We interviewed Smart Spin players who have been crushing Spins in 2024! We asked them to share their secrets, and now you have the opportunity to get an exclusive piece of advice from the top Smart Spin players such as:
- FocusIRE ($250 player),
- blooming94 (€500 player),
- JackOverNine (Smart Spin coach and $250+ player),
- Fakeee1 (Smart Spin coach, playing up to $1000 stakes),
- Delduka (€250 player),
- Danilinlife (Smart Spin coach and $500 player),
- kkiz (playing up to $250 stakes).
Be determined and love what you do
My motivation is to treat poker as a sport and competition. Every time I sit down and play, my thoughts are that I’m gonna get punched now, and I should return some back. Being competitive and overcoming my opponents motivates me the most. About love, I don’t know, I just feel that way. Every time I sit down and play, I enjoy the process, I feel like without loving what you’re doing, you ain’t gonna feel this way.
How do I understand determination? Well, I’m not afraid to do something new in practice, some ballsy moves, and not afraid to make mistakes because every time I make them, I try to learn some lesson from it.
Create a game plan vs. the most frequent opponents
It is important to spot the opponent’s tendencies. Even on higher stakes, everyone is unbalanced. So it’s essential to spot where and try to understand and discover how you exploit it. You spot it mainly by watching HUD numbers, making correlations, and analyzing showdowns.
Be professional
You earn money by playing poker, so you must treat it professionally. You need to stay 100% focused while playing, especially on Spins, where games are so fast, every detail matters, every showdown, every timing, etc. Also, you must constantly work on your game, always looking for improvement. Knowledge in poker is endless. Never stop learning something new.
Keep it simple
Being the best isn’t necessary; being good enough is what matters. Playing perfectly isn’t required either—focus on making decisions that make sense. A top-tier HUD isn’t essential, just a few key stats will suffice. Instead of multiple screens, a simple laptop is all you really need to play.
Unlocking success in poker for 2024: key strategies revealed!
In the ever-evolving realm of poker, three pivotal factors stand out as game-changers. Here’s an essential update that’s hot off the press. These points are ranked by their level of importance.
Commit to volume
The total volume of your poker engagement, encompassing both study and grinding sessions, is paramount. A baseline of 100 hours per month is recommended to maintain your skills. To truly advance, consider dedicating 150 hours each month to the game.
Maintain Unwavering Focus
Your hours at the table shouldn’t be on autopilot. Instead, make the most of them by engaging with your recent study materials and verifying your understanding. Similarly, during study sessions, aim for a clear grasp of how the concepts you’re learning can be applied effectively during gameplay.
Customize for what works
Recognize that individuality plays a crucial role in this pursuit. This facet encompasses various elements, such as pure Colombian, I mean a healthy lifestyle to bolster your poker performance. Crafting a meticulous study routine can infuse your grind with fresh strategies, thereby keeping it intriguing. Even surrounding yourself with motivated peers who share your passion can amplify your commitment to poker.
In essence, success in poker hinges on this triad of principles, all of which intertwine to create a winning formula tailored to your unique journey.
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Top crushers qualities in 2024 compared to previous years
Compared to before, the overall edge in the Spin & Go format has dropped due to a higher ratio of regulars compared to recreationals. However, the edges also change in shape.
Preflop
Preflop has grown in importance significantly as people become better and better there, most rooms introduced faster formats, where being solid preflop is essential to be able to profit. As for regular Spin & Go’s – still yes. Preflop, I believe, is more important because of the higher amount of regs. One would prefer to be as good as possible in all aspects – especially frequent ones. Does that mean that we should be GTO robots? I believe not, and actually understanding it is super important as a base, from which the better one regular is, the better adjustments and deviations he can make to be a crusher.
Postflop
Postflop always was and will be super important. What is most important nowadays is structure and creativity.
- Structure – being well versed in sound theory – having a solid understanding of the
basic concepts, ranges, and so on. - Creativity – using that theoretical knowledge to be one step ahead of the others, and instead of justifying your moves “because GTO”, investing the time to understand and prepare for different deviations that would allow you both to exploit
your opponents and be way less predictable to play against.
