We introduced you to basic Spin and Go strategies in our article “5 Golden Tips for Spin and Gos”.
This week, we take it one step further with 3 key pieces of advanced strategy for Spin and go Poker.
Strategy 1: Never call in the Small Blind
Generally, you will never have more than 30bb stacks in a Spin and Go. Many formats place your starting number closer to 20bb.
Calling in the small-blind is bad for three reasons:
- Spin and Go’s are very aggressive steal-resteal formats where you will get squeezed by BB often
- If BB flats, you play a 3 way pot out of position that is worth at least 1/4 of your stack
- Turn bets will often place you all-in facing a pot sized bet. Thus, you are often threatened with pot commitment on turn making OOP play even scarier
Thus, we propose the following strategy as a guide:
- 3bet ONLY as a shove, never to a smaller size
- If BU didn’t open shove, 3bet a depolarized range with no gap between value (equity > pot odds) and bluff (equity < pot odds; but profitable with fold equity).
- If BU did open shove, 3bet shove (or call) a depolarized range of all hands with equity > pot odds against BU range.
These tips will help tune your SB strategy for Spin and Go Poker to minimize your losses in the SB (the worst position in poker).
Strategy 2: Under 10BB Means Open Shove
Mathematically gifted poker minds have created Push/Fold strategy for Spin and Go poker.
Below I’ve outlined example Push/Fold ranges for different effective stack sizes at both the button and the small blind. Remember, effective stack is the maximum amount you can go all-in against a remaining player.
Everything within the blue boxes is an open shove with <10bb effective, orange <7bb and purple <5bb.
These ranges aren’t absolute and will shift depending on game dynamics and player types. They are simply a starting guide in line with recommendations from solid SNG theorists.
I’ve tightened this range up just a bit to compensate for the fact that many players in these games will not fold enough to your shoves, thus making shoving for value more attractive than bluffing.
Strategy 3: Adjust your range based on prize pool
The rake in Spin and Go’s is high, as is the variance. The reason you’d play these games is because the player pool is generally filled with massive fish trying to hit a jackpot.
As a grinder, you understand that to maximize your winrate you need to minimize your losses in the most common 2x games.
Fish, on the other hand, might open 10 of these tables in a night and only focus on the higher multipliers. Thus, you should generally adapt your play versus weaker players.
| Jackpot Adaptation | Valuebet | Bluff | Bluffcatch |
| Low Multiplier (2x) | Wider | Less | More |
| High Multiplier | Wide | More | Less |
Why? In low multipliers, fish will generally feel less invested. They often go all-in with weaker hands, making bluffcatching more profitable.
Similarly, they might make a decent pair or see two highcards and make wide calls, making bluffing less profitable.
In jackpot games, fish will often play overly careful. This is what they’ve been waiting for all week – they don’t want to blow it.
You can probably get away with bluffing wider, since people will be more afraid to bust out. Similarly, you would expect these risk-averse players to bluff less, so don’t be sticky with your hands.
Finally, remember your player type. If you’re facing a solid reg who isn’t making these mistakes, don’t over-correct.
Similarly, when facing a monkey who’s pushing you around (even in high jackpot games), make the opposite adjustments.
How to Maximize your Rakeback in Spin & Gos?
Relatively speaking, rake at lottery SNGs tends to be high. Because you will be playing a ton of these tournaments (they’re super fast), you will want a good rakeback % on your buy-ins.
Below is a list of rakeback deals for our partners that offer lottery SNGs.
See our best Spin and Go rakeback deals below:
- iPoker.com: Coral Poker, Winner Poker, Bet365 Poker, Netbet Poker, Betfair Poker and William Hill Poker.
- Party Network: Party Poker, bwin Poker
- Microgaming Poker Network: Betsson Poker, Betsafe Poker, Triobet Poker, Nordicbet Poker
- 888 Poker
Conclusion
Spin and Gos are high variance, extremely fishy environments for poker. Because they are generally winner take all, they are more simple than normal SNGs where ICM is a large factor.
If you can master these games, you may find yourself in control of a license to print money.
