Spin and Go: dynamics and tips to win in them

The spin and go are a series of tournaments that were born under the umbrella of the Sit & Go hyper-turbo. It is a modality in which each player buys an entry and, before the tournament starts, the accumulated prize increases. In other words, multipliers are applied just before the start of the tournament, which makes these tournaments frantic and a good way to compete to win a large sum of money.

Each spin and go tournament is played between three players. All of them must have the same total amount of chips at the start. When all three players have been assigned to the tournament, the prize pool is randomly increased. This multiplier is applied without prior knowledge of the players, so they all find out at the same time how much they are competing for during the game.

What is Spin Go poker?

A spin and go poker tournament is a three-player hyper-turbo sit and go tournament in which the total prize pool is multiplied just before the game begins. The prize pool is determined randomly and can be up to a thousand times the buy-in. In these tournaments, each player starts with 25 bb in stack and the blinds go up every three minutes.

It is a kind of tournament very suitable for cash players. Spin and go follows the "winner takes all" principle and there is no difference between ChipEV and $EV, which makes it easy for cash players to switch to spin and go without having to adjust their decision making based on an ICM model.

How to play spin and go

In order to know how to play sit & go tournaments well, you need to be clear about a series of indications so that you don't discard yourself from the pot at the very first moment. The first thing is that you forget to see with speculative hands. Do not pay opening raises with these hands if you have to invest more than 10% of your stack. If the investment is too high and your implied odds are too low, quit.

In both BU and SB you should fold or push if you have less than 10 bb. You will have little room for maneuver here, since you will not be able to make post flop moves or fold on a 3bet.

With effective stacks of more than 9 bb you should make minimum raises from the button position, and 2.5 bb in the small blind. In this kind of games stealing the blinds is essential. You can always use some tables if you don't manage to collect information from the opponent, there are several on the net that you can try to memorize to apply to your strategies.

The prize pool multipliers are as follows: 2x, 3x, 5x, 10x, 25x, 120x, 240x, 12,000x. In the last five games a prize split is usually applied between the three opponents, with the winner taking 80% of the total prize, and the remaining 20% is divided between the other two players, so that each player takes 10% of the total prize.

In this type of game, it is possible to win up to one million euros with small investments. Since the initial buy-in is so variable, the prizes are usually very attractive. In addition, it is also designed to be enjoyed by recreational players, so the flow of players is constant.

How to win spin and go

Given the speed at which these tournaments come and go and the huge sums of money at stake, it is important to always stay focused. Spin tournaments, although they give the image of being casual games, are an endurance test for the mind and test the player's ability to handle delicate situations where quick decision making is critical.

Keeping the mind focused and overriding any other stimuli allows you to enter a perfect state to put all your attention on the game. Since almost every hand is played in this modality, there is no break that serves as a parenthesis and you will see yourself from one hand to another almost without noticing it.

To avoid heavy attrition, it is advisable to schedule games in advance and set a time limit for play. For example, one and a half hour rounds of play for three hours of rest is a good balance.

Another point that professional spin and go players keep an eye on: folding on the button. In a heads-up hand you should avoid it at all costs. And watch out for the attempts of the other two opponents to isolate you from the hand: you can counterattack by folding or raising to avoid it.

Spin vs MTT tournaments: basic differences

Spin tournaments and MTT tournaments are like night and day. Each of them has its audience, but their dynamics are very different.

While in an MTT tournament the player precisely plays in several tables, in spin tournaments it is advisable not to do so.

Multi-table poker tournaments require constant attention to play several simultaneous hands. If done well, it allows to have more control over the bankroll than in spin tournaments.

On the other hand, in an MTT tournament the buy-ins are fixed and almost always low. In spin tournaments, the buy-ins, although usually kept low, are variable.

In terms of strategy, multi-table tournaments lend themselves to diversification of strategies. A spin tournament does not: each hand must be played in a different way but does not allow diversifying several strategies at the same time.