It just amazes me when I hear stories of players playing up to 8 tables or more on line at one time and having any degree of success.  I know that some do, Tom Dwan comes to mind.

I think it's incredible that anyone can do that.

I play on full tilt and entered what I thought was a 9 player sitngo.  Well it was a 9 player sitngo but I missed the ‘m' beside the entry and was now involved in what they call matrix.  You play the same players on 4 tables at once.

I kinda liked the action because you are involved in more hands and have to make more decisions a little quicker as you may have to act on 2 tables at once.  It also gives you more chances to cash and win some money.

For me though, there was more to dislike.  I try to use every advantage I can to cash in a tournament.  That means making notes on players when I see a trend or tell and reading the notes I've already made.  To me this takes time and time is something you do not have when you are multi-tabling.

I also think the early stage of any tournament is ‘information gathering time'.  You can start to get a feel for the game at hand as well as the type of players at the table.  Every hand played factors into your decision(s) in the upcoming hand.  It's like a snowball that starts as a flake and builds from there.  Each decision you make in a tournament should be more of an informed one than the previous.

If you are playing many tables at once you might not pick up on the fact that a certain player LOVES to make continuation bets.  A player that plays one table might pick up on that and put in a check/raise knowing the opponent will fold, thereby scooping a larger pot.  The multi-tabler (is that a word?) might just fold and move on to the next hand.

I believe that gathering information on players and using the notes function available on every site (as far as I know), is a valuable tool in helping you to win/cash.  To do this you need to be able to concentrate on the game at hand and to do that you cannot be switching from table to table.

For some, I'll admit they seem to do just fine.  If you love a lot of action this may be the way to go.

For many, me included, I have to be able to concentrate on the game at hand.  When I do that I know I make better more informed decisions and when that happens the opportunities to win start to present themselves.