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Entry #19: Ring Games: Time, Quality and Quantity
All ring game players who approach the game at all seriously endeavour to leave as many playing sessions as possible with more money than they started with, their long-term goal, of course, being to generate an overall, worthwhile profit. This has become such a serious business - even at the lower levels - that a great deal is written and said about such things as hourly rates and the fashionable EV (every bet has an 'expected value').
As for multi-tabling, the art of finding the right number of tables to play simultaneously in order to maximise profit seems to have become an obsession with too many players. Indeed some have taken the quest to such an extreme that they're multi-monitoring, constantly clicking away on as many as a dozen tables in their efforts to tackle poker full-time ('full-time' being especially appropriate here, given that such a massive undertaking leaves no time for anything else). In the good old days of television, variety-themed entertainment shows would occasionally feature plate-spinning acts, with a sequinned performer doing his best to smile and appear casual while rushing around trying to keep plates spinning on top of tall sticks. I imagine mega-multi-tabling requires similar talents which, importantly, are over and above actual poker skills.
"How long and how often should we play?"
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Then we come to playing sessions. How long and how often should we play? Theoretically, assuming that a definite hourly profit has been established, then the longer the winning player spends at the tables, the greater the profit. Some feel more comfortable and confident knowing that they can look forward to, say, a four-hour playing session. Others play literally throughout the night until the not-so-early hours of the morning, while many players notice a decline in their decision-making ability after more than a couple of hours of non-stop play.
"If you have been hard at work all day and you've been looking forward to playing in a cash game for an hour, there is a tendency to play loose"
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Online poker is great for the vast majority of players for whom time is not in great supply for one reason or another, yet here we have a situation that can soon turn sour due to the impatience factor. If you have been hard at work all day and you've been looking forward to playing in a cash game for an hour, for instance, and you know that this is all the time you can afford, there is a tendency to play loose, calling and betting and generally overplaying hands that you would normally trash in a longer session. This is particularly the case with otherwise winning players whose expectancy in terms of their hourly rate might prompt them into cutting corners when the session not only begins poorly but continues in the same negative fashion. Rather than see these relatively short periods at the table as must-win opportunities, it is better to splice them on to future hours in order to treat hands as merely part of the whole process and, in doing so, to facilitate the necessary adherence to your generally successful playing guidelines.
Note that quitting while you're ahead (earlier than you had planned) is not as sensible a policy as you might imagine, as swings either way are part of the game, and winning a couple of big pots counts for nothing in terms of significance or overall influence on long-term results. If you're a winning player and you sit down for a three hour session and then stop altogether after twenty minutes because you've reached a certain level of profit, then you've just given up 160 minutes' worth of hitherto expected further profit.
With poker, as in life, some kind of moderation is imperative if we are to find a profitable playing recipe. Experience and (self-)analysis then allow us to concentrate on adding or removing certain ingredients until we feel that we have put together a successful formula in terms of both theory and our personal, practical requirements. Whether multi-tabling full ring games across a wall of monitors or diving into the psychology of close-quarters combat on a single short-handed table, the trick is to find a main course that best suits your taste yet proves expensive and unpalatable for your opponents.
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