Table selection and ego
If you go to war (3-reg games) – you have to be very aware of the risk/reward of the situation. Is it worth the investment? If yes – plan properly for it. If not, seek better opportunities and not be driven into ego wars. Fish are not as common at higher stakes as they used to be, so taking the maximum from them while improving our edge in all possible areas vs. regs is more crucial than ever. As good as you are, if you play constantly in bad games without any other kind of return from them, you will not earn nearly as much as you could, if you earn at all.
Mentality
Actively working on yourself, not only on your poker but also on personal “leaks”. Theoretically, most players over $50 stake have very similar theoretical knowledge nowadays, but the way they “perform” differs in great values. In-game focus, recognizing triggers, going through bad periods, good periods, good routines, proper warmup/cooldowns, workplace, surroundings, and people you work with. All of these give or take away from your edge.
Understanding GTO logic, not just copying plays
In 2023, we live in an era of easy and quick access to solvers. It’s no secret that practically every reg (and often even recreational players now) utilizes all sorts of GTO-based tools. We should do that, too! However, a commonly repeated mistake is attempting mindless copying of what GTO does. Unfortunately, that will never succeed. GTO strategies are so deeply multi-layered that exact replication by a human is 100% impossible. We’re also playing against individuals who often try to copy them, but they, too, will make hundreds of mistakes in doing so. Therefore, we shouldn’t learn the game solely through memorization but primarily through understanding patterns.
Try to understand why GTO intends to check a certain amount of hands. Why did it choose this exact combo to call the river? Why does it want to overbet jam the river, etc.? Only this way you’ll be able to adjust your plays against any opponent smoothly.
Focusing on every hand and extracting every piece of information
Advantages in poker are becoming smaller and smaller, so if you can work and find the tiniest details and make use of them, you’ll have an edge. Don’t overuse terms like “standard” when analyzing hands. This can easily reduce our game to a very robotic and “safely correct” style of play. It might not contain many glaring mistakes, but it will rarely contain anything extra. And that extra is very important.
Information gives you edge
Focus on everything! Timing tells, sizing tells, showdowns. Properly analyzing HUD stats is also crucial. Sure, a sample of 2/2 for isolating isn’t definitive, and such information alone shouldn’t change our strategy. Still, a player with those stats might also have an 80% 3-bet, 90% AFq, and all the signs of aggressive play, necessitating an immediate adjustment. On the other hand, a 3/3 c-bet turn stat doesn’t immediately mean someone is bluffing a lot when betting the turn – if all other stats are passive, it’s probably just variance.
When put together, these small details allow us to see more than others, and we must do so. Treat each hand as if it were a million-dollar hand.
Choose your stakes
In an ecosystem where game selection is now a difficult thing to do due to the high level of reg-ratio at any time of the day, the most important aspects to take care of are the marginal gains by marginal games. I mean all the advantages that I can have more than my opponents, and speaking of high stakes, these advantages we must find in our attitude rather than in our strategy (considering that if we have been playing these levels for a long time we certainly have excellent strategic skills).
Take care of your health
The most important are mental stamina and mental efficiency: cognitive health is top of mind, and the more we take care of it, the more advantages we will have against those who neglect this aspect. Experts agree that a healthy diet and lifestyle are two important factors for brain health, and the use of targeted supplements such as, for example, B vitamins, Glutamine, Omega 3, Selenium, and Magnesium is essential. If we have reached high stakes levels, poker is most likely our main activity, and therefore, we have to treat ourselves as athletes. We know very well that any talented athlete will not make a difference at very high levels if he neglects fundamental aspects such as nutrition, lifestyle, and brain health.
In time, you can become a high-stakes crusher like our top players if that’s your goal. Remember that not everyone has to be the best of the best – you can have different aspirations, and that’s perfectly fine with us! We invite you to join the Smart Spin community and create your own journey.
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