Interview with SpinLegends' Alvaro Romero
As we celebrate our new partnership with SpinLegends, Spin & Go coach Alvaro "spin4play" Romero talks us through the secrets of his success.
How did you start playing poker and who introduced you to the game?
alvaro951951: I started out as a recreational player in 2010 when I began playing with friends, depositing €10 here and there. Then, in 2013, I met a professional player and he introduced me to PokerStrategy.com and other sites.
I stumbled across blogs and stories of winning players and was thinking “That’s cool. I would like to win money, too”. So, I started studying HUSNGS, playing €1 games before deciding to quit university two months later. I won more than €5,000 in my 2nd month and decided to give this poker thingy a serious shot. By the end of the year I was playing the highest hyper stakes in Spain (€250) and battled all the regs who wanted to compete for the lobby.
What are your biggest poker achievements?
alvaro951951: Definitely winning the 20k Spins challenge.
Ok, let’s talk about your challenge. How did you come up with it?
alvaro951951: I moved to Malta in 2016 and was finally able to compete at $100 stakes in a .com room which I knew would be tougher than in Spain so I decided to work harder than ever. I played and studied all day long, playing 6k games in February and achieving an EV ROI of 4%. That was the best result out of all regulars at the time in EV. I continued to study and play a lot until May and was very happy with my results. Finally, I took some days off and started thinking of the hardest possible Spin & Go challenge.
I talked to people and everyone thought it was impossible to play 20k Spins in two months with 2.5% EV ROI. This made me optimistic that I might be able to generate a high betting volume with good odds so I went for it, because I felt it was possible. And I needed something to keep my motivation high anyway.
“In order to win lots of $ per hour, I am going to work at least 8-10 hours a day”
You experienced a lot of trouble in the beginning, did you think about giving up?
alvaro951951: It is true that I suffered a lot and had problems with my hands and elbows. I bought everything possible that might make grinding easier for me. Overall I changed my setup 3 times during the challenge and played as much as my body would let me.
I never thought about giving up though. I was bit worried about doing long term damage to my body and that I wouldn’t be able to grind much later on in life. Luckily that’s not the case now and I’m fine. I have invested too much money and fame to give up on the challenge.
How was it possible to exploit your opponents with that insane volume of games?
alvaro951951: It wasn’t! It was more about exploiting population tendencies, fishes, very obvious leaks and avoiding huge mistakes myself. I mostly played 12 tables at the same time and couldn’t exploit every regular in every situation. Sometimes I just didn’t have enough time to stare at my HUD to figure everything out and make perfect decisions. I gave up a lot of EV for sure.
I would not recommend my students play that many tables while they are still learning and not completely sure about their game. In the 2nd month of the challenge regulars managed to generate 0.3 EV BB/hand against me, so overall I played worse than them, which is normal taking into account that I was playing 12 tables and was very tired and stressed a lot of the time. But I had 2.5% EV ROI in the 2nd month which sums up to 3.2% during the whole challenge and that’s why I won.
"Take your chances now, work hard and try to think about your long term goals"
A lot of poker players suffer from procrastination or want "easy money". Do you have any advice for them?
alvaro951951: Playing poker is a highly profitable activity but you need to get your mindset right. The wrong way is to set yourself low goals like: “I want to win lots of $ per hour so I can just work 2-3 hours a day and have a good life.” I see a crazy number of players thinking like this. I have always done the opposite, I win lots of $ per hour, so I am going to work as much as I can, at least 8-10 hours a day.
There is a high chance that games are getting tougher over time, which means that your hourly will go down. In this case I am also time efficient. If it takes 2,500 hours to win $X this year, it will most likely take 3,000+ hours to win $X one year later. This way, I can hopefully retire comfortably after 10 years of playing while other regulars will have to play more and more every year. So, to answer your question, take your chances now, work hard and try to think about your long term goals.
When it comes to short cuts and easy ways to make a lot of money, there is no easy way to become profitable in any game. I believe it is about the time you put into hard work. I have to say it is hard to stay motivated and work alone a lot and that’s also the reason why players at SpinLegends are doing so much better that normal regs. We take care of the learning process and that the studying time of our students is well organised and highly productive.
How did you start your own coaching stable?
alvaro951951: I love coaching, plus my grinding possibilities were a little bit limited after the challenge because my hands and elbows issues. So it was very clear that my best option for work in terms of profitability and happiness was creating a coaching stable were I can work with a lot of students. The process of starting on it was hard and there are a lot of things you have to control but, if you are motivated enough and you enjoy what you are doing you are always able to solve every problem and just think about how to improve every single part of the team.
Apart from poker and business, how do you like to spend your time?
alvaro951951: At the moment I do not have too much time, which is fine with me, it is what I chose and it is what I want for my life at the moment. The free time I have I like to do sports and take care of my body, and also watching TV series and films, reading books, going for a walks, spending time with friends or just doing nothing. I also enjoy doing meditation and taking care of my mind. Since my day-to-day is stressful, and that is not healthy, I spend time just being quiet and feeling the peace of having nothing in mind.
Thanks alvaro951951 we cannot wait to hear more from you and SpinLegends.
If you are interested in excelling in the best new online poker format as well as getting the bankroll to do it, submit an application to SpinLegends today.
