What were your earnings like playing online 4-tabling? You found it was more profitable than playing live games? My experience was the exact opposite, and I mean, massively.. I've always wondered how players earned reasonable amounts from purely online play...
The idea is a rather simple one, that over time, premium hands & disciplined play will win.....so if you play ALOT of hands, you start to remove a bit of the luck quotient.
Playing live, having AA or KK cracked can be devastating.....because you sometimes waited 4-5 hours for that hand. Online, at 4+ tables....you can get that hand 2-3 times per hour. Similarly, you can also get QQ, AK, 4-6x as much etc....
So, it's really just more an exercise in being disciplined.....and one undersold point of playing multi table is that it's actually FAR easier to make the correct lay downs. You feel less pressure to chase a hand because you're seeing so many.
I don't disagree that some live games can be pretty profitable but they aren't on demand. Online, you can employ a disciplined, multi table strategy any time of the day and grind out a good profit.
I was mainly playing $.50-1.00 NL.....I'd sit at each table with $100.....that was about the max I could stomach (laying around $400 at all times) and I'd consistently be in the $25 an hour range. Many of my friends who have gotten in to poker professionally are insane.....playing 10-12 tables at a time. But you see the math there.....guys can scratch out 50-75$ an hour playing cards. You aren't always going to have winning sessions but disciplined 10 table play, 50 hours a week, can net you $150-200k a year depending on luck swings.
Again, it's a absolute
job to play that way.....so if your aim is more to get relaxation or release out of poker, multi table online is not really the way to go. But many people make a really good living at it. Especially at lower limits online, as that is where most amateurs hover. At higher limits, I always did single table, as it just needed more attention with the skill level of players being so much better.