The joys of multi-tabling

About ten years or so ago, some company came out with a great toy named BopIt. It had a very simple premise - the toy had three actions you could perform on it:

1. twist it
2. pull it
3. bop it

Your job was to listen to what the toy told you to do, and then perform that action, within a specified time limit. If you succeeded in performing the action, the game continued; over time, the toy sped up, giving you instructions more frequently, and the time limit decreased correspondingly. I ended up being very good at BopIt, since I learned to make my mind be like a still lake, just waiting for instructions :-) The skill was all in the listening - being in utter readiness to hear what the toy was about to tell you. I closed my eyes, in order to be able to listen better.

As it turns out, multi-tabling, or playing multiple tables of poker at the same time, bears a striking resemblance to playing BopIt. You don't have time to think long and hard. You only have time to listen to what the situation is telling you, and act accordingly. Your near-instantaneous assessment of what the situation is telling you comes from the hundreds of thousands of hands you've played in your career. You don't necessarily know why you know what to do, but nevertheless, you do know what to do :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players hands entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE      870   130       9    45     944  243   224     1437
MTT   8-Game   4350   650       6    85      81   18    11     7570
MTT   NLHE      870   130       9    78     664  162    30     3697
MTT   8-Game   4350   650       6    19      67   18    34        0

delta: $704
MTT NLHE massive balance: $68,039
balance: $10,361,693