MTTs & Playing More Tables

[VBlue]

I"ve just been reading Jason Tompkins blog and he talks a little about playing more tables, being an advocate himslef for playing less.

As I am taking on a lot of work with my game at the moment, including mental game improvements and strategy coaching for MTTs, I am thinking about the game more as I play. I currently play up to 4 tables, but recognise that I may need to drop down to 1 or 2.

I know that some still would not dream of trying to multi-table at all, whilst others play 20+ for volume and variance purposes. What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages? When do you know you are playing well enough to be able to add more effectively and when is it having a detrimental effect on your play and results?

[mporter123]

Playing one or two tables definitely helps to focus very carefully on every single decision. Its really useful for focussing on getting really good reads. As you add more and more tables most players EV will naturally decrease.

My view is that in the MTT"s I am playing, although I may lose some EV by adding tables, I still have an edge that makes it worthwhile getting in as much volume as I am comfortable handling. I have ramped this up a lot over the last 6 months and am comfortable 10-15 tabling now. A well set up HUD, hotkeys etc is really important though.

There are rare times when I may misclick or time out on hands. I still think it is worth playing as many tables as comfortable as the games are soft. As you get deeper in tourneys - drag the tables to one side to give them some extra focus.

[VBlue]

Thanks Mark.

I"m new to HUDs and have never set-up hot keys.  I recognise the argument over losing a little ROI to play more volume - something I learnt from playing STTs a couple of years ago - which in fact means a (potentially) more profitable session.

I am going to do an online coaching session in Jan on HM2.  Any tips on HUD set-up in the meantime would be appreciated, if you have the time and inclination.  I am going with:

VPIP/PFR/AF/3-bet
Fold to 3-bet/Fold to 4-bet
Flop C-Bet/Turn C-bet/River C-Bet/Steal

just somthing I took from an article by Ross Jarivs in PPUK.

I probably only use the top line in play as I don"t have enough hands on most opponents yet to use the rest.

[mporter123]

Top line is fine and is basically all I use. That will enable you to make some overall generalisations on player type which is all we need the HUD for in MTT"s. We will never have a sample size big enough to mean much and stats will sku anyway as blinds increase.

Saying that, I couldn"t play MTT"s in any volume without the HUD. Easy to spot the fish, the LAG"s, the TAG"s etc etc. I am probably a little over reliant on it on occasion. Note taking is important for the post flop stuff, whether villains play draws aggressively, their deep 3bet call range as examples. Whenever we get to showdown and see villains hands, I am trying to draw conclusions on playing style. Obviously this all becomes more difficult the more tables you add.

[WYoung83]

 Just play with what you know you are comfortable with. If you start timing out or miss-clicking or have trouble following the action then drop a couple of tables, and start adding more when you get used to it. I know that lots of online pros play tons of tables to get in more volume and try to reduce the variance. If they have a bad beat on one table then they have 10 + tables to work on so they maybe forget about the coolers and beats quickly and it doesnt effect their game as much as it would if they were on just 2 tables. Also If they go deep in one tourny then they can bring this table into focus on their screen by making it bigger so they can concentrate more. And of course they are more likely to go deep every now and then the more tournys they play, the more they play the more money they make in the long run.

Also just wondering how can a hud help much while playing mtts? Im asking because i have never used one and i have always thought they can give u in-accurate reads if you are playing mtts with big player pools, players moving and table breaking etc. Also a hud cant Calibrate ( not sure if this is right word here) for the different stages of mtts. Such as early on when everyone is deep stacked or near the bubble etc.
I have watched tons of videos and training sessions with people using a HUD, so i know how they work etc. But every single video i have seen with a hud has only been in cash games.

[VBlue]

Also just wondering how can a hud help much while playing mtts? Im asking because i have never used one and i have always thought they can give u in-accurate reads if you are playing mtts with big player pools, players moving and table breaking etc. Also a hud cant Calibrate ( not sure if this is right word here) for the different stages of mtts. Such as early on when everyone is deep stacked or near the bubble etc.
I have watched tons of videos and training sessions with people using a HUD, so i know how they work etc. But every single video i have seen with a hud has only been in cash games.

Thanks for this observation.  A very good question.  I"ll strive to get some decent feedback on the points made.  I think you can get figures from different stages of a tournament - could be wrong though.

[VBlue]

I have asked a question on this.  Two bits of training I have been doing/have planned:

I will be sitting an online skype training session with Jamie Burland in January on "Dissecting the Data" - how to translate stats into success and am half-way through a recording of "Tools of the Trade" - Sharkscope, Pokerstove, and Note Taking.

The Pokerstove stuff has been very helpful so far and I know feel a bit more confident in how to get the best out of this piece of software and will start to work this into my analysis.

[AMRN]

Also just wondering how can a hud help much while playing mtts? Im asking because i have never used one and i have always thought they can give u in-accurate reads if you are playing mtts with big player pools, players moving and table breaking etc. Also a hud cant Calibrate ( not sure if this is right word here) for the different stages of mtts. Such as early on when everyone is deep stacked or near the bubble etc.
I have watched tons of videos and training sessions with people using a HUD, so i know how they work etc. But every single video i have seen with a hud has only been in cash games.

I always tend to have the HUD switched on, even if playing a single MTT table.... I don"t tend to over-rely on it, but at a glance, seeing that someone only raises preflop 3% of the time rather than 30% does help to define their range as I make my decision.  Of course the HUD stat is somewhat meaningless if volume is small - my HUD set up has the hand counter as the first number so I can choose whether to pay attention to the detail or not.     For MTT, my setup only shows Hands, VPIP, PFR, Agg.....  Everything else is of little value for the reasons you state.

[TheSnapper]

I know that some still would not dream of trying to multi-table at all, whilst others play 20+ for volume and variance purposes. What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages? When do you know you are playing well enough to be able to add more effectively and when is it having a detrimental effect on your play and results?

Multi-tabling is the motorway to the "long run", actually multi-tabling is likely the only way to play enough hands so as to accurately assess ones winningness sadly if you are a losing player it"s also the motorway to Busto.

The really good mass multi-tablers measure how many tables to play based on an hourly rate inclusive of rakeback. Many opt for a breakeven ROI model with rakeback as their only yet considerable profit.

[WYoung83]

i would say this is even more true in online cash games brendan. So people are break even but getting rakeback can make them deecent winners.