LucidGTO has preflop drills that you can customize. IMO best on market, probably cheapest too. Maybe take advantage of trial period when you have a few days to grind.

Besides that, f*ck the rakeback man, who cares. Don't be another rakeback/leaderboard grinder on ACR, the ROI is so low on that it's hard to overstate. This is going to be a process, so slow down, play way less tables, as in, mix 1-2 tables and focus on your decision making and be super intentional and then move up to 3 and then stay at 3 for some time. Learn to *actually* focus on what's going on in your games. What are the players doing, what do you notice about them, what do you notice about yourself? you've probably never even seen yourself play to be honest. Watch yourself too, take notes on the pool. Observe your emotions during the whole process. The ROI you'll get from optimizing your process early on will pay dividends. If you want data on this I can dig it up but really just think about it. Marginal improvements now will compound each week exponentially and yeah maybe in 4 months other regs who play more tables and more hours than you will have made more at that point, but you having been studying more, and more intentional about your play and everything that contributes to it will be a far better player not only in your understanding and strategy, but also of everything else. When that becomes the case, you fly past everyone and truly begin to scale, while the regs whom have technically made more than you, will not. So be intentional with your process and with your why's, and trust it.

As for more preflop stuff, one thing I did was whether drills or online with sites where this is permitted, is print out all the charts, focus on just one or a few spots, not 17, and after every hand your unsure of, just check and see how you did. Were you close? Did you punt? Just make this a habit until you know the thresholds of each one. Another thing, perhaps throughout the day but most especially right before bed. Pick one chart (again, having them printed out comes in handy here as this is far better than doing on phone/device) and just scan it a handful of times for just a few minutes. Nothing crazy, maybe 90 seconds of intentional and undivided focus. Do that a few nights a week and you'll be way sharper preflop. These ranges are definitely attainable though. I haven't played much in almost a year and I genuinely still remember so many of them like they were tattooed to the back of my hand or something. They become instinct if you let it, but again:

It's not a race. If you can't step back and calm down it's simply not going to work out. Slow down and be intentional, and lean into your process. Goodluck!

Hi everyone,

I'm happy to find this thread as I see it's difficult to find spin and go material.

Been playing spins semi seriously since February due to not having much time to play MTTs. I am also moving to Germany soon where online cash games as you may know are unplayable with a 5.3% tax on BI on top ofb take, and I think for the amount of time I have for poker (few hours weekly) spins is my only game option, at least for now.

So I started almost as a joke with just $13 in Pokerstars and playing ¢25 games I found myself with $25 in like 2 week's of playing while commuting on the bus. I then moved this $25 to PartyPoker where I had $30 and with the $55 I started to play $1 spins. I am two tabling when I play on my laptop and taking lots of notes, and one tabling when on the android. My volume is as low as 150 spins per week or so (that's me finding time besides work and family life XD).

So I'm focused on the fun. Last time I checked I have transformed those initial $55 to $143. Of course this has no financial impact and my sample is quite meaningless as I am likely on around 1k spins in 2 months, but tell you what, I have almost tripled my BIs while having a lot of fun and achieving a chipEv/Spin of 64.

I also tried GG spins but I find them too volatile, they're probably just fine to learn how to play 15bb, 12bb, 10bb, 8bb stacks and below but ugh are they irritating? I prefer to play the normal structure of 25bb initial and 3min blinds, it really creates a lot of room for tactical approaches to be revealed.

My general thoughts and assignments on the pool at PartyPoker at the $1 are:

-We can easily identify the classic maniacs that just want to win with J3o and what not. If I have a non tagged player shove 3 times in a row, open to 7bbs or 3betting to 10 or any other stuff like that I'm calling light with full stacks. Surprisingly how often they are making a stupid move.

-Many players RFI sizing pretty bad. I'd say standard is 2bb BN and 2.5bb SB if 18bb or deeper otherwise 2bb. I still see many players open to 3.5bb. I tighten up a tad Vs them and take notes ASAP.

-Most players just want to see the flop then play straight forwardly. Limp calling junk from BN is a routine for some players.

-Important to differentiate what type of loose passive opponent you're playing against: some will call a triple barrel with any pair and ace high while others will often fold to the 3rd barrel. I constantly take notes and trust my reads, and it's working very well.

-Since the pool is mostly composed of recreational players it is within expectation that they are playing for fun, not looking much to improving their game, and notes will give us reliable info. I try to play good preflop ranges but my stack off/bluff off thresholds as well as my postflop game drastically changes depending on reads.

-A basic assumption that I make unless they proof otherwise is that nobody calls 2 barrels planning to fold river (so I tripple barrel for value only unless I see them fold or the spot is too juicy), and nobody bluffs enough, so I fold more tightly in marginal spots, especially if they barrel.

