One of the pleasures of online poker is being able to play at more than
one table at the same time. Once you get the hang of the game, most of
your time is spent sitting around waiting for the other players to finish
the current hand and get on to the next one. Being in a second game means
less waiting. Of course, it also means that from time to time you will be
busy making poker decisions on two tables at the same time! This is a
distraction that is sure to degrade the quality of your play somewhat, so
be careful.
Screen real estate is an issue. You don't want the tables overlapping too
much because there is a risk you'll click the Raise button in one table
when you meant to click it in another. Ouch! Your best choice is to use a
large monitor that can display 1600x1200 pixels without making you go
blind. This lets you display up to 4 tables without any overlap. An
alternative is to use two separate flat-panel displays, each turned
vertically and showing two tables.
If you play more than one table at a time, be sure to check out our
section on setting up keyboard
shortcuts, which lets you type a single key to fold, call, raise,
etc. instead of using the mouse.