How many tables do you play at a time?

At 5NL on my laptop I play 7-8 tables at a time. They are small and cluttered all over the place. I get my reads by noticing who is multi-table-ing like me and those who are, I assume they are tight ABC, otherwise everyone else is a donk that plays crap hands.

I've heard of people playing 12 tables at micro stakes, is this with the use of two monitors?

How many tables do you play and how do you arrange them? How do you get your reads on 8+ tables?

It's hard for me to play over 2,some people claim to play over 10 or 15 on 2 sites.Play only what you feel comfortable with,even if it's only 2 or three

I tried 10 tabling FR. Wasn't too difficult, just a bunch of clicking . And no it was on a single 15.4" laptop monitor. I cascaded the tables to make them fit. I didn't even have a HUD at the time lol. To get a read playing like that was pretty difficult, usually takes more than one or two examples of what the villain is doing for you to realize it (at least in my case). Thats why I probly wont do more than 6-8 tables at a time now. Idk, its fun to experiment with a bunch of tables.

For you, idk, try cascade. Less eye and wrist movement, tables are bigger. Just make sure you pay attention closely to every action you take. What I would do is when I was involved in a hand I would slide it out of the cascade off to the side so I could keep an eye on it the whole time. Seemed to work out pretty good. Before I would slide it back in, I would take a note down on the player involved (if there was anything noteworthy obv).

I can play up to 9 tables at a time on one screen with minimal overlap. But I usually only play 4-6 FR tables at a time.

And I never cascade, I'm a tile man myself.

wrong question

the right question is: How many tables should I be playing at a time?

play 6

what is the difference between cascade and tile.I'm sure i've done them both,i'm new to a lot of this lingo

if you have a big monitor you can play 12 tables easily on one screen. i.e. 24"

if you dont. just lay them over each other and they will pop up when the action is on you.

Originally Posted by tncatfish43

what is the difference between cascade and tile.I'm sure i've done them both,i'm new to a lot of this lingo

cascades overlap
tiles don't

thanks good folks,i guess i tile,I have 60 inch tv for monitor.i've played 2 tables and watched 2 still had room for more

Originally Posted by bigspenda73

wrong question

the right question is: How many tables should I be playing at a time?

Enough that I do not get bored and make bad decisions but not so many that I have to make quick decisions when I haven't thought it through.

I play 2 tables. i dont understand why anyone who is learning the game would play much more than this. If your playing 5NL you cant be the greatest player, why not play just 1 or 2 tables and learn poker? How much can u really make grinding 8+ tables at 5NL? Im convinced it would be more profitable to learn some poker and play one or two tables of $0.10-$0.25 than 8 of 5NL.

I guess I don't have much input to give as I just play between 2 or 3, which isn't really hard to do on any standard monitor or laptop.

I have played 8 profitably, but it still stresses me out because I can't take good notes. Playing 3-4 is just a profitable for me as playing 6, but my BB/100 has been going nuts lately playing only 1-2 tables and focusing on the game.

if you cascade make sure you check bet fold buttons are not on top of each other,a different table could pop up and you culd call when you meant to fold or fold quads by accident

Originally Posted by bigspenda73

wrong question

the right question is: How many tables should I be playing at a time?

I think bigs point is how many can YOU play and still increase your knowledge and skill of the game. Lets face it we don't play 5nl so we can retire early. We play 5nl in the hope of acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary to move up.
I started playing 8-12 tables and did good for awhile. Then I found I had ground the wrong thing. I had ground to a complete stop in my already limited progress. I've since cut back to 4 tables, which is enough for me to not get bored and to focus on what each table/player is doing. I have enough time to think through a tricky spot, although that's a challenge for me if I'm playing one table it you know what I mean. I do feel as though my progress has been jump started again. I also make sure I have IRC open while I play and I post hands and ask questions while I play, which is really hard to do for a noob with 8-16 tables going.
Just my 2 cents worth.
bigspenda if I got your point wrong then please do explain so we can get something out of the conversation!

Originally Posted by ryokan

I play 2 tables. i dont understand why anyone who is learning the game would play much more than this. If your playing 5NL you cant be the greatest player, why not play just 1 or 2 tables and learn poker? How much can u really make grinding 8+ tables at 5NL? Im convinced it would be more profitable to learn some poker and play one or two tables of $0.10-$0.25 than 8 of 5NL.

