A basic poker freeroll strategy

As we know, freerolls are a great way of attracting new people into the joys of playing poker, and this strategy is intended to give people that have no knowledge of poker whatsoever a basic guideline of how they can take a free trip into the world of online poker. If they like it, then they can come to Cardschat for lots of great advice on how to play properly, and use the Cardschat links to sign up for all the best poker sites. If they don't have as much fun as they hoped, then at least they haven't lost any money in the process

I've been trying out playing poker freerolls. On the face of it freerolls don't seem to be worth much because of the low prize money relative to the number of entrants. There are typically 400 players competing for around £100 of prize money, which means the average player is earning just 25p for playing, but the surprising thing is that the quality of play is absolutely abysmal. I mean, I know its a freeroll, but when someone calls your aces with J 2 you really have to wonder....

I suspect the players are actually so bad you could enter a tournament, not actually play it (every hand of yours will be automatically folded), and still occasionally finish in the money

The following canned strategy should get you into the freeroll money on a regular basis (I had never played poker before I found this guide, and I have made the final table of numerous freeroll tournaments using it, much to the disgust of the poker "purists")

Early in the tournament:

1) Go all-in with any top pair (AA, KK, QQ)

2) Every other pair call for the minimum, and go all-in if you make a three-of-a-kind or better. Usually some idiot will call you

3) Call for the minimum with AK and KJ, and go all-in if you make top pair or better

4) Play any small or big blind hand where no one raises. Fold these immediately if you make less than two pair on the flop

5) Fold everything else

6) When in doubt, fold. Let the other players kill themselves off

Late in the tournament:

1) When the blinds are still less than a sixth of your stack, play as above

2) When you get below that you want to go all-in with any ace or any king, and any two cards whose rank value sums to ten

3) When the blinds are a third of your stack just go all-in with anything

4) When in doubt, go all-in. Aggression is very important in the later stages of a tournament

Poker experts please note, this is a very simplified strategy. Though, given the quality of opposition, I doubt it is that far from optimal. No point in trying to outplay opponents who don't even care what cards you have

Please note that I am not suggesting that this is my idea, or that this is how you should play once you have gained an understanding of the game, and certainly don't pay to enter tournaments if this is all you have to go by. You are also likely to receive a certain amount of abuse from "experts" that think that all players should play "properly" in all tournaments, regardless of whether it's a freeroll or not

But if you're venturing into the world of poker for the very first time, hopefully this will be helpful as a rough guide. Good luck!

Wow, forty eight hours and still no response, I thought that you guys would have really ripped into me for "trivialising" something as complex as poker in this way

Everyone is just trying out the strategy, until they rip it to shreds.

the password is released 1 to 4 hours before the tourny begins
the members who have the password early are the loyal members who have spent a lot of time and effort in making the forum as great as it is. they are given the password early because that is nicks way of showing them that he appreciates what they have done.

As it's a very basic strategy it doesn't include the time around the bubble. A lot of people will play very cautiously then, because they don't want to miss out on the money, so there are lots of opportunities to steal pots then if you have a decent stack

interesting strategy mainly because of the free roll aspect but you do have some good points.....i have a question though you say to go all in with AA KK QQ do you mean preflop???...i like the the simplicity of it but i mean then it may not be too much of a strategy maybe just common sense...but a good try all in all..

All in pre-flop, yes. When you say that it's just common sense, maybe you've forgotten just how confusing it is when you very first start playing NL Hold'em. Thanks for the kind comments, anyway

yes I understand in that when I first started playing a basic simple strategy like this would have been awesome! so this will help all the newbies

After the first break if you dont have 30x the blinds it becomes hard to survive....

Sounds a lot like a strategy that Sklansky put forth in the pre-face to No Limit Tournaments. Will probably not money super often just because the end game play in a freeroll is such a crap shoot but not the worst idea.

Hiya, I like these tips, they are good start, I play in a ton of free rolls (my bank roll management is abysmal) in order to keep my play time up. The play in later rounds of most free rolls is usually pretty good, the first 10-20 hands are pointless rounds of bingo. My strategy is to sit out the first 20 minutes or so depending on the blind structure, when I get down to about 2/3 of the starting stack I wait for a decent hand and limp in (people will fold if they think you have been waiting for aces and you raise out of the blue) then if I get some chips I sit out again until I'm down to 10 BB's, then I play like it's a cash tourney for the remainder. If I have a lead I sit out until the blinds get to high. These things can last 4-5 hours, this way I spend a lot less time and I usually do a lot better avoiding all of the early bingo players, for $20 or the opportunity to play in another tourney it's just not worth playing every hand.

