PokerStars Introduces Spin & Go Max
Have you ever been playing a Spin & Go tournament on PokerStars and thought to yourself, “Man, this is just way too simple of a concept. I want something much more convoluted.” Well, today you are in luck! PokerStars has introduced a new type of Spin & Go called Spin & Go Max. They are taking Spin & Go’s…to the MAX! Let’s go through all of this one step at a time because, like I said, it is convoluted.
Backing up a step, we are all used to the regular Spin & Go’s: three-handed, short-stack, hyper-turbo affairs. The prize pool is unknown until the players are all seated, and most of the time only the winner receives a prize. On those rare occasions that the prize pool multiplier spins up and reveals one of the top prizes, all three players win something.
And now there is Spin & Go Max. The tourneys can still be three-handed, but at these tables, a random draw is held after players register but before anyone is seated, to determine how many people will actually be playing. There can be anywhere from three to eight players in a Spin & Go Max contest.
At every buy-in level ($1, $5, $7, $15), the probabilities of this draw are exactly the same:
Three Players: 20 percent
Four Players: 25 percent
Five Players: 30 percent
Six Players: 15 percent
Seven Players: 5 percent
Eight Players: 5 percent
So now all the players are seated and if this was a regular Spin & Go, the spinner would appear and show everyone the prize pool. But this isn’t a regular Spin & Go, it’s Spin & Go MAX. Now there are three spinners and instead of showing the prize pool, they show three possible prizes for the winner. At the end of the match, the prizes are shuffled, hidden, and then the winner selects one.
If the random draw is as such where more than one player will make the money, the tournament lobby will indicate this. Whatever prize the winner chooses does not affect any prizes for runners-up – those prizes are determined once the triple pre-game spin is completed.
If the top prize – that is, the maximum prize that can be won – is one of the three possible winner’s prizes, the winner will automatically win it.
Confused yet?
Prizes and their probabilities are determined by a combination of buy-in and the number of players at the table. We won’t go through every single probability table, as it is just too much. While the regular Spin & Go prize tables list specific prizes, Spin & Go Max is a bit different. Because the winner gets three prizes from which to choose, the first prize listed for the different probabilities is actually an average.
And that top prize is significantly lower than in comparable three-player regular Spin & Go’s, but that is likely because there are many more variations in Spin & Go Max. PokerStars probably can’t pay out the same way for the three-handed games when there are four-handed through eight-handed games, as well.
Alright, so where were we? Oh, it is finally time to play the actual game of poker. That will go the same as usual – all games are No-Limit Hold’em – except that even here it’s not regular poker. Every game has a hand limit – probably because of the increase in players in most of the games – so if that hand limit is reached and nobody has won yet, the PokerStars software puts everyone all-in until one player remains.
As Henry Pollard said in “Party Down,” “Are we having fun yet?”
Finally, it is time for the winner to pick a prize. Again, the three randomly drawn prizes from the beginning are displayed, face down, and the winner selects one. But it still isn’t even that simple. For some of the higher-level prizes, the player is also given a “Cash Out” option before he makes his decision. This option is the average of the three prizes minus some amount, giving the player the chance to guarantee a certain payout or risk it for a better prize. Think of it like the banker’s offer in “Deal or No Deal.”
Alright, I think that’s it. I’m exhausted. Let’s summarize. In PokerStars’ new Spin & Go Max, there is a random draw to determine how many players there will be, from three to eight. Then there is a random draw to see what the first prize will be and not one, but three options are given for this. Then the game starts, but if it goes too long, everyone is forced to go all-in until someone wins. Then the winner gets to blindly choose one of the three possible first prizes or, in some cases, opt to go with a known “Cash Out” prize.
There. PokerStars Spin & Go Max. Underlining the “lottery” in Lottery Sit-and-Go.
COMMENTS