Hi all

A few months ago I started playing poker again after a few years break. I decided to get into spin and go's as it seems to have the most recreational players. Spins was a very new format for me as years ago I used to play cash games. I enjoyed learning the new format and the fast heated action that was taking place in these games. It took me about 1000 games to realise that getting the monies was not going to be as easy as I thought. In fact, I was absolutely crushed by the rake as I was winning just 6 chipEV for that stretch. The variance and action got me quite blinded.

At least it was fun. I decided to stick with it. And learn. I watched videos, did extensive leak finding sessions, read whatever I could find. In the end I even built a small simulator in excel for modelling different strategies.

I also considered joining a stable, but I was concerned with the risks and legality of being in such a finances and information sharing community (Pokerstars does not allow database sharing). So I decided to work on my own. I actually quite enjoy figuring things out on my own.

It didn't take long for me to see a significant improvement in my results. The charts were clearly pointing upwards. I managed to become a marginal winner - now winning 45 chipEV per game for about 2700 games stretch. After doing the math I realised that I am just barely beating the rake. It is still far from what I know that could be achieved. 100 chipEV per game should be possible.

This is why I am starting this thread. To hopefully get some directions about where I should turn my focus to in further improving my strategy. I am going to start experimenting with tweaking my current strategy in incremental steps and see where it takes me.

The first task is to understand what areas of my game are good/OK and what areas hold the biggest potential for improvements to my winrate. Or if I am lacking in general - that is also a possible outcome.

I have attached a small table with chipEV winrates by effective stacks, positions and no of players. I will provide more information once I have an idea about which area of my game to look into more detail.

Seems you would benefit the most from improving on BB, a lot of room to improve(not sure about 3way winrate but seems low, someone playing spins could confirm?) and that is the spot that comes up very often.

Yeah I agree BB play (3h and HU, especially 3handed) has the most room for improvement

SB VS BB When the button folds is a spot that a lot of players seem to bleed chips. This would be a good spot to focus on IMO.

^if his bb stats would be ok maybe, but those winrates are really low, and you play on BB waaay more than on sb so I still think go for BB

I agree with none888, focusing on BB play in both 3H and HU would be the easiest way to increase winrate, your BTN 3H is very solid, once you fix both BB which should be the easiest job, then you hit the harder task of SBvsBB which is gonna take alot of work, still havnt cracked it myself

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

I went through my database and took a thorough look at how I am defending the blinds. In the process I also found other areas of my game that did not look good or I think could be improved. The list with my ideas is below. Any further feedback would be highly appreciated!

Potential leaks:

1. Defending BB and SB
I am 3betting too wide and not calling enough. I should be 3betting about 10% on average with 3 players and 15% HU, which is roughly the same range as villains are calling all in with. I should be flatting much more preflop, however I am unsure how wide I should actually be calling IP or OOP. I’m thinking about aiming for flatting in BB IP 60%, BB OOP 40%, SB 30%. Would this be too wide?

Bonus question: How do you change your calling/3betting range as the effective stacks get smaller?

2. Attacking BB from SB (3players)
I think I am not minraising wide enough. How wide would you open?

3. Opening BTN
I think I could open even wider. Especially at smaller stacksizes. How wide would you recommend to open?

4. Opening SB in HU
I could not figure out why I have such a low winrate at 10-17bb stacks. The only explanation I could come up with is that the stacksizes set up for only 2 barrels, so bluffing has less value. A solution could be limping, which would allow for 3 barrels, however limped pots get attacked by villains quite often and I have noticed that my EV is usually smaller when I limp compared to minraising with similar hands. Villains raise limped pots preflop more often than they 3bet minraises. Any recommendations on how to improve my winrate at 10-17bbs?

I am going to try to experiment with having a middle strength limping range vs aggro villains (just below raise/calling range). At the moment I was limping mainly weak hands trying to see a flop and take a stab at it. I think I will keep my range vs aggro villains still fairly wide, minRaise/folding the bottom of my range. Question: How do you react to aggro villains raising your middle strength limping range? 2x I am likely calling with the top of my limping range, but what about 3x or higher? Are you mostly folding to raises?

5. Anything else you might notice from the stats posted?

Stats:

I dont quite understand those stats, but when SB minraises you 3bet 25% and call 10%, so your total vpip is 35%? Cant be right?
As for sb HU, play more hands and limp waaay more hands

Yes, I had 35 Vpip on average in BB HU.

I play close to 90% of all hands in SB HU. Do you mean I should be playing close to 100%?

There is your first BIG problem, you should play basically ~70% on BB heads up vs minraise.
Yeah, def, readless Id say you can play 100% at least down to 10bb, just watch their iso, if its high, Id say over 40% than start openfolding trash hands, or villain is crazy agroo station.