luck plays a big role in individual MTTs, but how important is luck in the long run for poker tournament players? Read this article to learn the answer.

Satellite Tournament Strategy

Satellite tournaments are a great way to earn entry into bigger tournaments without risking too much money on buy-ins. This article teaches you the most fool-proof way to advance in a satellite tournament.

Deep Stack Tournament Strategy

Deep stack tournaments allow for a lot more skilled play and a lot less luck. This article teaches you exactly how to play deep stack tournaments to give yourself a great chance at a deep run.

'Go' Plays

Learn about poker 'go' plays, including the stop and go, limp and go, and go and go. We explain each move and discuss how it can earn you money deep in multi table tournaments or sit and gos.

Five More Resources for MTT Learning

Check out this blog post, where Mike details his five favorite poker websites that offer poker tournament strategy. Once you are done reading our MTT strategy section, the sites in this post are the next step.

Take Your MTT Strategy to the Tables

Now that you are an educated online MTT player, make sure to check out our picks for the best poker sites for multi table tournaments. The sites we chose have the most player traffic and the easiest to beat competition.

Multi-tabling is a method of playing online poker in which you participate on multiple tables simultaneously. Many recreational poker players choose to multi-table because it’s more fun and if they are skilled then they can also increase their profits over time. Professional players will mass multi-table in order to maximize their profit per hour rather than seeking a particular rate of return on their investments.

The general concept of multi-tabling is that if you can be a winning poker player at one table, you might also be able to be a winning poker player at two, three, four, or many more tables simultaneously. Most online poker rooms have built-in features that facilitate multi-tabling and in this lesson we’ll examine the two main methods and provided some strategy tips to help you maximize your profits.

The Two Methods of Multi-Tabling

To successfully multi-table you’ll need a way of efficiently organizing the poker tables. The two main methods of multi-tabling are; tiling and stacking.

Tiling

Tiling is considered to be the most popular method of multi-tabling. When you tile your table windows, you arrange them such a way so that they’re adjacent to each other so that you can see each table in full with little or no overlapping. Most online poker rooms have re-sizeable windows to allow you to change the default size of the tables. How many tables you can fit onto your screen without any overlapping will depend on how easily you can view the tables – and of course the size of your monitor. Some online poker players like to play across multiple computer monitors but for the casual player a single monitor should be sufficient.

Tiling your poker tables means you get to see everything that’s going on across all tables and this has some clear advantages. Firstly, you can use the preset buttons to quickly discard your poor hands and therefore concentrate fully on the other tables. It also allows you to follow the action and study your opponents, even when you’re not involved in a hand.

Stacking

Stacking is usually the method of choice for players who play a very high number of poker tables simultaneously. Each table window is placed directly on top of the other windows so that they are all positioned in the same general area of your screen. When stacking be sure to check the preferences of your poker software and have it set to bring a window to the front of the stack when it’s your turn to make a betting decision. Players who like to mass multi-table sit-n-goes of various types are most likely to use this method since many decisions in the game are more standardized and automatic than those of a cash game player.

There are advantages to stacking your tables. Firstly, unless you have a very large monitor, you can play on more tables simultaneously – and can increase the size of the tables. Also, since the active tables will pop up in the same position each time, you don’t have to move your mouse cursor across your screen for each betting decision.

Which method of multi-tabling is best? Well, it’s really down to personal choice. If you’re new to multi-tabling then I suggest you experiment with both methods and see which setup you prefer.

Multi-Tabling Strategies

In general, your goal during a session of multi-tabling should be to minimize the amount of different factors coming into play. When you have to think about strategic differences every time you move from one window to the next, you’re likely to experience problems and reduce your profitability. Here are some things to consider when multi-tabling:

ABC Poker

Playing poker across multiple tables will naturally result in far more situations than playing on a single table. Therefore you’ll want to use a strategy that minimizes difficult decision making. This means you’re probably best served by playing “ABC poker” – which is to play a very basic style and avoid getting into tricky situations. Although playing poker this way might make you somewhat predictable, and won’t necessarily maximize your profits at each table, it’s a great way of ensuring positive winning percentages and making steady profits in the long run. In higher stakes games you will probably want to reduce the number of tables you play, because experienced poker players will pinpoint your predictability and exploit it.

Stick to One Game

You should avoid playing more than one game type when multi-tabling, so don’t play razz while playing 7-card stud! Playing a couple of cash games while playing in a poker tournament shouldn’t cause too many issues for most players, but it’s generally better to stick to either cash games or tournaments when multi-tabling. This is especially true when using the stacking method. You’ll also find it easier to multi-table if you stick to the same table stakes because your bet sizing will be standardized. Remember, the fewer decisions you have to make, the better.

Avoid Distractions

If you take your poker seriously then you’ll know that it’s important to avoid distractions whilst playing. This is especially true when multi-tabling and you simply won’t have time to surf the net or watch TV while you play. You’ll be using nearly all of your available time making decisions. Also, you’ll have little time for chit-chat. For this reason it’s in your best interests to ignore the chat box and if you can, disable it completely. Remember, the purpose of multi-tabling is to multiply your winnings. But by definition, it can also multiply your losses if one is not careful.

Tournament Strategy

When it comes to tournament poker, there are two schools of thought regarding when to actually start the games. Some players like to start all their tournaments or SNGs at the same time, or at least as close as possible. By doing this it’s easier to keep track of what phase of the game you’re in since each table should only be separated by a level or two at most.The downside to this method of multi-tabling is that all of the games will become short-handed at roughly the same time, resulting in much less time to make decisions. Another drawback is that you would want to complete one set of games completely before starting another round.

Other players prefer to stagger the games so that they have a couple games at various levels of play. Using this method you would start a new poker game right as another game is completed and just keep going for set period of time or after a fixed number of games.This method also makes it easier to play scheduled poker tournaments since these begin at a set time rather than waiting for a certain number of players to join.

Many poker tournament professionals construct their own personal schedule around these scheduled events, adding or even deleting certain poker tournaments dependant on how deep they may go in each game. A player may elect to stop multi-tabling altogether if they make it deep into a big poker tournament, preferring to pay attention to everything in that game in hopes of making a big score rather than the average dollars per hour via multi-tabling.

Start Slowly!

Some players find multi-tabling easy. For others it can be a real struggle. The best advice is to start slowly and do not play more tables than you can handle. It can take time to adjust to playing poker at several tables at once. If you’re new to multi-tabling then just start by playing two tables, then once you’re comfortable, add another. Progressively add more, one at a time and if you find yourself struggling to make key decisions within the allocated time – or find multi-tabling is negatively affecting your game, reduce the number of tables. It’s also important that you be respectful of your fellow poker players so make sure your decisions are made within a reasonable timeframe.

The more you play online poker the more you’ll feel comfortable multi-tabling. With experience you’ll soon discover your optimum number for multi-tabling – and this will help maximize your profits at the tables!

Online Poker Tournament Strategy Multi Tables

By Tim Ryerson

Tim is from London, England and has been playing poker since the late 1990’s. He is the ‘Editor-in-Chief’ at Pokerology.com and is responsible for all the content on the website.

Online Poker Tournament Strategy Multi Table Tennis