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www.Questions relating to “playing online poker and computer screen” appear regularly in online poker forums. We are providing you with the answers to the most common questions.
How Many Poker Tables Fit on my Monitor?
The major poker rooms all use their own poker software. Therefore, the default table size used by the poker sites is also different. And as both the tables are resizable and the screen resolution varies, there are many different answers to this question. Different tables sizes and different screen sitzes result in an almost unlimited number of possible combinations.
We provide you with a guide on how you can calculate how many tables will fit on your monitor by yourself. For this purpose you need to know just two things:
1. Screen Resolution
With which screen resolution do you play? Normally one uses the maximum resolution of its monitor. If you do not know the resolution, then you can simply look it up: When you use Windows 7, right-click on the desktop and select the “Screen Resolution”. In the window that appears you will see the resolution (e.g. 1366 x 768 if you have a standard 14 inch notebook). The first number indicates the number of picture elements (pixels) in the horizontal line (width), the second number is the number of pixels in the vertical line (height).
2. Poker Table Size
What size do the online poker tables have? The easiest way to find this out is by making a print screen. Just click with the left mouse button on one of the poker tables and press the two keys ALT + PrtSc simultaneously. Now insert the image from the clipboard into an image editing program. There you can see the size of the poker table, for example, 400 x 250 pixels.
With data on your monitor resolution and the table size you can easily figure out how many tables you can display on your screen without overlap:
How Should I Arrange the Online Poker Tables on my Computer Screen?
There are three ways to organize the tables while playing online poker:
- Tile: The tables are arranged like roof tiles one after the other. The tables in the above image are arranged in a tiled way. When multitabling with tiled tables, you can follow the action at each table. Depending on monitor resolution, the maximum number of tables you can display is limited to 4, 6, 8 or 12 or even more. “Tiling” is good for multi-tabling when playing a maximum of 12 tables
- Cascade: The tables are arranged from top left to bottom right with a strong overlapping. You will be only able to see 1-2 tables where your action is required. Cascading is good for focusing on the game and not on the results.
- Stack: The tables are all placed on one single stack (pile). You see only the table where you have to act, all the other tables are hidden. “Stack” is good for masstabling (Boku87 plays with this table arrangement 20 to 50 tables at a time)
Of course also a combination of the poker table arrangements presented above is possible. We have published a more detailed on this subject, see our multitabling strategy article “multi-tabling and table setup“.
Should I Buy a Second Monitor for Playing Online Poker?
If you are serious about playing online poker and you currently don’t have a screen with a high resolution, then it is worth to purchase a second monitor for playing online poker. You can keep your old screen and use it as a second monitor – most of the graphic cards of the new PC’s allow the use of two screens. This has the advantage that you can use a comfortable poker table size and display the tables the way you prefer on your new monitor. You can then use the second monitor to check statistics (e.g. Sharkscope stats) without having to constantly switch between your browser and the poker table windows. That said, a second monitor also increases your efficiency when doing other things than playing poker tournaments or cash games on your computer. For example, you can write a thesis in Word on one screen and use the second screen to perform research on the internet.
What Monitor should I Buy to Play Poker?
Computer magazines and websites regularly test new computer screens and publish rankings of the best monitors. If you use the monitor just to play poker and to surf the Internet, then you do not need a top model with very low response time of 2ms. Such high-end models are usually only needed by people playing 3D video games. Such 3D games do not only require a fast screen, but also a high-end graphics card (which is not necessary for you if you play poker online).
We suggest that you first think about what size your monitor should have (common sizes are 21, 22, 23, 24, and 26+ inches) and how much money you want to spend. A wide selection of monitors can be found for example at Amazon – Computer Monitors.
