For many poker players, multi-table tournaments are where the real fun is. For a set fee and buy-in you get a fixed number of chips, so your bankroll doesn’t have to be huge to take part. But with lots of players competing, the prize pool can be impressive, giving more people the chance to win. Whether playing online poker or live, don't overlook the early levels of a multi-table tournament as meaningless. Nor should you think of the pre-ante period as only presenting opportunities to.

MULTI-TABLE TOURNAMENTS

Poker King brings you all of the excitement of a major Las Vegas poker tournament in your own backyard, every day of the week. Poker King offers a vast selection of multi-table tournaments including monthly Sunday majors with guaranteed prize pools running in the 6-figures.

Poker King hosts a diverse tournament schedule with a variety of games including Texas Holdem, Omaha HI, and Omaha HI/LO along with a range of buy-ins to suit every type of player’s bankroll. Each tournament has the capacity to hold up to 4,000 players to potentially create massive prize pools!

REGISTRATION

Optimize the Game Through Multi-table Poker Tournament Strategies. The Multi-table tournament format is one of the most popular in poker today. It is widely followed by some of the biggest events in the game such as the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour. Multi-table tournaments (MTTs) offers the opportunity to win a larger prize with a smaller buy-in amount. A MTT consists of many tables, lots of players and a prize pool that usually varies based on the amount players.

The registration process is very straight forward. Simply click on the tournament lobby and either click once or double click on the highlighted tournament. You may then register for the tournament by clicking on the big red tournament button displayed on the bottom right corner of the tournament lobby.

Every Multi-Table tournament begins at a specified date and time. It’s a good idea to register for tournaments in advance, however Poker King’s late registration feature lets you register for the tournament even after multiple levels of the tournament have passed. The amount of levels in the late registration period varies per tournament. You can find out how many levels remain in the tournament lobby for any specific tournament.

To register for these Online Poker tournaments, you must pay your buy-in plus the registration fee. A $10 No Limit tournament would actually cost $11. The buy-in would be $10+1 ($10 for the prize pool and $1 for the entry fee). This practice is standard in all online poker rooms and bricks-and-mortar casinos.

Once the buy-in has been paid, you’ll be taken to your table and receive your starting chips. All players will start the tournament with an equal number of chips. Each tournament has a maximum of 10 players per table; all registered players will be randomly seated. As players get knocked out, tables are closed and players are moved to other tables to ensure tables remain balanced.

PRIZE POOLS

Multi-table tournaments give you a better opportunity to make a huge score than any other type of poker format offered on Poker King. Remember the initial buy-in you paid prior to taking your seat? Well that buy-in is thrown in a giant prize pool with the buy-ins from every other player.

At the end of the online poker tournament, a specified number of players will share that prize pool based on how they finish. While a range of factors determines how much money can be won, here’s a classic example of a $10 No-Limit Holdem tournament:

• 450 players enter the tourney.
• A total prize pool of $4,500 will be available.
• Using our standard pay-out schedule, the winner will earn $1,350 and the second place finisher will earn $585, and so on. Not bad for an $11 investment.

SATELLITES

The majority of Poker King tournaments also offer satellites. Satellites are smaller tournaments that take place prior to the tournament in question in which the winner(s) are rewarded an entry or ticket to the bigger prize pool event.

Players can parlay a smaller initial investment into an entry to play in a bigger event that would normally be out of reach because the cost is too big for their bankroll. Satellites can level the playing field by allowing all players an opportunity to play in higher buy-in/big ticket events.

Intrigued by Multi-Table tournaments? Poker King offers you a number of online Poker Multi-Table tournaments every single day. It takes is as little as 25 cents to get into one so grab a seat and become a champion.

Multi-tabling is a method of playing online poker in which you participate on multiple tables simultaneously. Many recreational poker players choose to multi-table because it’s more fun and if they are skilled then they can also increase their profits over time. Professional players will mass multi-table in order to maximize their profit per hour rather than seeking a particular rate of return on their investments.

The general concept of multi-tabling is that if you can be a winning poker player at one table, you might also be able to be a winning poker player at two, three, four, or many more tables simultaneously. Most online poker rooms have built-in features that facilitate multi-tabling and in this lesson we’ll examine the two main methods and provided some strategy tips to help you maximize your profits.

The Two Methods of Multi-Tabling

To successfully multi-table you’ll need a way of efficiently organizing the poker tables. The two main methods of multi-tabling are; tiling and stacking.

Tiling

Tiling is considered to be the most popular method of multi-tabling. When you tile your table windows, you arrange them such a way so that they’re adjacent to each other so that you can see each table in full with little or no overlapping. Most online poker rooms have re-sizeable windows to allow you to change the default size of the tables. How many tables you can fit onto your screen without any overlapping will depend on how easily you can view the tables – and of course the size of your monitor. Some online poker players like to play across multiple computer monitors but for the casual player a single monitor should be sufficient.

