Very Disappointed in the Quality of play at the freerolls

Sorry bout this guys and gals...but I need to vent. The quality of play at the Poker Stars freerolls is just horrible. I am not mad because I lost, because it is cards and that happens...what I am mad about is people playing hands like 7 - 2 offsuit before the flop and calling bets of 3, 4 ,5 hundred chips from first, second, third position...And then beating a really respectable hand like a mid to high pocket pair or a 20 suited or something like that. Players like that really take away from the skill and the fun of the game because they will bet anything and end up beating out a very good player with garbage that shouldn't even warrant the call of a small $$$ big blind. I know I may sound whiny, I didn't get beat out by one of these hands, but I did lose a considerable amount of chips to hands like this. Some of the players at the table who I have played with before, and I know are very decent players did get beat out by garbage like that though. What I am trying to say is that if you don't know how to play poker or are just out to try to screw around the game...stay home and learn. Let the people who want to play for real play there game. Poker is more a game of skill than a game of who can get luckiest first. If ya wanna play like that come down to my place and play in our $100 buy in games at my place on sundays and get a lesson.

Sorry about the vent, have a good day

Luck has a role in poker. No big deal, just accept it and get a feel for the players at your table. Bad beats happen, but mostly any decently skilled player will survive being seated at a table with a member of the All In Fanatics crowd (AIF's:-)

I cant stand Poker RETARDS either raptor. I had QQ in the sat. to the 150 final and got called for 4k more with J10 offsuit. 10 2 A on the flop, and a 10 on the turn and an Ace on the river. I was pissed. People are wreckless and make stupid calls and get rewarded but I dont get it.

the best way to beat the callers and drawers is to play you hand tight till you get deeper in the tourney
often i get to last table low on chips then you can start bluffing because people
that deep in the tourney know how to play the game

yea I lost with AA in the first one (went all in with AA and got called by 10-4 offsuit) flop comes with a 10 and the river a 4.

Second one I lost with QQ and AK in the last one. All with cards that I would have never played under any circumstances.

Yea it was very poor. Also had a lot of sit outs. Maybe I should have sat out and possibly had a better chance to get into the finals. I was very disappointed.

do not worry raptor your skill and patience will win in the long run.

in th elong run it all evens out all the retards will run into even they can't outdraw

I hammered everyone...knocked out around 20 people and ended up 2nd in chips...that includes taking a huge risk with pocket js and going all in on a guy with a few more chips than me...wouldve sucked and hindsight i never woulda risked getting put in 50th place, but hey...worked out good

Basic freeroll strategy also requires methods like that. Build a stack by taking out a few then hang back and play tight till late in the tournament. For me, the first 10-20 minutes often decides if i am among the ones with a chance for the money. I my cards are too shitty to do some damage, i am in trouble. I normally go "desperado" after a bit and then either gets thrown out or win the stack neccessary to continue to the late game.

I'm just a guilty for playing a coupla of bad cards,but i play with gut feeling as well as what i've learned.

yeah, i suppose the one thing you have to get used to with on-line playing is the ppl who dont really understand the game of poker. They may know how to play, but they dont know poker...play money and freerolls are their breeding ground...they most likely wouldn't last in a real game for real money. On-line playing is totally different than real play....even the good poker players play different on-line (not in real money situations thou), ppl take different risks on-line, and you have to expect anything . IT still sux.

I would also have to agree, especially in the first heat, the amount of sitters in the tourney was stupid . There were quite the few tables with one playing and 8 sitting out , I think registration was way too early...i wonder how many ppl sitting out made it to the final forty in the first heat.

I think everyone is (guilty) but "gut feeling" doesn't equal going all in every hand (with crap) hoping for trips. I know there is a learning curve but it's easy to pick out people who are learning and people who just don't care.

The problem IMO is that people see this type of play on TV and think it's normal. Gus Hansen, and no offense to Gus, playing junk hands and winning tournaments gives people the idea that it's okay to play like a maniac all of the time. What they don't see is that there are times when even ol' Gus has to play tight or wait for a decent hand to come around. People usually only see the final table on TV not the 3 or 4 days before.

It is not just pokerstars but it does seem a little worse there, the reason why it is much more a game of chance is because people don't have anything invested so they "gamble" or some just try to win with a BS hand to get a laugh, they usually get a laugh or 2 before they bust out. When the game is FREE there will always be people screwing up the game. My advice is put some money on the table and try your skills, the game is MUCH better when people actually have some real dough on the line. ALSO you don't have all the youngins who can't play for real screwing up the freerolls. Having said that I can put up with the idiots to have a chance to win some scratch with nothing invested.

I was playing in a tourney last night and there was only two of us playing at the table and I was lucky enough (NOT) to be playing with one of the Poker IDIOTS as I call them.... it ruined the whole tourney for me, it's just not fun when people play like that and WIN!!!!!!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRR

I see what you're saying. However, it is a freeroll. People will do stupid things because they paid nothing to get into the tourney. They figure, "Hey, I'll just double up or lose and go play another freeroll" basically.

The problem is, then you are short stacked late in the tourney and you get called by the chip leaders who have 10 times your stack because "they have the chips to play with".

