Spin and Go Poker Strategy and Tips

Once you have learned how to play poker, one of the first things you’ll notice about online poker is that it has brought about dozens of different game formats, but few have been as popular and successful as Spin and Go poker tournaments. Often referred to simply as Spins, these games offer quick action, simple gameplay, and the promise of a massive jackpot waiting right around the corner.

Those who play Spin and Goes often know that winning that jackpot is anything but easy, but everyone who enters these games dreams of landing the big one.

If you are looking to try Spin and Goes but aren’t exactly sure where to start, we have compiled a quick guide to help you get started.

Our Spin and Go strategy guide will teach you all the most basic concepts you need to keep in mind when playing Spins, so keep reading and find out how the best players in the world approach this unique game format.

Spin and Go Strategy Tip #1 – Practice Good Bankroll Management

Perhaps the most important tip we can give you for playing Spin and Go tournaments is to have a substantial bankroll before you start.

While Spin and Goes can be played profitably, the variance in these games tends to be very high, as the majority of games have a prize pool of just 2x the buyin.

As you work your way through all the low multipliers and deal with the hyper-turbo structure of the games, you will need a lot of money to make sure you never go bust.

The bankroll you might need to survive the swings is at least 200 buyins while having as many as 500 buyins is definitely advisable.

If you are able to replenish your bankroll on a regular basis, you can take some shots with Spins with a lesser bankroll, but be prepared to have to reload even if you play very well.

When looking to move up to higher stakes, be extremely careful and make sure you have the bankroll to sustain the variance of the next level before giving it a shot.

Spin and Go Strategy Tip #2 – Don’t Speculate

If you learned how to play tournament poker the usual way, you probably play a lot of speculative hands in the early stages of play.

While this strategy works pretty well in MTTs and even in most SNGs, it is to be avoided altogether in Spin and Goes.

Spins start with shallow stacks, and the blinds go up very fast, which means you will not be able to call raises and look to make big hands on flops.

Calling a few raises and missing a few flops would leave you crippled, which is why you want to mostly play big hands and play them aggressively.

Of course, you will want to throw some bluffs into your ranges across the board, but playing polarized ranges is the way to go in almost every situation in Spins.

Spin and Go Strategy Tip #3 – Get Very Aggressive

Aggression wins the day in poker, and that goes even more in Spin and Go tournaments, as aggressive play is rewarded handsomely.

Even at the earliest levels, winning blinds or re-stealing against raises will result in significant increases to your starting stack.

As the game moves into the later stages, you will want to steal like a maniac and never play passively, as passive play simply doesn’t make sense with such shallow stacks.

Raise and re-raise with polarized ranges made up of your strongest hands and bluffs that have a good chance of sucking out against hands like AK or AQ, which might call you off.

Make sure to fold all those hands in the middle that is usually good enough to call with in regular tournaments, but don’t make the cut in Spins.

Spin and Go Strategy Tip #4 – Know Your Push/Fold Charts

We already told you to be very aggressive in Spin and Goes. In more cases than not, being aggressive in Spins means going all-in a lot before the flop.

The real question, of course, is what poker ranges to do it with. To find answers to this question, you will need to know the push/fold charts for various stack sizes and positions by heart.

Studying push/fold charts is an essential part of training for Spin and Goes, as the vast majority of your plays after the first couple of levels will be all-ins.

If you get good at making profitable shoves and calling off with appropriate ranges, you will gain an edge over an average Spin and Go player, which will turn into monetary gain.

On the other hand, if you go into the games unprepared, you will constantly be questioning your plays and be unsure of whether to shove or not with a whole bunch of hands you are dealt.

Spin and Go Strategy Tip #5 – Keep Your Raises Small

While you will definitely want to move all in a lot in the later stages of a Spin and Go, there is some room for min-raises in the earlier stages.

As long as you have more than 10 big blinds, you will want to open your hands for a raise and make a decision if your opponents decide to shove on you.

