The Beginners Guide Series: Spin & Gold 3-max
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Continuing our series on beginner strategies, today we will discuss Spin & Gold 3-max poker strategies, one of the many online poker game variants offered through the GGPoker client. Spin & Gold poker can be played as either a 3 player or 6 player match. For this guide, we will look at some new strategy for just the 3 player format. The first thing you should note about Spin & Gold when developing a strategy is they are a bit different than regular Sit ‘n Go poker games. At the lower prizes, you play in a winner-takes-all format which requires a strategy including aggressive play, and strong strategy-based decision making to win the game! On average a Spin & Gold lasts 7 minutes, so if you enjoy playing poker tournaments, but time does not allow you to play the big MTTs, then Spin & Gold poker might be the right fit for you. Hopefully, this will aid in a defining strategy for yourself.
Stakes
Spin & Gold 3-max poker tournaments are offered at a variety of buy-ins: $0.25, $1, $3, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $200. This range offers a comfortable price for a good game that will fit most any poker bankroll. If you want a fast way to play poker tournaments but still have a chance to win big prizes, this is the perfect game for you.
Spin & Gold tournaments start 3-handed and quickly move to a heads-up poker battle for the single prize. We will break down the gameplay for both situations, versus 2 opponents and heads-up, offering some beginner poker tips and strategies to help you become more familiar with the game.
3-Handed Play
As the tournament begins, a wheel will spin to determine the prize pool for the poker tournament. The prize will range from 2x the buy in up to 100.000x the buy in. The number of positions paid and their amounts, the starting chip stack and the blind structure are all dependent on the prize multiplier. The higher the multiplier, the deeper the game and structure will be. It is also important to adjust your strategies to fit the depth of the tournament.
If the prize multiplier is between 2x to 5x then the poker tournament will be a ‘winner-takes-all’ format. In these poker games, an aggressive strategy, especially in the later levels, will be the best option to secure the victory. During the first two levels of the poker tournament we will be 10 to 15 Big Blinds deep so it is important to remember to not overplay our poker hand during this time. It is better to stay a bit tight and play hands from the button, limp when safe from the small blind and defend the big blind against small raises. As the blinds go up it is best to start opening our ranges. Going all in with a wide range of poker hands, trying to steal the blinds or showdown with the winning hand until we get to the heads up portion of the game.
If the prize multiplier comes up as anything between 10x and 25x, the top 2 places are paid. This change causes a shift in strategy. While it is always best to win, as long as you are not the first to get knocked out you will finish in the money. In this scenario we should tighten up our range over the first few levels, and pick our spots carefully without sacrificing any possible value positions in the future.
The last possible multiplier prizerang is between 50x and 100,000x. When these multipliers appear the top 3 all get paid, so you are automatically in the money. In this scenario we should play the game as if it was a normal poker tournament final table. Do your best to climb the payout ladder without worrying about being in the money.
Heads up
The early work is done and now it is time to battle heads-up for the victory and, in most cases, the only prize. It’s really important to play a lot of hands so we don’t just give away the blinds and chip ourselves down. We can limp from the button a lot of the time and try to take some pots post flop with small bets. Some other effective options we have are to raise the button and attempt to steal the blinds, or we can try to play our position post-flop. Going all-in when our stack, or our effective stack, is low is always an option and of course, always fold our low ranked hands to avoid getting our chips in with minimal equity. Do not hesitate to go all in with medium hands once our chip stack is relatively low, around 5 big blinds or less, because every hand has some win equity and we also have the fold equity if the other poker player chooses to fold! Anytime you are heads up it is important to use mixed strategies.
Leaderboard
Similar to other games on the site, GGPoker offers a daily leaderboard for Spin & Gold tournaments. Over $10,000 (at the time of writing this) in prizes are awarded daily, split over the various buy-ins. Players earn points on the leaderboard every time they finish a tournament. Players earn more points the higher they finish in the game and will receive bonus points for playing during Happy Hour.
Gold Challenge
GGPoker offers a second way to earn some bonus cash in Spin & Gold poker tournaments. You can opt-in to the gold challenges. If you choose to take up this poker challenge, you can earn extra cashback by completing the timed challenge of your choice. The challenges range from 1 hour up to 8 hours and the cashback rewards increase with both the length and difficulty that you choose.
Summary
While there is no guaranteed winning strategy, hopefully this beginner strategy guide for Spin & Gold online poker tournaments helps you understand how the game variant works and will allow you to start your own strategy development for this poker tournament variant.
Best of luck in this poker format and hopefully you get lucky and hit, and win, the biggest multiplier prize! Select your buy in, spin the wheel and enjoy the fast-paced game.
As always, when you play online poker games, remember it’s supposed to be fun.
