Many people rave over the ability to be able to multi table games.

This is fine if you are a cash game player, especially in limit where you are simply looking for premium hands to raise up or looking for some nice suited connectors in late position to make a straight or flush and crack those Aces.

In limit you can multi table five or so tables in a ten player ring game and make a nice profit simply by showing down better hands.

However you will also lose a lot of money by not spotting who are the fish at the table.

Multi tabling the six handed SNG is not a good idea.

Ten handed SNG's can be multi tabled by firing the second one up half way through the first and so on. But I see distinct drawbacks with this approach and they are compounded when it comes to the six handed game.

You need to come second to nearly double your buy in. If you keep coming second you will drain your bankroll.

You need to come first regularly to make taking the game seriously worth while.

If you start multi tabling then you will start accepting races in spots where you shouldn't. You will start racing your AK against JJ in the first round of blinds and when you lose, simply fire up another table and put it down to bad luck.

To become a consistently winning player over time you can not sustain this approach. The game gives too many bad beats and miracle cards to make it a multi tabling reality. If you want to multi table then cash games are your bag.

When you multi table you start to lose your edge as a winning tournament player.

Think about this....

Once you can master the six handed SNG tournament then you have the skills to be able to give a good account of yourself on the final table of a big tourney.

A freezeout tournament requires skills of patience and picking spots. If you play straightforward poker in these tournaments you only need to play seven, eight or nine hands or so to make the final table. This advice applies to the low limit ($10 and below) tournaments.

Of course it's not that simple and you do need to hit some cards to make the final table but it is very achievable to consistently make the money if you adopt the "tight is right" approach.

Now, once you make that final table all of the money is in the top three spots and so if you are good at playing the six handed game then you have a good chance to make a decent cash.

If you multi table the SNG then you will lose edges.

I don't see this as a sane way of playing the six handed game. If you are good at this it's quite feasible to go on runs of first places. My best is five wins in a row. In my opinion that beats the hell out of trying to multi table and race your hands.

So this is why the double stack tournament is the place to play. The blinds go up just as quick as a regular SNG but because you have a double stack you can sit and wait for the hands to come to you.

You should be aiming to finish in the money at least 60% of the time. This is entirely feasible if you pay attention to the players on your table and you can quickly spot who are the wild characters.

If you are multi tabling you will not be able to spot this and as we've discussed, in the SNG you are looking at playing a huge turnover of players who come from the cash games either through boredom or they can't get a table and so you are going to be up against all different types of players from the poker spectrum.

Multi tabling is for cash games and ten handed SNG's.

The six handed SNG requires all of your attention to be a consistently winning player because you are making important decisions every single hand.

Playing Four Handed

Last update: 20-06-2008 12:29