one hand or two?

Under what conditions is it most advantageous to play one or two hands?

1. SD game, dealt R06. If I am playing heads-up, I will play 2 spots all the time. This gives better penetration. Heads up, RO6, one spot gets 5 rounds of 2 hands (counting dealer), while heads up, RO6, two spots gets 4 rounds of 3 hands dealt, which is 2 additional hands.

2. Otherwise, I play one hand, particularly in DD and beyond, except when the count goes + and it is allowable to spread to two or more hands at that table. I do this to eat more of the good cards (greed).

I have seen some use multiple hands as a way of disguising their spread, but I've never tried this. Others use it as a way of getting to the "long term" 2x faster...

to "wong out" of a heads-up game. :)

I never play shoe games through - counts unless it is a NMSE game...

Or wait until I lose a hand but usually I just push my chips foward and say color. If it's neutral toward the end I'll stay otherwise I'll go to the bathroom and go back to the same table or go to another table..

except for deeply dealt SD games, you might as well play two hands all the time.

1. they might or might not shuffle while you are gone if no one else is playing. So you return to the same count as when you left.

2. with NMSE common for SD/DD games, you can't get back in if the count rises, which happens frequently in SD/DD games.

3. playing at the time of day where you can get heads-up games means that not many tables are going to be open, and I'd much rather play SD/DD heads-up with the dealer rather than having others at the table with me. I'll gladly play thru negative counts at min bets there, rather than lose the opportunity to play completely...

At downtown vegas aren't they mid shoe entry?

in and out or try to wong...

I have seen both. Depends on whether (a) you play $5 or $25 tables; (b) on the alignment of the moon and stars. I've even been told at pitch games that "you can't spread to 2 hands after starting with 1, because of the NMSE rule."

For a SD game, wonging in and out would get you tossed on your ear pretty quickly, since you would be in and out every other hand or two and that's not going to go over very well, not to mention attracting more than a little notice...