Thanks!

with more stratigys their is always a flaw going allin on any high pocket pair might seem smart but agianst 5 hands if called the ace,ace needs either anther ace or a pair on the board if not they have low chances to all the flush straight and 2 pair odds... it is all really a person's deshion how they play but most of the time you got to go by your own rules.... say u have pocket aces u go all in everyone folds u could of had a really nice win for more money lots of the time people don't call all ins every time at free rolls their is a chance but u could of got rid of alot of money from getting a good hand

I think you left out middle stages and I wouldnt go allin with just top pair top kicker many people will have set or two pair and youll be gone.

Im with you donkeykiller.

I have played some of the freerolls out there and the only ones that i liked were on party poker. The reason being all the all-iners that every site seems to have. iI have at times called with good hands JJ or better, sometimes suited with A high hoping for a flush and it never failes that I get my a** kicked by 2 small pair (or even 1 pair) and always on the river. How can you play against someone that can and does get it on the river all the time?

You say go all in with any 2 cards who's rank value sums 10. What do you mean by that? cards like 6-4, 7-3 etc?

a great freeroll strategy for donkeys is go all in!!

go all in wiff 27 preflop that is how all noobs play at first in freerolls i learn.

Freerolls are made for donkeys - if you're such a brilliant player, maybe you should stick to playing WSoP, and forget about freerolls.

This strategy works pretty well because I didnt even know how to play 7 card stud and i took 84th out of 12000 because i won a few big hands and sat out/ or folded 90% of my cards...

also i took 300th out of 5000 on a NL freeroll by using this strategy

I'll use this strategy in today's PokerStars freeroll and post where it took me.

This is actually a really good freeroll strat. Considering how many people push early in freerolls with absolute garbage, no matter what strat you use, don't be surprised if you take a bad beat (or even hundreds of bad beats...) even when the odds are ridiculously high in your favor. As many have said before this, freerolls draw in all kinds of people.

BTW... love the name dude.

i think these are good tips, when it comes to playing freerolls and not money tourneys, becuase you have more to lose and gain, but in general i think all of the tips are useful to anyone. you now have a new poker bible for the newbies.

If its long freerolls like on PokerStars going all-in everytime you got a high pair is setting you up to get a bad beat before the end. my strategy in big freerolls is never going all-in if you don't need to youll last longer and finish deeper in money without a doubt

I was late for a freeroll tournament today and I came in when about 430 out of 980 players left and I had actually gained some chips without playing, no one just stole my blinds when they could. I made it to about 80 players and someone called on an inside straight draw like a fool and got lucky. But I've gone all in on the first hand with AA and lost.

Yeah i agree with the basis of your strategy,youve got to play agressively in a freeroll because the overall winner is the person with ALL the chips so youve got to get ahead quickly and keep doubling up
If you try and play too tight youll get so far and just get your stack eaten away by the ever increasing blinds

Freerolls are fun because your not actually risking any of your bankroll and you get to play like a maniac lol it makes me laugh when you see players taking it far too seriously and abusing people for making donkey calls and winning

So you spend hours playing and still end up with nothing?

I like the strategy with smaller freerolls, but with anything over 200 players you need to get in cheap and hope you hit on the flop then all in. Most are just luck fests, until down to the last several players.

I've used a similar strategy and it seems to do well, you will get bad beats often however, just due to the sheer amount of idiots in free rolls. However I've adopted this strategy and it does seem to work well. I missed registration for my last free roll however I've been putting it to use in play money tournaments. Which to be honest have about the same caliber of skill and it seems to do well.

I was down to 22 people left in a 90 man SnG, received pocket kings. Went all in, had two callers. Flop came up A-A-Q and I knew I was pretty much screwed. Man to my right raises 3,600 and the other one folds. The rest of the cards are crap, cards show, he has Ace rag. Odds were in my favor to win and in all likelihood I would have placed in the money, simply got unlucky.

I'll let you know how my 928 man tournament goes, it's down to just 365 people and pays out to 90 places. Hopefully I can earn enough to play in the play money freeroll.

*update*

Checked an A-8 in big blind, flopped trip 8's, went all in. Had three callers, hit full house on the turn, river was a deuce. Went from around 1,350 to about 5,500. So far I'd say the strategy is pretty sound.

After hitting that full house, I hit a straight with a flush draw on the board. I pushed all in and no one called. After that I went completely card dead for about an hour. I only got maybe three pocket pairs. Just... The worst luck I've ever had. I ended up placing 46th after I got below 6x the BB and pushed all in with A2s. I got several callers and the only one that beat me had AK, so I can't complain about a bad beat at least.

As I suspected, this is all in all a very good strategy. However a good deal of luck is still needed and probably always will be in public freerolls.

Your assumption of folding virtually every hand and still cashing is "absolutely" correct (pun intended). I clicked the "sit out" button in an Absolute Poker freeroll some time ago, and totally forgot all about it. For sitting out unintentionally for about what had to have been hundreds of hands, I earned a whopping $.40. (But that's higher than a lot of the abysmal players who actually stuck around!)

Thank you I hope this information will help me a lot with my next freerolls.
But I will only use it with freerolls where over 2000 players play.