Stack, tile or cascade

Anyone who plays

single table tournaments

seriously will almost certainly be be playing several tables simultaneously in order to attempt and increase their hourly earn rate. As a general rule the Return On Investment, or ROI, in single table tournaments is quite low so to combat that fact players like to play lots of tournaments in a short space of time so they are maximising the amount they can earn.

It is relatively easy to learn how to play multiple tables as long as you find a way to display the tables on your screen effectively. The three main ways to display the tables are to stack, tile or cascade and I will highlight the pros and cons of each method in the remainder of this article.

Stacking is a system where you stack each additional table over the top of the ones already loaded up until you have reached your ideal number of tables. Some of the advantages to this method is that even players with small monitors or laptop screens can play dozens of tables at once without straining their eyesight, all the action buttons are in the same place reducing the chance of clicking the wrong one and you can become less result orientated due to not seeing the results. On the downside, it is far more difficult to get reads on your opponents, you can make less player dependent plays and you will find it difficult to keep an eye on game flow.

Cascading is extremely similar to stacking except the tables are aligned by the poker client in a diagonal line down your monitor. Depending on your monitor’s resolution you may not be able to play as many tables as if you stacked. In my opinion, if you are thinking about cascading you should really be stacking.

Playing with tiled tables is great if you do not plan on playing too many games at once because you get to see the outcome of each hand which in turn allows you to follow the flow of the game more easily and make plays based on reads and previous actions. As hinted at, the major downside is you simply cannot play as many tables as the stacked method due to having to follow the action on each table and there is also much more head and mouse movement required which can become tiring during long sessions.

Personally, I like to use a variety of stacking and tiling when I am playing single table tournaments. I start by tiling four tables and then stacking more tables on this base of four until I have between 12 and 20 running. Experiment with which method works for best for you and watch some

Poker Videos

if it might help. However, if you are trying a format completely new to you I would suggest trying it out at the lowest stakes available in case it all goes horribly wrong!