Because playing 1-2 tables would be disastrous for me. I would end up doing things like playing KJo out of position and hands like QTs because of sheer boredome.

playing more than 4 tables @ <25nl = if you cant crush 5nl playing 4 tables, how do you expect to be successful when you move up? playing 8-10 tables and waiting for aces isn't really learning anything about poker, even if you do manage to win some money.

good point stewie,by the way you killed lois yet?

Originally Posted by HarleyGuy13

Originally Posted by bigspenda73

wrong question

the right question is: How many tables should I be playing at a time?

I think bigs point is how many can YOU play and still increase your knowledge and skill of the game. Lets face it we don't play 5nl so we can retire early. We play 5nl in the hope of acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary to move up.
I started playing 8-12 tables and did good for awhile. Then I found I had ground the wrong thing. I had ground to a complete stop in my already limited progress. I've since but back to 4 tables, which is enough for me to not get bored and to focus on what each table/player is doing. I have enough time to think through a tricky spot, although that's a challenge for me if I'm playing one table it you know what I mean. I do feel as though my progress has been jump started again. I also make sure I have IRC open while I play and I post hands and ask questions while I play, which is really hard to do for a noob with 8-16 tables going.
Just my 2 cents worth.
bigspenda if I got your point wrong then please do explain so we can get something out of the conversation!

Dont get me wrong here, I frickin love IRC and it continues to be a huge asset to my poker growth, even though I do not get on nearly as often as Id like to. Those times when you get a good analysis/theory discussion going are mega beneficial to your game plus its great to talk to other grinders in real time. However, I personally will no longer have IRC open when Im grinding as its just too much of a distraction.
The time for analysis is after your session, not during. When your playing you should be concentrating 100% on the tables, espescially when learning the game. If you can autobot your stakes for a decent winrate then that may be a different story, but even then I suspect it has a negative impact on your hourly. Have it running in the background if you want so you can pick up on whatever you miss while grinding.

As far as table numbers are concerned, I think it varies per person. I know Muzzard 20 tables and still works on improving his game. Spoon is just a hand-churning poker machine, yet also is constantly improving his game. I think for the most of us still learning the ropes though, less is definately more.

I built up my table numbers as quickly as I was able to and got it up to 12 tables FR while @ $25NL. Move up to $50NL, keep 10-12 tables going, and I played breakeven poker over 10k hands. Realising I was stuck, I dropped to 5-6 tables and concentrated more on every decision, and have played the last 13.5k @ 5.6ptbb/100. Small samples sure, but I believe its indicative.

I play one table HU SNGs

Yea after that one 10 tabling experiment I just cut back to 6 tables of FR. Then i switched back over to 6-max cuz 6-max=nuts imo. My stats were decent at FR (10/6 overall lol) and a decent bb/100 (18bb/100) but i dont think ill be playing too much FR until I go for 'nova status (hopefully in a couple years ).

I've been reading robb's newbie's first 5k hands at 10nl (even though im at 2nl) and decided I would go ahead and start at step one and work my way through. At the very least it will teach me to exploit people while I'm in position, which I don't do enough of.

Going by robb's guidelines I've cut down to one table of 6-max with the table's HH off to one side so I can review previous hands while I have downtime. Although it gets dull at times, I am/will learn more by 1-2 tabling than I will by playing 10 tables lol. I can take better notes, take more time on my decisions, etc. I want to be able to turn this game into a solid side (if not primary) income in the future. Obviously this is a few years off, but nothing wrong with taking a little time to do something right.

I play two "fast" tables at a time, which keeps the cards moving pretty well while still giving me ample time to focus on reads and improving my game. I can't imagine trying to learn how to play well and playing more than 4 tables at a time. Any time you are constantly clicking around, you aren't seeing the action going on at the other tables.

I think its one thing to try and improve your play and another thing to grind. Im sure that if I were just trying to make some money, opening up 8 tables would be the way to go. But I really don't like going on auto-pilot when I play.

Anywhere from 12-16 tables FR cascading is my norm.. I routinely have a study session in which I play 6-8 tables and then review the session later. And I've even recently experimented with stacking tables and playing 24 tables. I feel more in my zone when I'm playing around 14 tables.

