3p is easier because there are more terrible players who just want to see big hands. It's just more casual and most people including myself don't care too much when playing. And due to the higher occurrence of them, there's more of an incentive to go on the offensive and end the game with some big hands. So people push their luck more and defend less. But that sometimes leads to much higher variance.
However, I'm pretty much stuck to playing that, since I automatically lose when I play 4p where I just watch other people win. 3p is just better, except when someone scores a tenho... lol@ my luck on this site.
I shouldn't have posted about getting lucky in 3p since the moment I hit 3dan...my luck turned to shit though I did some very stupid shit like randomly throw dora around I just didn't stand a chance regardless as the other two would tsumo big hands and keep dealing into each other, and trade pts til i'm dead.
edit: just won a consolation game, especially South 1st in the most unexpected way.
http://tenhou.net/0/?log=2010081405g...1a5037857&tw=0