Multitabling
According to Wikipedia, extended sensory deprivation "can result in extreme anxiety, hallucinations, bizarre thoughts, depression, and antisocial behavior." These are the same words I use to describe my hold 'em tournament play. I start out resolving to play solidly, which usually means folding almost every hand. Forty-five minutes later, I'm quietly going nuts. To punctuate the boredom, my mind begins spinning yarns about the other players, desperately searching for a reason why my 5-6 suited in the big blind is worth playing against that guy who raised UTG. Like Professor Eddie Jessup in Altered States (well, except for the drugs), the lack of stimulus makes me... different.
Enter multitabling. Multitabling is unique to the online variant of poker. It's exactly what it sounds like: you sit down simultaneously at multiple tables (in different games, of course) and play them in turn. It helps to have a big monitor so you can tile all the tables rather than cascading them (amazing example here).
Besides amplifying your earnings (or losses) per hour, multitabling changes your play in several ways. First and most obvious, you can't easily profile your table mates when you are flipping among four different games at once. So your decisions are more objective; for all you know, the guy to your right might be stealing your blinds for the sixth time in a row, but you'll accept it like a gentleman because you're completely unaware that it's happening. Along the same lines, you'll miss the fact that the rock sitting across from you just led out big with his first hand in over an hour, and maybe your pocket jacks aren't the best all-in reraise at this particular point in time.
But most important for me, multitabling replaces utter boredom with constant activity, and I've found that this environment improves my play. Rather than looking for a reason to play a hand, I'll find any excuse to get out of one so that I don't have to return to that table for another 45 seconds. I'll fold AJo on the button when MP raises 6x BB preflop; at a single table, depending on my state of mind, I might have pushed that hand. For strong hands, I tend to be more aggressive in order to end the hand quickly, which increases my fold equity. Overall, I suspect I'm getting less value out of my hands -- for example, PokerStove says AJo's a 51-48 favorite against a player with a starting range of any Broadway/any pair, and my strong hands lose value-betting equity if I take down the pot early -- but my variance drops, which in a $6 SNG often gives me just enough fuel to make it across the bubble and into the money.
Multitabling does have a significant downside: it completely occupies your mind, body, and soul for a full hour at a time. I am unable to look away from the screen for more than about five seconds, and I can't carry on anything resembling a coherent conversation with anyone in chat or in person. It's mentally exhausting, and you can't go to the bathroom in the middle unless you want to pay the price of folding at least four hands. But poker's all about the money, and MTing means more dollars per hour. Until I find something better, it's the only way to play.
