Poker coach John “WhatA298” Bradley has created the ultimate Spin & Go Poker Strategy Guide 2023 including the optimal betsizing as well as providing profitable shoving and calling ranges.
General Spin & Go Poker Strategy Approach
Spin & Gos are 3-handed poker tournaments, where the blinds increase quickly, and you start with short stacks of 25 big blinds or less.
There is no room for waiting. Unlike Multi-Table Tournaments or Cash Games, you should be putting chips into most pots (over 50%).
You will be playing with lots of sub-premium hands. As will your opponents. Therefore, both you and your opposition will often be holding a very weak absolute strength hand postflop.
This means that you cannot wait to pick up a premium hand. You must fight with nothing, and go after pots aggressively.
Attacking, and trying to win, the small pots relentlessly is the key to success in this format.
Betsizing in Spin & Gos
When sitting on shorter stacksizes, as in Spin & Gos, your average betsize should reduce, compared to deeper stacksizes.
When holding a premium hand, you don’t have to bet large sizes on earlier streets in order to get all the money in by the river. This means that you can milk your opponents on earlier streets and not lose value in the process.
As you are playing your stronger hands in this way, you can also represent strength with smaller betsizes. This is really beneficial for your bluffing hands, as they risk less to take down the pot (a better risk to reward ratio).
Standard sizings you should employ, will vary, but this is a good baseline:
- Preflop opening to 2bb: There is rarely a need to go much larger than this in Spin & Gos
- 3-betting to 2.5x the open size: You can 3bet very small and still apply a lot of pressure
- Cbetting the minimum size allowed: You can apply a lot of pressure even with small flop bets
- Check-raising to 2.5x the cbet size: Like 3betting preflop, small sizes can still garner a lot of folds
Once your stacksize dwindles to below 8bb, it is reasonable to simply shove or fold preflop.
Why is Shoving better than Calling in Spin & Gos?
The shorter your stacksize is, the bigger the blinds are in relation to your stack.
When 30bb deep, the blinds represent 5% of your stack. When 7.5bb deep, they represent 20%.
Therefore, the risk to reward ratio when shoving, is more in your favour, the shorter stack you become.
Once your stacksize is below 8bb, it does not make too much sense to simply open raise. If you open raise, and an opponent shoves, you will be priced in with most of your hands. So, you may as well shove yourself, and gain extra fold equity.
You could call (limp), but shoving is usually superior for the following reasons:
- It gives you multiple ways to win the pot: Opponent folds, or the opponent calls and you win the all-in
- Shoving represents more strength: You may get better hands to fold for this reason
- It is hard to put you on a range: If you shove all the hands you want to play, it is very difficult for the opponent to guess your hand
Shoving Ranges
Here are some rough shove ranges, to use in your games, when you get to 8bb deep:
3-handed on the Button
3-handed on the Small Blind
Heads-up on the Small Blind
The shorter stacked you become, the wider range of hands you can shove. For example, if you are 5bb heads-up, this is the range that you can shove profitably:
5bb Heads-up on the Small Blind
Calling Ranges
When you are 8bb deep, and facing a shove, these are the hands you can profitably call from the Big Blind:
3-handed versus a Button Shove
3-handed versus a Small Blind Shove
Heads-up versus a Small Blind Shove
Spin & Go Strategy Conclusion
Spin & Gos are a fun format of poker, enjoyed by many, and they can be very lucrative as well.
Due to the nature of the payout structure (large variation in the prize pool based on the spin), these games can have a large degree of variance.
Therefore, you should take care not to overextend yourself, and keep to solid bankroll management fundamentals.
Stay aggressive, learn the ranges, and you can make a great deal of money playing this extremely enjoyable poker format.
Remember to always adjust your range to your opponents, take note of table dynamics, and make good use of position. With practice and dedication, you can become a master of poker ranges and take your game to the next level.
Good luck on your poker journey and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask them in the poker coaching section of the VIP-Grinders Discord Channel.
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