Just to clear up a misconception: There is no "EV", or expected value,
difference between playing, say, one hand of single-line $5 9/6 JOB,
and playing one hand of five-line $1 9/6 JOB (assuming you play full
coin in each case).
In a very common hand, say you have 2367 of hearts, 10 of clubs.
Naturally you will draw for the flush. Now, your expectation is: there
are 9 cards that make the flush out of 47 possible draws (no other
draw will win). This will result in a payoff of 6 bets. So we multiply
the winning fraction by the payoff, and get 54/47 as a result.
Converted to decimals, this is something like 1.18 (I'm lazy). So on
the $5 machine, we have an "EV" of $25 x 1.18, or a little shy of $30.
Similarly, on the $1 multiliner we will have five hands, EACH with a
bet amount of $5 and an EV for the draw of 1.18. Our total EV here is
exactly the same as the singleliner.
BUT...and this is a BIG but, which explains the total demise of
positive expectation multiliner at ANY level (yes, everyone, I know
Stink Bomb Palace in North Vegas still has two 5-cent threeplays with
10/7 DB):
When you play the singleliner, you will either wind up with $150 or
nothing. In the long run, you will wind up with a profit, but it's
real easy to miss eight or ten flushes in a row. By contrast, when you
draw to that hand on the multiliner, you will rarely miss all five
($0) or hit all five ($150). Your net result over time will be the
same, but the multiliner's result will be less VOLATILE (the example
given above: to produce the same result as the singleliner missing
eight flushes in a row, the multi would have to miss ALL FORTY flush
draws).
The effect of lessened volatility for an equivalent bet size meant
that players of advantage games could step up their bet size without
suffering the usual increase of "risk of ruin". Specifically, playing
a multiliner seems to have the volatility of playing a single-liner
with about half the bet size. So playing three-line $1 JOB is like
playing single-line $1.50, or somewhere between $1 and $2. The casinos
HATED this, as the pros---and the not-so-pros---were playing for
extended periods of time and snarfing up slot club benefits, like
cashback and food comps, at a prodigious rate.
The expected casino countermeasure---reducing all the paytables to
negative expectation---had an amusing side effect as these games now
became highly attractive to the recreational gambler who normally
played negative expectation games anyway. It's MUCH better to play .25
9/6 DDB 5-line than to play $1 single-line, plus, it's more fun. Also,
at first the casinos let 9/6 multiline JOB continue to exist, since it
was a negative expecation game. But play that 99.5% game on a mutiple
point day in a casino that offers .3 cashback or better, and suddenly
you have a winner, coupled with extremely low volatility!! So casinos
have largely reduced multiline paytables to totally unplayable levels.
The exceptions to this are at low denoms in some locals casinos, but
you will NEVER see decent multiliners in a place that offers cashback.
In such places, even 9/6 JOB is a rarity.
Ah, the good old days...when fullpay was everywhere and video poker
pros were off welfare!
Multi-hand vs. single hand
Now you've ruined it! The play is as good as dead now that everyone knows about it.
ยทยทยท
At 03:25 PM 5/27/2004, you wrote:
BUT...and this is a BIG but, which explains the total demise of
positive expectation multiliner at ANY level (yes, everyone, I know
Stink Bomb Palace in North Vegas still has two 5-cent threeplays with
10/7 DB):