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Articles
Multiple Games
Aug. 12, 2003
By: Michael Cohen
One of the many advantages to playing poker on the internet is the ability to play multiple games at once. Empire Poker allows you to play up to three games at once. The decision whether to play two or more games at a time is not to be taken lightly because it can greatly affect your win-loss rate.
When playing multiple games, you will naturally not be able to pay as much attention to your every move and will probably play a little worse. If you average $25 an hour playing one table, you may be only able to average $18 at each table. However, since you are playing two tables, you would then average $36 an hour, which is still higher than the original $25. Thus, the key factors when deciding whether or not to play multiple tables is establishing what you believe you make an hour playing one table, how much this will be decreased if you play two tables, and whether or not this new number X 2 (or perhaps even 3) is greater than the original amount you were making per hour.
Since playing two tables lowers your profit rate, you must have already established that you can beat the game consistently in order for it to be profitable to play two games at once. If you are breaking even at a limit and decide to play two games at once at that limit, you will probably begin to lose money since your profit rate will go from 0 to say -$5 an hour per table, which amounts to -$10 an hour. If you are losing at a limit, you will lose more if you play two games at once.
If you are beating a game, you may or may not be able to still beat that game if you play two tables. For example, if you consistently are beating a low fixed limit game, you will probably still be able to beat this game if you play two of them at once. This is because you are probably beating this game not by paying close attention to your opponents, but rather through solid poker fundamentals like playing the right starting hands, pot odds, etc. However, if you are playing no-limit games, you may not do as well if you play two at once because no-limit games rely much more on reading your opponents and adjusting your play to their style. Also, no limit games introduce the bluffing element. Generally, players who play multiple tables are more easily bluffed than players concentrating on one table because they will just fold in all of their marginal situations.
Furthermore, playing more than one game can be stressful. You will be constantly checking each game, making snap decisions every 15 seconds, and perhaps getting confused which flop went with what pocket cards. This may decrease the joy factor of the game, which may be more important to you than any extra money you could make by playing two games at once. It also may make you more prone to going on tilt.
If you are considering playing two games at once, your choice will come down to how you answer the following questions:
- Can you beat this game consistently already?
- Are you beating this game because of poker fundamentals, rather than relying on reading your opponents?
- Do you think you will make more money playing two games at once? If so, does this money justify any potential "fun" you may lose because you can't get as into the game?
If you answer yes to all of these questions, perhaps you should try playing two games at once! Otherwise, you should probably stick to just playing one.
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