In almost every case, you should raise just 2x from the button and 2.5x from the small blind, as these raise sizes are definitely big enough.

If you see players raising 3x or 4x in the first level, you can be 100% sure that these are inexperienced recreational players just punting away.

Instead of following their lead, open every hand you want to play for a min-raise, never limp your button, and keep it aggressive every step of the way.

Spin and Go Strategy Tip #6 – Ignore ICM

Another common thing SNG players learn through their studies is ICM poker. The Model has an incredible impact in regular SNGs but absolutely none in Spin and Goes.

In a Spin and Go tournament, all the money is reserved for the first place (except in the highest multipliers), which means you should always be playing for the win.

Essentially speaking, every Spin is a cash game, and all the chips in play are worth two, three, five, or more initial buyins.

Regardless of how much the first place is, you will need to win the tournament to get it. If you come second, you get nothing.

This is another great reason to be very aggressive and keep playing in ways that allow you to accumulate chips and give yourself the best chance to win all the chips in play.

Spin and Go Strategy Tip #7 – Don’t Play for the Jackpot

Spin and Goes are usually advertised as an opportunity to win a million bucks for a tiny buy-in, but only one lucky player wins this jackpot once every few months or so.

Instead of chasing after the jackpot and hoping it will change your life forever, learn how to play Spins for profit and beat the games even without winning the jackpot.

Spin and Goes are currently the games with the most recreational players out there, which means they are the softest games you will find on the internet.

Despite a lot of the money being siphoned off for the jackpot, the best players out there are still able to beat spins for an ROI of 2% or 3%.

If you can have ROI like this, collect your rakeback, and put in a lot of volume every day you play, you will be printing money.

Despite what anyone might tell you, it is entirely possible to win at Spin and Goes if you learn the right Spin and Go strategy and always stick to it.

Spin and Go Strategy Tip #8 – Keep Your Emotions in Check

We talked about the variance of Spin and Go tournaments already, but we did not mention the fact that such high variance can significantly impact the player’s state of mind.

Losing over and over again when you are playing good poker can be extremely frustrating, but that’s just the nature of hyper-turbo poker games.

When experiencing a bad downswing in Spins, you may end up questioning your every decision or going on tilt and playing against your better judgment.

While we all want to be immune to tilt, the truth is no one truly is, and it’s just a matter of what needs to happen to trigger an emotional response from a player.

If you are going to play Spins for a living, you will want to practice patience, work on your poker mindset, and do your best not to allow the swings of the game to influence the way you play the cards you are dealt.

Spin and Go Strategy Tip #9 – Volume Is Key

Playing the right strategy and making the right moves is as important in Spin and Goes as it is in any other form of poker. However, playing enough games is a key component in these particular games.

Since you are going to be relying on a fairly low ROI, the only way to make a big profit is to play a lot of games in every single session you play.

Fortunately, Spins are extremely fast, and you can play one in just a few minutes. This means that if you multi-table them, you can easily play dozens of Spins in a single hour.

Professional players who grind Spin and Goes play hundreds upon hundreds of games every week and are able to make consistent profits by doing this.

Of course, if you keep playing at such a high volume, you may just end up getting lucky once in your life and being part of the jackpot Spin, and that’s just the extra bonus that may or may not come at some point.

Spin and Go Strategy Tip #10 – Always Keep Studying

Getting to a point where you are a winning player in Spin and Goes takes work. What’s even worse, many players simply stop when they get there, and they try to grind out as many games as possible without any studying away from the tables.

Regardless of how good you become, you should always make sure to take some time away from the tables, study the game, and constantly improve your poker strategy.

Not only does poker always evolve and change, but you can also start forgetting certain concepts and how to apply them if you don’t study the game regularly.

The better you are, the less time you will need to spend in the lab, but you should still make sure to include at least a few study sessions every week.

Study your own hands, talk to other players, find areas in which you can improve to raise your ROI even further, and make sure you never allow the general population to catch up with you.