The Beginners Guide Series: Spin & Gold 6-Max
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In today’s installment of our Beginner Strategy series, we’ll be discussing some strategies for Spin & Gold, which is another fun online poker game variant offered by GGPoker. Spin & Gold is offered in both a 3-player and 6-player match and strategies should be modified based on the player count. In this guide, we will be focusing on the 6-player format.
The first thing you should note about Spin & Gold is they are a bit different from regular Sit ‘n Go poker games. At the lower multipliers, only two players will win prizes, which requires an approach that includes aggressive play and strong strategy-based decision-making to win the game. At the higher multipliers, more players will receive payouts, so this will alter your starting strategy while you get a better read on your opponents.
If you’re looking for a quick game with the feel of a bigger tournament, Spin & Gold 6-max may be a great alternative for you. An average round lasts about 9 minutes and, as you might expect, this rapid-fire format requires a slightly different approach. This guide is here to offer you some insight on how to strategize.
Stakes
You can join a Spin & Gold 6-max poker tournament for as low as 25 cents, or bump up the stakes to $1, $3 or $10. These options provide a modest range of buy-ins that will accommodate most poker bankrolls. Spin & Gold is a great way to play fast poker tournaments with a chance to win big prizes.
Spin & Gold tournaments start 6-handed and quickly move to a 3-way poker battle for the prizes and then to a heads up game for the biggest prize! We will summarize the gameplay for all situations, versus 5 opponents, down to 2 opponents and then heads-up, offering some beginner poker tips and strategies to help you become more familiar with the game.
6-Handed Play
When the tournament begins, a wheel will spin to declare the prize that players are playing to win. The prize pool can range from 4x up to 200,000x the buy in. Depending on the multiplier, the blind structure and starting chip stacks will differ, as will the number of positions paid and their values. The higher the multiplier, the deeper the game and structure will be. This will make it important to adjust your strategy to accommodate the change in stakes.
If the prize multiplier is 4x or 6x, only two players will qualify for prizes. A mixed strategy of aggressive and tight play will help you finish in the money easier. Early on, we should stay a bit tight and not overplay our hands. Learning how the other players act will aid us with a better understanding of the table. We can play a lot of hands from the button, limp some hands from the small blind, and defend our big blind against small raises. Playing from the early positions tends to work better if we keep a tight range of decent hands. As the blinds increase, we can start to open our range. Going all-in with a larger range of hands is another way to steal the blinds or win hands to try and get closer to the paid places but be careful overusing this tactic.
If the multiplier is in the middling range, 10x to 50x, then the top three places will be paid and the way we need to play the game changes significantly. While our end goal is to walk away with the top prize, it is arguably more important to survive to the final three and secure a spot in the money. In this scenario, it is a good strategy to tighten our range in the first few levels, picking our spots cautiously without sacrificing any possible value positions that may come later. If we see that the other players are trying to play a conservative game, we need to adjust our game towards a wider hand selection and take advantage of the situation.
If you’ve spun the 100x or 200x multipliers, four out of the six players are paid! In this exciting scenario we should start the game more cautiously and observe how our opponents act and play. We should exploit our best hands, trying to ease into the paid positions. Similar to the 10x to 50x strategy, if the rest of the table is playing tight, we can adjust our strategy and loosen up to take advantage.
Finally, if you get lucky and hit the top multiplier of 40,000x or 200,000x, all six players will be paid. In this scenario we should treat the game the same way you would the final table of a Multi Table Tournament. Do your best to ascend the payout ladder and cash out as high as possible.
3-Handed Play
The early work is done and we are down to a 3-way battle for the top prize. Being just one place from the money, as will be the case in most of the Spin and Gold games, can lead to aggressive game play where it may prove more profitable to push rather than playing tight, waiting for someone else to go broke. We can raise more than usual from the button to try and steal some pots post-flop with small bets, but from the small blind a limp is usually the best choice. If our chip stack is 10 big blinds or less, shoving it all in with medium or better hands is the right choice. Every hand will have some win equity and there is fold equity if the opponent chooses to get away from the hand. Finally, we can, and should, always try to defend our big blind as we attempt to get in the money.
Heads Up
Congratulations! No matter the multiplier, if you find yourself playing heads-up, you are in the money. It is time to battle for the victory and the top prize. It is really important to play a lot of hands so we’re not giving away the blinds and chipping ourselves down. We can limp from the button often and try to take some pots post flop with small bets. Other effective options are to raise the button and attempt to steal the blinds, or we can try to play our position post-flop. If our effective stack is low, going all-in is always an option and, of course, always fold our low ranked hands to avoid putting in our chips with minimal equity. Because of the potential win and fold equity of every hand, do not hesitate to go all-in with medium ranged hands once our chip stack is relatively low, at around five big blinds or less. Any time you are heads-up it is important to use mixed strategies.
Leaderboard
GGPoker offers a daily leaderboard for Spin & Gold tournaments. Players earn points on the leaderboard every time they finish a tournament. The points increase the better they finish in the game and bonus points are earned during Happy Hour. Over $10,000 in prizes are awarded daily, split over the various buy-ins.
Gold Challenge
There is another way to earn bonus cash in GGPoker’s Spin & Gold tournaments, the optional Gold Challenges. These are timed events in which you try to match or exceed a quantity of Gold, which is earned while playing in Spin & Gold tournaments. You earn extra cash back by completing the challenge of your choice within the selected timeframe. The challenges range in length and difficulty, but the harder the challenge that you complete, the higher the reward you’ll receive.
Summary
There is no single definitive strategy to win at poker and this also applies to Spin & Gold online tournaments, but hopefully this beginner’s guide will help you understand the game variation and to form your own strategic planning.
Select your buy in, spin the wheel and enjoy the fast-paced game. We wish you the best of luck in this poker format and hopefully you get lucky and hit the biggest multiplier prize and play your best to the big win!
As always, when you play online poker games, it’s supposed to be fun
