One thing I've noticed (ldo) is how much easier it is to observe villains with specific patterns when I single-table vs. when I multi-table, for example:

- which are the villains who are limping almost every hand but then fold to a pre-flop raise
- which villains are limp almost every hand, calling pre-flop raises but then folding to c-bets almost every time
- which villains are folding to flop raises vs. calling them
- when villains are calling c-bets what are they calling with
- are they calling a flop bet then folding to a turn bet
- what are they stacking off with (it can be very profitable to know a villain is willing to stack off with top pair!)
- villains who are spewtarding (these extremely profitable villains are often easy to miss if you're just folding a lot pre and moving onto the next table)
- how tight are the tables playing in general, i.e. can you raise with hands in middle or early position that are slightly less strong than what you'd normally raise with because the entire table has been playing nitty?

(what are some other villain habits that are good to observe that don't necessarily show up in a HUD?)

To those of you who play 4, 8, 12 tables, are you still able to observe particularly profitable villain situations that don't necessarily show up in a HUD?

Is there value to be gained from playing less tables and paying better attention at stakes, say, 25NL and below?

Any habit will show up in a hud stat . You just need to know what hud stat to look at . PT4 has a really cool feature that automatically takes notes on villians . like " 4 bet range : aq+ , 99+ 8 samples " . Thats the tracker I have been using for the last few months and its pretty sick .

Yes there is value to be gained by playing less tables . You will sharpen your game

Dude, seriously, any chance you could change your avatar so that it ONLY shows the girl They must be in separate rooms because I doubt she'd be sitting there eating popcorn and just watching that

Thanks for the advice.

The girl is WhyDoweFall . The avatar was made by Bumblebee99 and PapaPyrite . It's nevar getting changed

You know you are playing too many tables (as a beginner) when you find yourself just clicking buttons......THEN look at the stats and say to yourself "I shoulda folded there to that NIT" or "Crap, I just folded on the button with two NITS in the blinds" [[[play ATC is profitable in that spot]]].

Too many tables = autopilot

Don't autopilot before you get your pilot's license.

....and she probably is in the same room..... ba da BOOM!

HUD stats which give good ideas of the above. The only habit which HUDs really don't show is bet sizing and hence most of my notes are on bet sizing.

The value to be gained at the micros is mostly improving your poker ability.

I've never gone beyond 5 tables, and do best with only 2 or 3, because I like having time to analyse every hand, but I'm also a fan of HUD pop-ups, using stats like "limp fold", "check-raise as PFR", "fold to 3-bet" very often.
There are stats for all the things you mentioned above. If you plan to keep playing poker at anything above 2NL and would like to increase the number of tables you play, then NoteCaddy looks the business, as it will create automatic notes for a range of behaviours. With the trial version in HM2, it automatically creates notes for open limping ranges and provides a basic description of how a player tends to play draws. e.g. "Aggressive with nut flush draw (4/5 80%)" indicates a player that rarely just calls when he's drawing to the nuts. With downloadable note caddy badges, it should be really easy to judge someone's tendencies really quickly.

the problem with playing 3 tables is that it takes you longer to have a decent sample size.

what about nanonoko.. that dude who plays 20 some tables at a time. He has to be on autopilot right?? AK, JJ + raise.. everything else fold.

no.

but that doesn't happen overnight. it's a skill you have to develop. The first time you try to play 4 tables it seems like you'll never be able to keep up, but after sometime you can play 12, etc.

Nanonoko is a very very LAGGY reg relatively speaking... lol AK JJ+? Are you insane? Think A2s+ 22+ 56s+ from UTG.

Maybe not, idk.

I use to play 8, 10, 12 and sometimes 14 tables because i figured, the more tables = more hands = more money.
Then i dropped down a few tables when i felt my brain was being over-loaded with information.

I've realised i'm most profitable with 4-6 tables. My bb/100 win rate rapidly increased and i feel like i'm a much better poker player.

Nanonoko is ****ing insane. Seriously, I don't envy him one bit, that sort of grind must be so tiring.

I'm sure he is on autopilot, it's just that his autopilot is better than everyone else's autopilot.

Indeed. Some people are just quicker/better at taking in the information available to them and then using it correctly.
If you know your HUD inside out, and have standard/profitable ways of using it, then it's just a matter of making the decisions quickly and clicking those buttons. I'm pretty rubbish at video games, but some people can flawlessly execute every combo in Street Fighter with their eyes shut. Nanonoko would probably be great at Street Fighter if he worked on that.
If your hand-eye-brain co-ordination is better than average, then you can probably mass table successfully. If you're just like me (a klutz) you can practice more, or just stick with the number of tables you're comfortable with.