Avoiding Multitabling Syndrome

So whats the best way to avoid autopilot? Even when playing one table I dont think about all the options all the time

Good call. This experimenting thing is something that I have been trying out a lot personally. It leads to me making some silly mistakes, but my hand reading and my game feels as in tune as ever. Now if I can just trust that hand reading…

When might be a good spot to minraise the turn in position?

In no-limit, how often do you minraise the turn with position?

That brings up a different but possibly related issue. A lot of seasoned players would never be caught dead minbetting or minraising because that play is seen as the hallmark of the donk.

To be sure, there are donks who do this because setting the bet size just requires too much effort, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be places where it’s theoretically justifiable.

@threads13: The two examples I think of are

(1) for value with a monster that’s not likely to be outdrawn and not likely to get a call from a bigger raise

(2) against an opponent who’s likely to interpret the situation as (1), meaning you get a cheap bluff. If the probability of bluffing success doesn’t increase much, there’s no reason to risk more than a minraise.

Admittedly, they don’t happen that often, but they could.

This seasoned player did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyZdGTVAalE

I just ran across this in JMan’s well thread over at 2+2

He was talking about non-standard lines or some such thing and how they should be part of everyone’s game. He mentioned leading for 1/3 the pot and someone asked him to explain…

…snip…
I haven’t played a ton of nl lately. Maybe I’ll make up a cool hand.

Oooooh actually, I’ll tell you about a play I like. I didn’t name it but I think I’ll call it the ‘Root Beer’.

$10k stacks.

Loose semi-aggro decent player opens to $350 from the HJ at 50/100. I make it $1300 from SB with AJss or KK.

Flop T54 two spades. ($2700)
I give him the root beer and bet $650

He usually won’t have a hand, but he won’t want to fold for $650 into that pot. So he can either return my root beer and make it $2500 (I shove, he folds usually), or he can make a float.

Let’s say he chooses to float, which he will fairly often.

Turn Qo or T or 7o, or whatever.

There are two options I like on the turn after I root beer the flop.

One is a check shove. That’s kind’ve the logical one, right? We’ve forced them to float, so we should let them bluff. But sometimes they check behind, and sometimes they have a weak made hand.

What I like to do more is bet $1500 into the $4000.

What usually happens is that they fold, since they don’t have a hand. But a lot of times what happens is they think “hmmmm I can’t call this, I have 4 outs/no outs/bottom pair. But why did I float then? To take away this pot. RAISE”

They make it $4k and I shove and they fold. Tada!

It also works nicely with bluffs because you lay yourself a nice price.
…snip…

No idea if you read comments on older posts but I’ve been having a problem related to this:

When I play 1-2 tables I’m able to pick good spots to bluff, pick off bluffs, etc. When I play more than 2 tables I have a MUCH harder time reading situations correctly and noticing spots where non-standard lines would work better.

Any advice for playing more than a couple of tables without reverting to ABC poker? Does it just take practice? Are you always playing a couple of steps below what you are capable of when you multi-table?

A couple of representative examples from 2-tabling last night that I never would have done with more than 2 tables:

1) I flop top pair with a medium kicker out of position. Villain raises and starts getting aggressive. My spider senses tingle and I’m pretty sure he’s bluffing. I check/call for almost my whole stack by the river and win a big pot when he shows down 33.

With more than 2 tables I don’t think I would have gotten this read or been able to trust it. It wasn’t a specific tell or betting pattern – it was just poker intuition.

2) A tight player raises from the blinds after several limpers, including me. I call with a medium suited connector because the stacks are deep enough. I miss the flop but decide to float him because he is a tight player and I sense that he may be weak. He doesn’t fold though and even bets out smallish on the river. I realize that the line I’ve taken looks like a couple of different draws that came in on the river so I pot size raise his smallish river bet, which is the rest of my stack. I know he can’t call that big of a bet in this spot.

This was a bluff for a lot of chips and I don’t think I would have had a sufficiently good read on the situation if I was playing more tables.

So, am I giving up opportunities like these to play more tables or should I be learning some way to still find these spots even with 6-8 tables?