3 hands or 1?

[SBJ]

If you are playing at a slight disadvantage (0.44%), to wager through a certain amount to be able to cash out a bonus would you say it is better to play:

£5 x 3 hands or £15 x 1 hand?

My guess is that if it is advisable to play as many hands as possible when you have an EV, then surely the converse is true, and £15 is better than 3x5?

Cheers

SBJ

 

[actuary]

As long as you are only betting through your bankroll once, it is best to bet as many hands as possible for as little as possible. This is because of the Law of Large Numbers: as the number of hands played increases, the less our results will deviate from the expected value. (Read more about the LLN here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_large_numbers).

By betting more hands for less money, your results will likely be closer to your true expected value, which means less risk of going bust (and less chance of a big win)

 

[davidpom]

I agree with Actuarys logic on this one - play the 3 hands rather than the 1. Not only will you meet the wagering requirement more easily, and with less risk overall (sometimes you will win all 3 hands, sometimes you will win 1 and lose 2 or win 2 and lose 1, etc), but it could increase the speed with which you meet the target - especially if you play 3 hands of say 10GBP a hand at a time...

 

[EasyRhino]

If you are playing at a slight disadvantage (0.44%), to wager through a certain amount to be able to cash out a bonus would you say it is better to play:
£5 x 3 hands or £15 x 1 hand?

$5x3 is going to have less variance than $15x2. But it's still going to have more variance than $5x1... there's more money on the table and the hands are partially linked (covariant) by the dealer's hand.

Since you're looking specifically for online play, there may be some speed considerations as well. For instance, playing 3 hands at once might take almost as long a playing 3 hands in a row. And sometimes, certain things like insurance decisions can get much slower with multiple hands (I notice this on RTG casinos especially).

So normally I like to drop the bet to something reasonable and play single handed, as fast as possible.