The deluge of poker players who multi-table these days is getting more and more! With rakeback deals and bonuses then players see multi-tabling as a way to riches but is it? Well it all depends on your game but I do feel that too many players try to run before they can walk when it comes to multi-tabling. If you are playing deep stacked at a fair limit like Texas Hold'em NL100 or above then you certainly should be very adept at using and implementing tracker data.
Once you stray beyond certain levels then you will simply not be able to play on “automatic pilot” in the same way that you can at the lower levels. So this means that the better players at the middle stakes games are better off playing less tables. But this is where there is scope for players who respect the fact that they have certain parts of their personality that are not conducive to playing good poker.
If you can identify this and accept this then there are ways to circumvent the problem and one such way is to play short stacked. Playing short stacked allows a player to play far more tables. This may be a counter intuitive way of playing poker but it is also a very effective one. But here is the real kicker because a strong player can achieve a far higher earn rate in bb/100 than a weaker player who is short stacking.
We could get two different players playing in two totally different ways and the deep stacked regular at Texas Hold’em NL100 could be making 15bb/100 while the short stacked player is only making 3bb/100. But in order to be at his most effective best then the deep stacked pro may be only playing three or four tables and getting no more than 200 hands per hour. So this equates to $30 hour but the short stacked player does not suffer in the same way when multi-tabling because he is folding a very high percentage of his range pre-flop and also because his playing decisions are never complex.
So instead of playing three or four tables like the Texas Hold’em NL100 full-ring regular, he is playing ten tables and seeing 600 hands per hour. So even though his bb/100 is far less, he is making 18bb/hour which means $18. In fact if the “pro” cannot handle more than two tables then the gap is nothing if the “pro” is seeing something like 65 hands per hour per table. Suddenly his bb/100 may still be far superior to the short stacking player but the bb/hour is roughly comparable.
It is my opinion that any player who is or does not intend to use tracker programs in any capacity either through lethargy or some other reason then they are better off short stacking. At least with short stacks then there are no post flop deep stacked decisions that have to be made and the ability to play many more tables can totally offset the asset of having more skill.
