A quick reminder of how bet-spreading works:
Ok; assume I have 6 S1's to mine with, and have solar power ( so they are still turning a good profit ). I do, however, still have bills to pay.
Do I put all 6 in a pool where the payments can fluctuate a lot in their regularity? Can I afford it if all 6 miners have a bad week or two?
Personally no I can't. I just can't. So...
I put 2 miners on GHash, as you know the payments will be regular. I won't be able to see the good luck sure ( as the pool is so large ), but I won't take a hit from any bad luck ( as the pool is so large ). But... it'll be boring; and I want some excitement.
As such I spread the other 4 across other pools. Based on a combination of size & performance.
I might put another 2 on Eligius, as it's ~6 times the size of Minter so will still get a fairly stable payout ( but I might also feel the good and bad luck; so feel a little of the action/excitement, unlike with GHash ).
And that still leaves 2 miners. If Minter is doing well I'll have both on Minter, but if Minter is having a bad patch I'll put 1 on Minter ( to keep my account alive ), and lob the other on GHash for a bit ( until Minter improves ). Just so I know my bills are being paid.
Small Pools are HIGHLY cut & thrust. Like with Minter you really do feel it. It's the Wild Ride.
Large Pools are very reliable, but that also makes them boring. You might just fall asleep.
Middle-size Pools like Eligius are for those who can only handle a little bit of action. They are like Corporate Rock though; still pretty safe in reality.
The real question is how much action do you ( the actual miner ) want?
With those 6 S1's I could have 5 on GHash and one on Minter in bad times ( I'm getting bad luck ). Or I could have 2 on GHash and 4 on Minter if I am feeling braver ( my luck appears to be good ). Or I could stick all on Eligius, or... As a Miner you have a choice.
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That's an example of bet-spreading. You can't predict the future, sure; but you can get some excitement in your life if you only gamble with a little bit of your hash ( not all of it ).
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There's also nothing stopping you playing with multiple small pools. I won't name any small pools, out of respect to The Doc, but at the same time if you have 2 S1's per small pool ( Mining 3 small pools ) any bad luck in one pool should be smoothed out by the other 2 being either average or in good luck.
Maximum cut-and-thrust, but also with a safety net should 1 pool go bad for a bit.
3 s3's? 1 per small pool will work the same way.
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As the Miner you always get to choose. If you have bills to pay only stick a % of your hash in a smaller pool; rather than all of it. That way you can still have some fun; but at the same time you know your bills are covered too, as a big chunk of your hash is in a large safe pool paying out regular safe payments.
Chasing luck:
Ok, here we go. You can move miners from month to month chasing luck if you wish. But... It always takes the Pool a bit of time ( 4-5 days? ) to warm up to a new account.
It is like a Casino or a day at The Horses. So you can win if you predict correctly; but... How do you predict the future? You can't; so it's your choice on how much you keep in a nice safe place like GHash, and how much you move around chasing good luck and trying to win a bit more.
You can win in Casinos, but you can also lose. So choose wisely on how much you are going to gamble ( by gamble I mean how much are you going to move to a smaller pool ).
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Me? I mine 4 pools. 2 big, 2 small. And I can divert hash from small to big pools based on how lucky I am feeling. If I feel I have run out of luck I move hash to the larger pools ( where the payments are safer ). If I am feeling daring I'll move hash to the smaller pools and see how it goes. Just my way, but it does prove fun. And there is a way out should I cock up ( as I can put hash in the bigger pools when needed ).
But you NEVER judge a pool on just one week's results. Which is why Doc's graph is so handy. A lot of pools do not have that graph, so you have to choose for yourself based on what results you get in your wallet.
Add to that how Doc's software just works ( unlike out-of-the-box cgminer, and how fiddly that can be ), and you're looking at a nice little pool with Minter. It may be better to have most of your hash in GHash at present ( and only a little here ) due to how our luck has dropped over the past week, but don't walk from Minter entirely. This pool does have it's moments. It's been a lot of fun over the past 3 months.
Hope that makes sense