-Outstanding amount of players doing stuff like leading 1bb when they have a particular hand type. This provides a cheap opportunity to obtain valuable information and you HAVE TO take those notes. I tend to pay and see if they do it with draws, marginal made pairs or even ace high, or value hands (and believe me it happens). Once I have a read I exploit accordingly.

Other than preflop ranges I haven't had the chance to study the format much due to lack of time, but while I think preflop ranges are crucial to learn (still much work to do there from my end), I strongly believe at this level it's much more important to exploit players tendencies.

Would anyone be interested on group study sessions by any chance? I'd be happy to take part!

And a question I haven't really seen much information about, how do you size your non all-in 3bets in this format?

Playing two one dollar games at the same time with max focus and getting 64cev is pretty horrendous.

The guy has been playing spins for a month and is solidly winning before rb. Nothing wrong with that. No reason to be a jerk.

Hahaha man whatever, it's what suits me at the moment what can I say. I don't see the point on playing more spins at once as I can't pay proper attention. I can't play any higher at the moment due to financial conditions. That's the part where I agree with you it's pretty horrendous. If I had a couple grand to invest only in poker that would be nice, but I have $150 instead because I'm poor as bleep.

Perhaps you, who can judge others so easily, and presumably are a spins God, could share a tip or two instead of letting your miseries out by insulting others in forum posts, it might be better for yourself and everyone else. I personally couldn't care less as I'm well aware my finance if pathetic at the time so I'm just gonna keep working towards my goal and comments like yours are only one more reason to get there and learn how to crush it. Happy to play you in the limits I can afford to see how tough you are mate. Will have to accommodate you in my busy schedule but it'll sure be worth it.

As a quick update my cev now is at 71 and I have 155BI after trying to take a shot at $3 spins where I broke even. I wish there was $2 level in PartyPoker as that would give me at least 75 BI but instead I need to jump directly to the 3s.

Good luck at the tables.

Alot of information there and I'm sure it will help the blog owner.

I've been playing Spin n gos on party for a while on and off.

Do you export hands to PT4 as I can't get the HUD to work anymore or is there a way and I'm just not seeing it?

Regarding myself bit of inspiration after being a winning player generally at $5 not crushing though. I've decided to drop down in stakes to see if I've missed fundamentals that could help me win more.

Look forward to reading the journey and hoping to see you hit the $5 spins by the end of the year. Just expect a few horrendous sessions

Hey Cardchick94 thanks for the comment and interested to know as well what are playing now if not 5s anymore.

I took another shot at the 3s on Sunday and it was +EV but lost 12BI in a matter of just a few minutes. Considering that translates to 36 of my normal BI level I decided to stop and grind back up. Probably won't try again until I'm on at least 200-300 dollar (depending how risk averse I feel then) as I noted my game deteriorated a bit once I realised I had some ROR at this level.

Back on the 1s now and rebuilding that BR

Hi so on party I've dropped down to $1/$3 very strange the difference in play alot more recs imo although it's only been a week.

Keep grinding mate and great discipline to drop down when things ain't going to plan

I don't find that many regulars in the $1 games, although I have loads of tags and comments there's only like 5 players I see often. I'm playing from Europe if that's something worth considering.

I forgot to answer your question about the HUD. I download the hands from PartyPoker's site. For some reason monetary results are not registered which bothered me at first, but then I realized I only need to check cev and my graphs are set to chips won instead of money made. This helps me better understand if I'm running hot and whether my decisions are good overall. PartyPoker has some stats and leak tracker in the site as well. It is interesting but I take it with a grain of salt. The leak tracker simply considers something out of the parameters set as a leak and that means some stuff we may do as an exploit (i.e. 3bet more) as a leak when if you filter by 3bet to follow the example you'll see great results. I don't use the chatbot at all, I think they have programmed it to be a nit and I don't trust him XD

I grind from the UK but I'm away this week so my volume and times playing are a bit over the place.

I've seen alot of click backs at the $1- $3 are normally premiums.

My push fold game is pretty solid (used to play 6 max hypers) so I feel comfortable at 15bbs and under where I can exploit.

May bump into you on party. Will defo be downloading hands from the week and see where I'm at. With CEV due to volume and on my phone I'm not expecting great results tho lol

Ah, cool, my screen name in party is Csubito7, don't take notes on me XD

Hey Man,

Great blog.

Love these kind of Journeys, everyone stars somewhere and it is awesome that you have the motivation to work on your game and improve.

You are welcome to join our discord, we offer Spin and Go coaching via a subscription, but also have a pretty active free side to our discord ( 600+ members ) and will be happy to provide you with some free charts and stuff to improve your game.

Hope to see you there and keep up the great work!

https://discord.gg/ZuR6AkFpRz

I will see you on the tables 😉

hahaha don't wanna share your screen name? are you Mr Mind Against by any chance?

I'm cardchick94 - yet to see that name what stakes does he play at?

Oh I see, that should have been obvious actually XD. Mind Against is the player I find most often by far at the $1 level.

