This blog is gonna be kind of a different variety but I figured I always get the question of how the heck do you play 16 tables at once and still know what you are doing? It’s a rare blog that I’m going to target at people who aren’t professional poker players. I’m gonna take this post to show you guys how I personally do it. I think its a little different than what alot of online pros do but this works for me.
First thing to address is how the heck do you put 16 windows on your screen? This is actually the thing in which I do most different from other poker professionals. I use an overlapping window method. I stack the windows in such a way that I can always see my cards on any given table if they are there. I may not be able to see the whole table or the actions occuring while i’m not in the hand, but that’s not really necessary since I can always go back and look at hands I missed in the full tilt replayer. If you are going to use the overlap method, you are going to need to a pretty nice display setup on your desktop. I personally use two 24″ monitors for my setup. Here’s what that looks like:
As you can its alot of screen but pretty much completely necessary if you use 2 of the 4 possible methods of playing mass-tables. The other methods pros use are tiling, stacking or cascading. Really quickly here’s the definitions of how those work:
Tiling: No tables overlap, and the action on each table is displayed at all times. Basically this looks like a set of tiles on your bathroom floor but instead of stones its tables. This is usually used if the professional has a 30″ monitor or two 30″ monitors. That usually supplies ample room for tables to spread out. The only reason I don’t personally use this method is because I don’t have the monitor space and don’t like my tables to be super small.
Stacking: Stacking is gaining in popularity recently as the software used with poker programs upgrades. More specifically a program called TableNinja. Stacking is the most difficult of the options for mass tabling in my opinion and it takes a truly genius mind to remember all the actions and play and history each table presents since you aren’t seeing them really ever. The way this method works is you just take 16 windows and place them totally on top of one another. When a table requires you to make an action it pops to the front of the pile so you can address it. After you make that action, another table pops up over that one. Its a great way to play completely independent of results because usually you have no idea how the hand turned out unless it comes back to the top of the pile. TableNinja allows the player to size bets with his mouse so basically he never has to move his hands from the mouse which is key due to the speed of play using this method. The best part about stacking is that you don’t need monitor space to do it. This is the go to method of players using laptops usually. Either this or the next method I’ll talk about.
Cascading: This one is alot like the stacking method but instead of placing them exactly on top of one another they stagger the windows slightly off one another. This allows you to easily select a particular table you wish to look at at any time. It’s useful if you want to see what a players is doing on a particular table, but even this after awhile is VERY similar to stacking.
Here’s a look at what 16-tabling actually looks like!
As you can see there’s little slivers of the 4 underneath tables where when I have cards (or am actually sitting) I can see those cards. TableNinja (the program mentioned earlier) allows me to simply hover my mouse over a table to select it, and I can make my action from there. Its really not as daunting as it may seem as even the most aggressive players in no limit holdem are folding 75% of the time before the flop. This means I only have 4 tables at a time with a hand I’m even interested in.
The next part is obviously acquiring enough skill to beat the game and not just play aces and kings and fold everything else. I always get the statement (not even a question)…. “oh you 16 table so there’s no way you can keep up with your actions on every table.” This is completely false as well. A good 16 tabling poker professional isn’t that robot you are picturing who is just playing the same way on every table. Good 16 tabling professionals know how to use their software and just the overall actions at the table to get the temperature of just about every hand. How can that be you might ask? Using a databasing program is a must.
Let me add this little disclaimer to some who might think perhaps this all seems shady. This is 100% legal and approved on all poker sites except for one. The way this is legal is because its databasing only hands I’ve played, so therefore I’m not gaining information I haven’t “seen”.
Good multi-tabling online professionals use huds (headsup display). This puts numbers on top of the poker tables. These numbers correspond with different things players do. For example here’s the hud I use (or what a hud might look like):
This isn’t a live game shot, but it will do for all purposes and I blocked out my stats simply because I don’t wish for my opponents to get all my information for just reading this blog. As you can see there’s numbers under each player. These are a series of numbers that tell me things about them. They are all basically percentages except for one number which is a ratio telling how aggressive a player is. The first number is what percentage of the time I can expect them to be in a pot. The second number is what percentage of the time I can expect them to raise before the flop. It continues through like that with each number giving me a different piece of information. These number are not necessarily correct but they are correct for the hands I’ve seen with that player in the past. This allows me to make decisions about what their likely hands are based on past information. And ladies and gentleman, that’s what poker really is.
Hopefully that gives you a pretty good look into what guys who play mass tables are doing to allow themselves to do so profitably. That being said, I think I would be perfectly capable of 16 tabling without the HUD (but since everyone uses a HUD, i would be at a mass disadvantage if i didn’t use one). I hope all you people who read this blog about poker and are like “WTF is he talking about” get a little closer to understanding what we are doing here and that we really aren’t just betting on black or red.
Haha, welcome back to the blog. I have chosen a sparkling glitter gif of a royal flush. Gay? A little bit but relevant… indeed it is.
