Hello everyone, this is your blogger westside1950 writing, HU SNG player on Pokerstars (nickname: dknight217)
I didn't play much for the last couple of days, traffic on normal speed Heads-Up tables is rapidly going down, so if you want to play a decent session you must really be patient in waiting for your opponents.
Spin or go?
I don't think of poker as a gamble, and I've never been much o[...] Read more » Spin or go?
The turbo nature and the short-stack adds more variance and hence is more of a "gamble", that said, good play can still give the better players an edge. Is there enough edge to overcome the variance, not really imo, no matter how good you are at $1, if you go to the higher buy ins, maybe. Personally I will stick to sucking at MTT's.
Joined: May '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 38 (M)
Posts: 2064
I was VERY MUCH against Spin & Go's when they first came about... for a lot of the reasons that you have mentioned in your blog, the main one being them killing the traffic at other formats... But I have to say my mind has been changed about them... and here's why...
Basically, you have a new format of poker that is attracting new, inexperienced players... So the standard of play is VERY poor, so poor infact that I rate my chances of winning a Spin & Go at the same level I do for a standard HU Hyper... So the fact that when you buy-in for $3, the most common prizepool is only $6 isn't actually a bad thing... It's like playing a HU with no rake... Then there's the very definite and noticeable fact that when the min prizepool is randomed up... people don't take it anywhere near as seriously, and just shove any two cards... The way to be profitable in these tournies is to take the smaller prizepool one's seriously. I like to try and maintain break even just with the min prizepools, and profit from the bigger one's.
All games, all variants, all formats are beatable.
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
well well well- comparing stock market with poker and calling them both a gamble just shows what a great financial guru you could become if one day you decide to offer financial advice for money. oh and here's a tip for those "stock market going wild" situations- study options and futures, and practice long term investing, this will make those short term fluctuations irrelevant.
Joined: Dec '13
Location: Croatia
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 716
@yout85 - I agree with you - in every format of poker game if you're good enough you can have edge, so I'll definitly try to play it. I just believe that for this type of game it will take a lot more time to overcome the variance (as 3pokeronly says) and it can be pretty tough if you face a bad beat when a high jackpot finnaly comes. I've seen it
@pochui - it seems you didn't read what I wrote at all. My opening line in the text is ''I don't think of poker as a gamble, and I've never been much of a gambler ''
For those who think poker is a gamble I made that comparation to a stock market. I'm not an economic expert, so offcourse I won't offer financial advising (lol? ), and with carefull managment offcouse I believe that you can make money longterm there, just like you can on poker - which I'm trying to do.
Joined: Jan '14
Location: Netherlands
Age: 28 (M)
Posts: 1041
Posted by westside1950: @yout85 - I agree with you - in every format of poker game if you're good enough you can have edge, so I'll definitly try to play it. I just believe that for this type of game it will take a lot more time to overcome the variance (as 3pokeronly says) and it can be pretty tough if you face a bad beat when a high jackpot finnaly comes. I've seen it
@pochui - it seems you didn't read what I wrote at all. My opening line in the text is ''I don't think of poker as a gamble, and I've never been much of a gambler ''
For those who think poker is a gamble I made that comparation to a stock market. I'm not an economic expert, so offcourse I won't offer financial advising (lol? ), and with carefull managment offcouse I believe that you can make money longterm there, just like you can on poker - which I'm trying to do.
Next time read more carefully
Pochui is the biggest funniest troll on the forums but he's a good guy he will hardly ever read your post seriously XD
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Germany
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 1242
Well, let us know how you are doing in these games. Will be interesting to see if you have success over a decent amount of games. I only played a few of them and were doing not too bad / made a small profit.
Joined: May '13
Location: Mauritius
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 2688
Looks like a good post keep the hard work up and also play those spin and go like crazy they can be good if you can win when you get these bonuses, spin an go can be good if you know how to play and always train yourself in huds matches as this will be happening most of the time.
also i saw somebody who has crazy roi on those spin and go and you could attain it but like all games you have to put in very much work to succeed , anyway good luck!