For anyone that is wanting to play more tables, but doesn't have 2 monitors they should definately look into cascading. With a little bit of practice you will be able to take good notes, and pay attention to big pots, while playing 12+ tables.

Originally Posted by XxStacksxX

Anywhere from 12-16 tables FR cascading is my norm.. I routinely have a study session in which I play 6-8 tables and then review the session later. And I've even recently experimented with stacking tables and playing 24 tables. I feel more in my zone when I'm playing around 14 tables.

For anyone that is wanting to play more tables, but doesn't have 2 monitors they should definately look into cascading. With a little bit of practice you will be able to take good notes, and pay attention to big pots, while playing 12+ tables.

How do you see what people show down, you don't even get to see showdowns of hands you were in :/ I don't get this cascading thing :/

Originally Posted by iopq

Originally Posted by XxStacksxX

Anywhere from 12-16 tables FR cascading is my norm.. I routinely have a study session in which I play 6-8 tables and then review the session later. And I've even recently experimented with stacking tables and playing 24 tables. I feel more in my zone when I'm playing around 14 tables.

For anyone that is wanting to play more tables, but doesn't have 2 monitors they should definately look into cascading. With a little bit of practice you will be able to take good notes, and pay attention to big pots, while playing 12+ tables.

How do you see what people show down, you don't even get to see showdowns of hands you were in :/ I don't get this cascading thing :/

I only play 6 - 10 FR tables and only 4 - 7 6m tables at a time. But I set HEM's HUD to "display cards at showdown" for 15 seconds. I know the action in the hands I'm involved in up to the river, then the HUD is displaying the showdown (plus won/lost amounts) when I return for the next hand. If the HUD display has timed off by the time I return, I click on the "amount won" in the HUD display of the last 3 hands, and the showdown cards display reappears for a few seconds.

So that's enough for most notes. If something's really interesting, I click on the winner's SN in the last 3 hands part of the HUD and a HH pops up.

Anyway, cascade, yeah, but spenda's right.

DON'T PLAY SO MANY FRICKIN' TABLES AT ONCE THAT YOU'RE NOT LEARNING ANYTHING!!!

Originally Posted by Robb

Originally Posted by iopq

Originally Posted by XxStacksxX

Anywhere from 12-16 tables FR cascading is my norm.. I routinely have a study session in which I play 6-8 tables and then review the session later. And I've even recently experimented with stacking tables and playing 24 tables. I feel more in my zone when I'm playing around 14 tables.

For anyone that is wanting to play more tables, but doesn't have 2 monitors they should definately look into cascading. With a little bit of practice you will be able to take good notes, and pay attention to big pots, while playing 12+ tables.

How do you see what people show down, you don't even get to see showdowns of hands you were in :/ I don't get this cascading thing :/

I only play 6 - 10 FR tables and only 4 - 7 6m tables at a time. But I set HEM's HUD to "display cards at showdown" for 15 seconds. I know the action in the hands I'm involved in up to the river, then the HUD is displaying the showdown (plus won/lost amounts) when I return for the next hand. If the HUD display has timed off by the time I return, I click on the "amount won" in the HUD display of the last 3 hands, and the showdown cards display reappears for a few seconds.

So that's enough for most notes. If something's really interesting, I click on the winner's SN in the last 3 hands part of the HUD and a HH pops up.

Anyway, cascade, yeah, but spenda's right.

DON'T PLAY SO MANY FRICKIN' TABLES AT ONCE THAT YOU'RE NOT LEARNING ANYTHING!!!

this

And.. I pay attention. I don't just sit idle when I don't have any action to do waiting for a table to pop up. After I make a decision and have idle time I go back to the table I knew something interesting was happening on and watch the hand. If need be I pull the HH up and put it on the side. If it's really interesting I mark it for review later, and can either make a note now, or later. After you get used to cascading it becomes less hectic and you start finding yourself with more and more free time. TBH, I could cascade 16 tables, browse ftr, chat in irc, and watch a movie if I wanted to, and still get notes, etc. I wouldn't play my best poker, so I try to not do that, but I have.

6, 8

12 tiled

2-7 tiled. Depends on what games (mix of HE, O8, S8 and HE tournies) I'm playing at the time. Too many stud tables doesn't work so well

Originally Posted by AFchung

12 tiled

u sure this isn't too many right now?