vpplayer ...
In your various posts, you don't specify how you're looking to use multi-hand game variance. It's my guess that you're looking for greater utility than game variance actually presents.
Variance is a strong predictor of relative game volatility for a single (or limited) outcome wager such as in blackjack. However, video poker is typically a composite of several discrete paylines, and as such, variance (a single value descriptor) is a modest predictor of volatility.
For video poker, variance can be a strong predictor over the course of several hundred hours of play. However, it's typically weak when used as a comparative predictor between different games or plays for the duration of a single session.
The most notable example of this disparity is a comparison of a couple of hours of JB vs PE. PE has a significantly lower variance, yet, hour to hour, presents significantly greater bankroll risk in the short term.
Frankly, most players I know find that they can assess multi-hand game volatility, and comfort for their bankroll, through a limited trial of play much faster and more reliably than any extensive examination of variance numbers. And, in particular, 50-line and 100-line machines present a unique opportunity to scale wagers to one's comfort zone.
- H.
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "vpplayer88" <vpplayer88@...> wrote:
>
> You are thinking of an approximation used for independent uncorrelated trials, like coin flips. Your hands on a ten handed machine are obviously correlated and not independent.
>
> And the rule for independent trials is variance grows with N and SD grows with the square root of N.
