Suck at two tabling

[RockyMoose]

I suck at two tabling.

Playing a single SNG, I'm holding my own, taking furious notes on players, and am not bad at putting the villian on a good range. I am particular about noting players' pre-flop and flop tendencies, and using it to my advantage later on. I'm +ROI.

I just can't keep up when playing two tournaments at the same time. I gloss over the preflop action and can't keep track of player tendencies. If I get involved in a hand, I miss what happened at the other table. If I analyze the hand histories, I miss the current action. I'm -ROI on two tabling.

Anyone else have this problem? For those of you who are successful at multi-tabling, what's the trick? Treat all opponents as a nit unless proven otherwise? Take less notes?

[mukaka]

I'm not successful at 4-tabling yet but I was good at 2 or 3 tabling..

For notes, you should at least have a tracking software to have a general idea about the players.. identify regs.. etc..

as for your play, try to review all your tourneys with hand replayer and play them like you're single-tabling that tourney.. It sure doesn't take too long when you skip trash hands quickly.. if you see too many mistakes that you wouldn't do while single-tabling then you're probably not ready yet..

[Deuce Blue]

If you are playing the lower limits (which I assume you are) note taking is really unnecessary. 99 % are bad players and 99% of them you won't see again. And if you do refer to part 1 again. If YOU play good solid tag poker you will beat a majority of them. Stop limping,stop playing so-so hands and generally just read alot of stuff on this site about starting hands and you will be fine. I use to 1 table and I seriously don't know how I stayed sane. I think single tabling leads to playing alot of hands just out of boredom. Keep at it and soon it will be second nature. To start with stagger them a bit. Do not fire up table #2 until you are at the 3rd stage of blinds at table #1. This will help as you won't be down to the bubble or heads up at the same time. And relax a bit, if you are in a crucial decision at one table it isn't the end of the world if you time out on another table.

[RockyMoose]

Do not fire up table #2 until you are at the 3rd stage of blinds at table #1. This will help as you won't be down to the bubble or heads up at the same time. And relax a bit, if you are in a crucial decision at one table it isn't the end of the world if you time out on another table.

Excellent advice. I'll give it a try. I've TAGed up consiserably in the last ~80 tournaments or so -- it's had a noticeable affect on my game. Do you think tracking software makes a difference at low stakes? Would that help replace my notes?

[rvrking22]

If you are playing the lower limits (which I assume you are) note taking is really unnecessary. 99 % are bad players and 99% of them you won't see again. And if you do refer to part 1 again. If YOU play good solid tag poker you will beat a majority of them. Stop limping,stop playing so-so hands and generally just read alot of stuff on this site about starting hands and you will be fine. I use to 1 table and I seriously don't know how I stayed sane. I think single tabling leads to playing alot of hands just out of boredom. Keep at it and soon it will be second nature. To start with stagger them a bit. Do not fire up table #2 until you are at the 3rd stage of blinds at table #1. This will help as you won't be down to the bubble or heads up at the same time. And relax a bit, if you are in a crucial decision at one table it isn't the end of the world if you time out on another table.

+1, hell, I'll give that a +2..very sound advice...everything I was going to mention you nailed on the head....follow these guidelines and it should not be to difficult to multi...

[Ryski]

If you can't keep up with two tables, you really are trying to keep track of too much. Instead of trying to catalog and retain ALL information, try focusing on the most important information. When playing multiple tables, you can't really follow postflop action as much so it starts gearing more towards preflop. Stop trying to remember how a person played their trips and concentrate on stuff like:

1) Who is loose and who is tight.
2) Who folds to re-raises.
3) Whose blinds can I pick on.
4) Note regs and serious fish.

Other than that play solid poker. Once it gets short handed you can pick up reads and playstyle much easier and by the bubble you will have a good idea of how to play against those players. People that suggest pokertracking software suggest it because it compiles all the important information and displays it next to the player so you can make more informed decisions instead of trying to keep track of 9*tables open opponents with your own notes.

[drmcboy]

I laugh when I end up playing someone I used to sit with when I 1 tabled, lots of stuff like this:

3x EP 15/30 two callers MP and BB KQJ two soot flop 2TPS Q turn checked called weird 1QPS bet river Q led HPS all fold to him

I mean, what do you do with that? Sometimes I'll re read them and condense it into 'tight' or something but usually I just scrap it.

These days it's more like:

Can make big semi bluff

Call if in doubt

BELIEVE

VALUE BET

EPIC DONK

Seemed to give up if missed flop

Good player


especially in tourneys you aren't going to end up in a lot of really similar situations. If you can't encapsulate it into a single sentence I don't think you'll get much out of it coming back.

The more you play the more you construct a general line for every situation, then adapt that to whatever you've seen the guy do since you've been sitting with him, and what he's seen you do, and what just happened. If a note helps out great, but I've been in many weird spots where I have some "Crazy ASS" note on someone and then they play great poker. Do you take the note off? Change it to "Sometimes Good Sometimes Bad"?

[taipan168]

I agree with the others, HUD software is useful no matter how many tables you're playing, but it becomes essential once you move to multiple tables as it gives you a lot of useful information at a glance.

The main notes I make on players are:

- What sorts of hands they show down in big pots (the nuts? bottom pair? busted draws?)
- Whether they shove much looser or tighter than expected considering their position (eg. if I see them shoving A2s with 10x BB on a 7-handed table I'll feel much better about calling in the BB with my AJo). Similarly if they only shove big hands when they should be shoving ATC this is a useful read
- How tight/loose they call short/big stack pushes or if they fold when they're getting monster pot odds
- How they play monster hands like sets - do they lead? check/raise? check/call?
- If they do stuff like shove the nuts or a busted draw on the river
- Their Sharkscope stats and over how many games

[drmcboy]

Oooh limps big/limps small/limp folds/limp calls, this is an extra good note since so often it will tell you a lot about the player's skill level

[taipan168]

Oooh limps big/limps small/limp folds/limp calls, this is an extra good note since so often it will tell you a lot about the player's skill level

Yeah forgot to add that to my list, what sort of hands they limp, in what situations and what they do when somebody raises behind is probably the #1 note that I make.