Multi-Play Games

Multi-play games are a recent phenomenon which have grown in popularity.  The most common is "Triple Play"; however, "Five Play", "Ten Play", and even "One-hundred Play" games are proliferating.   In these games, the player sees a five card initial hand (often called the "flop" from poker terminology) from which he picks the best cards to hold, just as in the single-play games.   Those cards he chooses are held for all of the hands.   Then, the draw is completed for each of the hands.  In effect, the hand starts out as a single hand, but finishes up as several separate hands, related only by the initial flop from which they started.

In Triple Play, the first three credits you bet are applied to the three hands as one credit each; the next three will raise your bet to two credits each.  Should you bet five credits, you would be betting two each on the first two hands and one on the third.  There is no way to bet, for example, five credits on the first and and zero on the second or third.  Five Play games work similarly.  However, the Fifty Play games allow you to first choose the number of hands you'll play, then from this point the betting is similar to Triple Play.

There are a few important things to understand about these games.

Pay tables

First, and foremost, you must carefully examine the pay tables before you play, because there are some horrible Triple Play games out there.  6/5 Jacks or Better is common, as is Bonus Poker paying one credit for a pair.  Second, the "expectation" (average return) of these games is based on the paytable.  If you're playing a game with a losing paytable, the triple play version will lose money three times as fast as the single play.

Hands

The three, five, or fifty hands you're playing are correlated with one another, because they share a common "flop".    What this means, essentially, is that they are dealt out of separate "decks" of cards, with the special provision, however, that the flop for each hand will be identical.  Should you get four deuces on the second hand, you can get four deuces on the third as well.

Statistical Implications

Statistically, multi-play games are a little different.  First, the expectation, or what you would expect to win or lose on average, is identical to that of the single-play version of the same game.  If you're playing 9/6 JB Triple Play, your expectation is 99.54% just as it is in the single play version of the game.  

If the expectation is the same, why does it seem as though the swings are much larger in Triple Play and larger still in Five Play?  As it turns out, this isn't just an illusion.  While the average return is the same for single play games vs. Triple Play, the swings on either side of that average are much larger.  Why?  Well, there are two factors at work.  First, you're playing more hands per hour.  If you can play 500 hands per hour playing single play games, you can probably play close to 1,500 hands per hour of Triple Play.  It stands to reason that your average loss would be three times great in the same period -- you're playing three times the number of hands.

There is another reason that the swings are greater.  This is because of a statistical concept called covariance.  Since the results of the multiple hands are not totally independent of one another (remember, the initial flop is the same for all hands), the hands are said to be correlated.  The effect of this, statistically, is to increase the variance of the game.  When we increase the variance of the game, the game is more "volatile" -- the perceived "streakiness" of the game increases.

What all this means is that a player playing 9/6 JB, for example, on a Triple Play machine will require a substantially larger bankroll than a player on a 9/6 JB single-play machine.  And the more hands you play (five, ten, fifty), the bigger your bankroll needs to be.   But you knew that already, didn't you?  The Wizard of Odds website has further information on comparing the bankroll requirements for various multi-play machines.

 

Strategy Tip:  Strategy for multi-play games is identical to the strategy for the same single-play game.  Some people find the multi-play games offer more excitement than their single play counterparts.  But be sure you find games with the best possible pay tables and that you have the bankroll to sustain your play.  Also, resist the temptation to play with less than full-coin in.  While 9/6 JB with a 4,000 coin payoff for the Royal Flush is 99.54%, the same game with less than max-coin in is 98.37%, due to the loss of the bonus payoff on the Royal.  With the increased number of hands per hour this game is a real loser.  You'll also avoid the sick feeling you get when you hit a Royal with only two coins in!  (Note:  There are money-management techniques that may support the use of less than max-credit play; while these techniques may cause one to play a suboptimal game, it is important to recognize that human nature is an important variable that may be worthy of consideration).