Tiling your poker tables means you get to see everything that’s going on across all tables and this has some clear advantages. Firstly, you can use the preset buttons to quickly discard your poor hands and therefore concentrate fully on the other tables. It also allows you to follow the action and study your opponents, even when you’re not involved in a hand.

Stacking

Stacking is usually the method of choice for players who play a very high number of poker tables simultaneously. Each table window is placed directly on top of the other windows so that they are all positioned in the same general area of your screen. When stacking be sure to check the preferences of your poker software and have it set to bring a window to the front of the stack when it’s your turn to make a betting decision. Players who like to mass multi-table sit-n-goes of various types are most likely to use this method since many decisions in the game are more standardized and automatic than those of a cash game player.

There are advantages to stacking your tables. Firstly, unless you have a very large monitor, you can play on more tables simultaneously – and can increase the size of the tables. Also, since the active tables will pop up in the same position each time, you don’t have to move your mouse cursor across your screen for each betting decision.

Which method of multi-tabling is best? Well, it’s really down to personal choice. If you’re new to multi-tabling then I suggest you experiment with both methods and see which setup you prefer.

Multi-Tabling Strategies

In general, your goal during a session of multi-tabling should be to minimize the amount of different factors coming into play. When you have to think about strategic differences every time you move from one window to the next, you’re likely to experience problems and reduce your profitability. Here are some things to consider when multi-tabling:

ABC Poker

Playing poker across multiple tables will naturally result in far more situations than playing on a single table. Therefore you’ll want to use a strategy that minimizes difficult decision making. This means you’re probably best served by playing “ABC poker” – which is to play a very basic style and avoid getting into tricky situations. Although playing poker this way might make you somewhat predictable, and won’t necessarily maximize your profits at each table, it’s a great way of ensuring positive winning percentages and making steady profits in the long run. In higher stakes games you will probably want to reduce the number of tables you play, because experienced poker players will pinpoint your predictability and exploit it.

Stick to One Game

You should avoid playing more than one game type when multi-tabling, so don’t play razz while playing 7-card stud! Playing a couple of cash games while playing in a poker tournament shouldn’t cause too many issues for most players, but it’s generally better to stick to either cash games or tournaments when multi-tabling. This is especially true when using the stacking method. You’ll also find it easier to multi-table if you stick to the same table stakes because your bet sizing will be standardized. Remember, the fewer decisions you have to make, the better.

Avoid Distractions

Multi Table Tournament Poker Table

If you take your poker seriously then you’ll know that it’s important to avoid distractions whilst playing. This is especially true when multi-tabling and you simply won’t have time to surf the net or watch TV while you play. You’ll be using nearly all of your available time making decisions. Also, you’ll have little time for chit-chat. For this reason it’s in your best interests to ignore the chat box and if you can, disable it completely. Remember, the purpose of multi-tabling is to multiply your winnings. But by definition, it can also multiply your losses if one is not careful.

Tournament Strategy

When it comes to tournament poker, there are two schools of thought regarding when to actually start the games. Some players like to start all their tournaments or SNGs at the same time, or at least as close as possible. By doing this it’s easier to keep track of what phase of the game you’re in since each table should only be separated by a level or two at most.The downside to this method of multi-tabling is that all of the games will become short-handed at roughly the same time, resulting in much less time to make decisions. Another drawback is that you would want to complete one set of games completely before starting another round.

Other players prefer to stagger the games so that they have a couple games at various levels of play. Using this method you would start a new poker game right as another game is completed and just keep going for set period of time or after a fixed number of games.This method also makes it easier to play scheduled poker tournaments since these begin at a set time rather than waiting for a certain number of players to join.

Many poker tournament professionals construct their own personal schedule around these scheduled events, adding or even deleting certain poker tournaments dependant on how deep they may go in each game. A player may elect to stop multi-tabling altogether if they make it deep into a big poker tournament, preferring to pay attention to everything in that game in hopes of making a big score rather than the average dollars per hour via multi-tabling.

Start Slowly!

Some players find multi-tabling easy. For others it can be a real struggle. The best advice is to start slowly and do not play more tables than you can handle. It can take time to adjust to playing poker at several tables at once. If you’re new to multi-tabling then just start by playing two tables, then once you’re comfortable, add another. Progressively add more, one at a time and if you find yourself struggling to make key decisions within the allocated time – or find multi-tabling is negatively affecting your game, reduce the number of tables. It’s also important that you be respectful of your fellow poker players so make sure your decisions are made within a reasonable timeframe.

How To Play Multi Table Tournament Poker

The more you play online poker the more you’ll feel comfortable multi-tabling. With experience you’ll soon discover your optimum number for multi-tabling – and this will help maximize your profits at the tables!

By Tim Ryerson

Tim is from London, England and has been playing poker since the late 1990’s. He is the ‘Editor-in-Chief’ at Pokerology.com and is responsible for all the content on the website.