When you’re playing poker online, or offline for that matter, it’s easy to get into bad habits. But what we all often forget is that bad habits can negatively affect your bank balance as well as hindering you improving and levelling up. So today we’re going to tackle some of the most common multi-tabling mistakes and let you know how you can avoid them.
Multi-tabling: the definition
Before we get into common multi-tabling mistakes, let’s take a step back and explain exactly what it is. This is where you play at more than one poker table at once. This is an online only poker pursuit because if you were playing IRL it’d be kind of hard to run from one table to the next every time you had to act!
Why do people do it? Well it’s because you can fit in a whole lot more game play during your session. It can make your session more action-packed and interesting. Plus, if you’re in the habit of doing pretty well on the felt, you can rack up the wins a little faster too.
At good online poker rooms, you can play at over a dozen tables at once!
Common multi-tabling mistakes
So let’s have it, the ways in which you can improve your poker game all while avoiding those common multi-tabling mistakes.
Biting off more than you can chew
So you’re finding your way around the poker table. Things are going pretty well. So you say, “Even though I normally multi-table at three tables, I’m going to up my stake levels and go for five tables.”. Bad idea. Higher stakes usually mean a better standard of play, so you’re going to be challenged on that front, as well as learning how to juggle more action at once.
Slow down, take a step back. If you’ve been consistently performing well at a certain stake level and with a certain number of tables for a couple of weeks, change just one of those variables. Then see how you handle that over a couple more weeks before changing things up again. It’s much better to grind your way up slowly than lose a whole pile of money in one cocky session.
Throwing good money and time after bad
This is not just a multi-tabling phenomenon, but it can happen more frequently to multi-tablers just because the action happens so Goddamn fast. If you’re overspending your poker session budget or spending more time than you’d like on your session, you need to cut back. It’s not going to make you a better player to waste time and money and it’s never a good idea. For some ideas on how to budget your time and money during your session, check out this guide to responsible gambling tools.
Mixing up the suits
If you haven’t spent a lot of time playing poker this way, this common multi-tabling mistake is going to surprise you. One of the most common mistakes people make while multi-tabling is simply mistaking hearts for diamonds or clubs for spades. In a fast-paced multi-tabling session where lots is going on, it’s surprisingly easy to do. So do yourself a favor and change the deck to one where each of the suits have their own color. In a decent online poker room, this should be available in your settings.
Mixing up the tables
Much like the suits mishaps, people can frequently mix up the actual tables they’re playing at while they’re playing. So set your tables to simple themes to make it easy on yourself to focus on the action.
Getting distracted by noisy sound effects
To be quite honest, we’ve never been huge fans of sound effects. We apologize to all those experts who spend their career crafting the perfect slots jingle or card cheer. But it’s, generally speaking, not for us. However, if you love a good poker sound effect, do yourself a favor while multi-tabling and just switch them off. Imagine a cacophony of half a dozen tables making noise based on completely different actions. That’s not going to help you one iota.
Not playing at a great online poker room
For one reason or another, you might be tempted to sign up to a sub-standard online poker room. Maybe you didn’t realize that was the case at the time you signed up or maybe you had a feeling but went for it anyway. A great online poker room can help you avoid lots of common multi-tabling mistakes using special features. Plus you can get lots of practice in at different levels if there’s plenty of action. One place that has all the hallmarks of a great online poker room is bet365. And to make it even sweeter signing up, you can also use this bet365 bonus code.
