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Five Tips to Improve Your Spin & Go Game

November 7, 2019
by John Bowman

Spin & Go’s are perfect for our fast paced lifestyles, for players who are busy with work, family and friends. Most Spin & Go’s last around 5-10 minutes, meaning even if you play one table you can play many games in just one hour.  Here are five quick tips to improve your Spin & Go game:

Bankroll & table management

You should aim to have around 150-200 buy-ins at any one level. This means if you start at the $0.25 level you should have bankroll of around $37.50 to $50.

Level             Buy-ins           Bankroll
$0.25            200                  $50
$1                 200                  $200
$3                 200                  $600

Until you’re comfortable with the structure of the game and your own skill level, stick to one table. You can always add more tables when you start winning!

Chip Stack Bet

Change your raise size from 3x to 2x

When we say 2x, we mean raise 2x the Big Blind. If the Big Blind is 20, you should raise to 40 before the flop.

Usually, tournament and Sit & Go poker players will raise 3x preflop. However, the 2x move is much trickier for your opponents in Spin & Go’s. Players start with smaller stacks, and if a player is going to fold to a 3x bet preflop then they are just as likely to fold to a 2x or 2.5x raise instead. This will save you chips in the long run.

 “2x is the new 3x”

Top pair is never a fold

If you’re going to see a flop with K7o and flop top pair, it’s usually never good to fold. There are of course situations where you can fold – for example, against players you have good reads/notes on or players who are complete rocks – but this is quite rare.

 “FTW = Flop Top Win”

Play 2x multiplier games for the win

When a player spins a 12,000x multiplier for $1,000,000 you better believe they bring their A-game to the table. However when players spin a 2x multiplier for $0.50 many of them give up right away.  Don’t fall into this trap! Play for the win and grow your bankroll. If you win that small tournament the winnings could end up paying for the 12,000 multiplier spin in the future.

 “2x is the next 12,000x”

Play draws fast

Don’t play draws tricky. Instead, if you flop a flush or straight draw, bet the full pot. Try to take down the pot there and then. It’s easy to win Spin & Go’s with a big stack so there is value in trying to accumulate one early. Look at the three scenarios below where you’ve played a draw aggressively:

  • Opponent folds: great, you’ve just taken down a pot without a made hand.
  • Opponent calls: great, the pot just got bigger and you may hit on the turn. If not, bet again.
  • Opponent moves all-in: Check your pot odds, but it’s likely worth the risk to call here.*

*As an example, let’s say our hand is Kâ™  Jâ™  , and your opponents’ hand is A♥ 10♥ . The flop is 2â™  3â™  10♣ . Even in this example where your opponent has top pair top kicker, you’re a 54% favourite to win the hand with two overcards, a flush draw and a backdoor straight draw.

 “Won Draws = Won Spins”

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