The stock market exchange is better compared with sportsbetting IMO - you have to bet/find value on a certain outcome on both. Poker is a bit different to that but all three are a gamble. No outcome is guaranteed, and until you hold the nuts in the game, you are just gambling.
Joined: Jun '12
Location: Bulgaria
Age: 49 (M)
Posts: 5
ever played Spin^Go so far, but I am delighted with the post, because it is splitting on one hand the developments of a leading pokersite /they know very well what to offer/, and on another, the reality we have within the Balkan countries. Nice post!
Joined: Dec '13
Location: Croatia
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 716
Thanks guys
@bowie1984 - yes, unless you hold the absolute nuts nothing is guaranteed, but you can always assume that you will be ahead a good number of times and that is how you make money.
Just like evertime you go all-in with AA - you can never be sure that you will 100%win, but you know you have probability of your side. And then after a great number of times - it is not gambling, it's purely statistics
Personally, I like this format of the game. Several msinut and known results. Of course luck in such tournaments comes to the fore. But this is the beauty of poker skill ... half-and-half luck. True big winnings fall extremely rare and it is not very nice but honestly ... I do not always catch the same jackpots and rightly so
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Canada
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 3207
I like these games also. Maybe not the 1$ ones all that much but the 3$ games seem to have higher prizes more often imo. Maybe im just lucky bit seems i gettem often
Joined: Mar '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 45 (F)
Posts: 2261
I think the stock market is not that much different than the poker table,the good players will always have the edge.When the stock market does go wild the good brokers will have sold the losers and will be snapping up the "bargains". I see the spin and go format as much like buying a scratchcard,most of the time when you win you just get a tiny win but occasionally you will get lucky.
Joined: Jan '13
Location: Philippines
Age: 57 (F)
Posts: 857
ill,d better go and not to spin,chance of winning is only 30percent,two opponet with small starting prize.....1million is just a dream for me.just let it go and watch them play charity perhaps, be announce soon ....
Joined: Jan '12
Location: Portugal
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 405
I thinl many of the people above just said way this games are a good thing for the room and for the players. And the comparison that you bring here maybe is good, but for many years people heard of stock exchange and see that guy bring ther suit and get a nice and respectable job, and because the poker has always been associated to casino, and for many years dont heard about the strategie envolve they know poker as a gamble thing, but in the last years poker evolves a lot and some people now see the poker has a game of mind or a sport, like something good.
Joined: Dec '11
Location: Macedonia, The former Yugoslav Republic of
Age: 53 (M)
Posts: 107
Its OK.New format New players,more gamble then experience.But I want to say one thing POKERSTARS its not a TRANSPARENT on how many games are played and awards are split acros players.So suppose there is one winer on 100000 games on 60$ Spin & Go who wins 180000$ I BET POKERSTARS deal 110000 games with 1 winer.SOO 10000x60$=600000 good fortune for Pokerstars Congratz
Joined: Jun '13
Location: Canada
Age: 80 (M)
Posts: 3700
Posted by djtopato: Its OK.New format New players,more gamble then experience.But I want to say one thing POKERSTARS its not a TRANSPARENT on how many games are played and awards are split acros players.So suppose there is one winer on 100000 games on 60$ Spin & Go who wins 180000$ I BET POKERSTARS deal 110000 games with 1 winer.SOO 10000x60$=600000 good fortune for Pokerstars Congratz
The rake take by PS in the $1.00 is 7% $3.00 & $7.00 is 6% and the others are 5% the balance of the money goes to a pot fot the bigger multiplier. Just google it and you will see all the oods of the prizes given.
Joined: Nov '14
Location: Canada
Age: 53 (M)
Posts: 189
2 days so far, hows the progress, we all are dying to know, i have my own exp, i started with 2 bucks, went up to 8, then got tired, overplayed and lost it. so the downside of sit n go aswell is that u tend to want to play 24/7 like! a slot machine, as u said, "gambling"
Joined: Aug '13
Location: India
Age: 31 (M)
Posts: 21
Intially I do not like Spin n go format but now I am loving it because of loose players. Standard of these games is below $2 cash games. These games are definitely beatable & are Fun to play.
), and with carefull managment offcouse I believe that you can make money longterm there, just like you can on 
he will hardly ever read your post seriously XD