This week has been terrible for me and my cev. I believe my game hasn't changed much compared to previous weeks (maybe that's the problem actually) but feel like I've been running a lot into it and I'm getting that feeling that I can't win a flip. To make things worse yesterday I tried to hit the leaderboard and started to play 3 and 4 tables at a time. This affected my decision making negatively as I'm used to have longer time to think and to choose the right exploit. I saw ridiculous plays like 52o raising to 3bb and calling off the whole 25bb to beat my AQ. After having a few of these terrible coolers my mind swapped from "it's ok, I made a +EV situation" to monkey tilt. It took me a moment to identify I was on monkey tilt as I tend not to tilt (at least in the sense of getting angry). By the time I realized I was doing alright in the leaderboard and tried to push it. This was only an additional mistake because I kept playing what for me is too many tables and now on monkey tilt.

Fortunately my bankroll didn't take that big a hit but my ego (that ****er) hurts. I will admit that this week has affected my confidence and I suppose I should dedicate the current week to study for the most part.

When you said expect a few horrendous sessions I knew what you meant, however going through them is the tough part XD.

So yeah not time to study and heal I suppose. Good luck out there.

We all do it, I tend to limit to 2 tables I didn't grind much last week as I was away came back Friday was hoping to hit it hard over the weekend but wasn't well and could barely get out of bed. Played a few hours and did okay.

Be interesting when I run CEV now at the end of the month how Im doing. I imported over the week I was away and my CEV was 45ish. Needs improving but volume wasnt alot think it was 1200 hands

I am on a brutal 50 BI downswing, no matter what I do I seem to lose every crucial hand, it is affecting my mental game as well.

I withdrew my BR from partypoker to try the Spin&Go races in Pokerstars.

My BR reached peak at 148 BI now I am at 94 BI and honestly not sure what is going so wrong... it may be just variance?

In pokertracker, does anyone know how to identify cooler situations / situations when you say shoved a realistically good range and simply got called by better?

Good luck, I will sure need it

Unfortunately these kind of swings are not really brutal, but more completely standard in the Spin format.

Importantly, you have to just keep working on your game and try to set the mindset aside. If it starts to affect your mental state and tilt etc, then best to step away from the tables and refocus because whilst a 50 buyin swing can easily be variance and standard it is how you react to these swings which seperate the players

Thanks for the answer! Yeah I'm trying to dedicate the time when I start to lose my patience to study and try to find what spots I can improve (essentially all I guess XD). But yeah it's good to hear that 50bi is not that out of the ordinary, yesterday in particular I literally lost 26 spins in a row and it was a rather hard pill to swallow but fortunately today I recovered slightly. Around -45BI ATM compared to my peak (not sure if it's a good reference to take or if I'm setting myself for frustration).

Anyone else out there trying to play the Pokerstars races? I have tried for 3 days now and my best score is 165 if I'm not wrong which is not so great XD kinda frustrating that they penalize the better multipliers, makes you wanna hit 2x only hahaha which still will happen about half the time but you know...

I don't believe you. Unless these were flash games. If you play reg speeds at one dollar games you just can't lose 26 games in a row because the players are so bad.

What do you mean by cooler situations? Jamming 25bb with AK and losing to tens? Limp calling it off with QTs for 9bbs and losing to AQ?

Just play your own and game and if you manage to cash nice. If not then not a big deal because it's like 5% rb in the longer run at best. Most def don't play more tables you can handle because of that. Having a good cev is much more important.

No, I promise, I somehow lost 26 regular speed games in a row. I am honest to say it was literally a rush of either running into it or getting my better hand cracked 26 times in a row.

Yeah, what I mean by coolers is when you take a +EV action (based on solid ranges) and run into a better hand so that it will affect your CEV negatively. Like yeah, you rejam QQ from the SB with 500 chips and get called by KK or whatever. You made the right decision but this time it's a -400cev move. There must be some metric or a way to filter out these situations. Otherwise I guess I'm gonna look at my cev only once every 1000 spins or smth.

Yep, I was wondering about the Pokerstars races because for example in PartyPoker the leaderboard is for big volume players. In Pokerstars you may play just 10 games and win due to the structure. But I think it relies a lot on luck/run good rather than skill tbh.

Situations where you get coolered will even out in the longer run. You will cooler a sheet ton of games also. Best decision is to look at your cev like you mentioned after 1k games fe. And see how you are doing with different stack sizes etc. It's pretty easy to just look at your numbers without doing any significant work.

If you are going to play pokerstars for the races, it makes sense to try to play enough to at least get silver chest, so you will have some form of weekly challenge too. Even if it was say $10 a week, it is better than nothing in the beginning to help build your bankroll.

Albeit less important at the lower stakes but rakeback does help

dust yourself down and keep going - when things are going bad and you start making bad calls take a break. it happens to us all