Problem is its a free roll and people dont care! If I were playing at home with 6 of my buddies for nothing I wouldnt care too much either. I'd go all in lose and watch the football game. Anyway they are just trying to double up early!

There is no denying that "lotto players" are the curse of freerolls. But if you have the patiants to play REAL tight long enough they and the sitters will be weeded out by the better players. You have to understand that with the new found popularity of Holdem and such that anyone with a pc and a credit card will be playin. The pluss side is that the tend to leave a lot of money on the table when they leave or finaly learn how to play;

i rarely call any all ins in the beginning of tournaments anymore because i expect the fool going all in to have something good but nooo its freaking 102 off or 47 so i have to play real tight in the beginning because i dont know what players are gonna do...oh and i often see somebody b1tching somebody out in a table because they were called by a bad hand and lost to it..no worries though man that player is gonna have it in his mind that 74 is a good hand to play and later on in the tourney it wont be and hell be gone..i admit he may or may not have taken out a qualified player by then...

You're right it ios horrible sometimes.

I have two "BAD CARDS" whit which i go about they are my lucky numbers. But normally i never go with shit like 2-7 or 3-8...

But that's Poker and i am learning it at the moment that we have to wait and survive those guys.

Absolutely no dispute that freeroll tournaments require a different mindset than real money tables. It took me a while to get over the hump and accept the fact that it's apples and oranges, and that people are going to do things at a freeroll that they would never do with actual cash involved. A common strategy at these events is to go all-in with marginal hands and try for the suck-out. If they miss, so what? Hasn't cost them a penny. If they hit, they have a huge jumpstart on their stack. Play tight, wait for the nuts, and try to survive the first hour with more chips than you started with. Bluffing isn't much use in the first hour. In fact, it will get you killed, cause someone will call your bluff with nothing and draw out on you. Freerolls are marathons, not sprints. You have to be around in the third hour to have a shot.

I just want to mention that we are talking about freerolls here... What more can you expect than people who aren't up to the quality of real money players... That is why they are in the freeroll in the first place! You have to expect that the competition is going to be a lot less experience when you are playing in a freeroll. It's just like when you play real money with the buy-in of 5 dollars... people are a lot looser. When you play real money with a 20 dollar buy-in... people start to tighten up. Basically when a player has a significant amount of something that they deem worthy in front of them (20 dollars, 2000 dollars, whatever) they will play "Real." By this I mean they probably wont make an all-in call for all of their worthy something (20, 2000, etc.) with a crap hand. You just have to take into perspective where you are playing and for what... If you are playing for free, don't expect the quality to be there. That's why I hate freerolls and stick to real money games.



--jomega--

every1 has bad beats. plus its online poker so u gotta expect there's gonna be idiots who could care less

Exactly its best to throw just about everything away early and wait for the blinds to go up so the travel channel/espn experts are gone

I play tons of freerolls and real buy-in tourneys. Two totally different beasts! I still play the same(tight and aggressive) with one exception. Freerolls I fold a heck of alot more. RammerJammer is right on! You can bluff a heck of alot easier in a real money game, that is for sure. Freerolls anyone will call an all in preflop to double up. If you want more of a skill game go to PokerChamps .50 cent, $1, $2 buy ins. Believe it or not, they tighten up a bit more and it is still dirt cheap.

That, unforunately, is the nature of freerolls. I didn't cost the people any money to play so that usually don't care what they play. The thing is to play tight against those people and wait them out. Sometimes they stay lucky sometimes they don't. Later on, after the bad players get weeded out, you can start stealing some pots with agressive play.

PokerChamp

please dont get me started on the lottery players!!only way i have found to somewhat beat them is to let them know if your are going all in all the time then u will havee to wait for the pot and i use all of my clock up and make em wait--they usually get tired of the long wait(after some cuss words) and start playin half-way decent.the others players get mad at having to wait and they fuss at the all in jerk---so the unless the jerk likes playin with alot of lip--they will quit.

i sometimes play the same game - try and double up early and if u are out u are out.... because everyone else is doing it and you cannot play cards with people like that. I then tighten up and see how far i get... won a few tourneys this way

My advice is to gain approximently 7500-10000 after the first hour weather thats in 5 hands or 55 minitues then wait until the second hr try to be at 20-40g by the 2nd hr break by this time, 2hrs have gone by the ALL INERS ARE DONE and the real battle STARTS. GOOD LUCK FOLKS


PEACE

CHAD8

What are any thoughts on playing anything early in a tournament as long as nobody raises preflop just to see if you catch? Is that normal.

Just wait it out and only play your good hands at first The all-in people who don't know how play will lose, and you just need to outlast them to have a shot at some real playing.

I know how you feel, i recently was in a tournament and i was low stacked. I caught pocket K's and my all in (3820) was called by a guy with 3 8 offsuit. he ended up catching flush when i got 3 K's, i know it's in the cards but the thought of calling that much with a 3 8 offsuit is just rediculous it almost ruins the game.

Ever notice how the first-hand-all-in winners are rarely still around an hour later? They'll knock out two other players, triple their chips to take a commanding early lead, then just piss it away 'cause they don't have any game at all.