First hour of a free roll

How do you battle the crappy and loose players in freerolls? I'll post some of my strategy here.

I like to call the crappy players "noobs" So thats who I mean when I say that.

Noobs can be catagorized:

All-in noob--this guy just waits to go all in on you..he will use any hand what so ever..90% of the time its a very marginal hand. his main goal is to go all in as often as possible.

Loco noob-This guy is rude and low class. When he loses he will attempt to get you into a profanity filled argumant. He loves to use verbal intimidation and sexual harassment. he especially loves to verbally attack women, he feels they shouldnt even be playing. When he wins he gloats, for the same reason, to get you into an argument. he loves to go all caps.

411 noob- this guy almost never folds. he will call you down with a high card. he will fold only when he has to go all in to call you. his favorite hand is an ACE with anything else. He will go all in one you with a pocket full of paint.

Z noob-This guy has no patience whats so ever. You can tell which player is him by all the Z's he fills up your chat window with. the 15 sec decision window is too much time for him. He'll mumble and grumble about the pace of the game..and you''l see "lets go!" "pick a button", "wake up", "get dsl" etc.
this guy is the easiest to beat..all you need to do is wait 14 secs before each play and he'll get so frustrated he'll bet himself out, or try to get you all in with crap hands.

The best weapon against the noob is patience. this works very well in playmoney tables. But, be prepared to sit for a long time. Fold 90% of your hands and only play the top ten.

next: never play more than 2 games at the same time. You need to witness each and every hand so if a noob lasts into the later rounds you will be better prepared to beat him. You see that one noob raises 3 times the big blind with mid pairs and goes all in with stuff like 6 2. Later you see he went all in and you hold a J10..good chance you will beat him knowing what you know ( there is a really good chance he has nothing)

I break the tourneys into 4 parts: First hour, second hour, 3rd hour, and final table.

This post is about the first hour:

Obviously your main goal is to win the freeroll. But your secondary goal is to outlast or beat the noobs in the game. Since I understand the noob will play any 2 cards, I follow a strick regimen in the first hour. My goal is to reach the first break. I have seen 50% of registered players dissappear by the first break.

I know that a board of 2 6 10 will give me a very poor showing with my pocket full of paint when I'm up against a noob. he has probably paired his junk and most likely it's the 2 and he is just laying in wait to bring you all in and early.

I play only the top ten hands during this time

I never go all in pre flop: yes this means I will fold aa and kk. If I can see a flop with a call or small raise and the board trips me, then I'll go all in. If I don't hit then I'll play warily, with calls and small raises..always prepared to fold the "best hand". You need to be able to fold the best hand. What your looking for here is for the noobs to take out the noobs. This also gaurentees I'll make the first break.

Now once in a while my intuition will take over and I'll change my style of play for that one hand. Never overlook your intuition.

I never bluff during this time. Noobs don't know the word bluff. They never think you can beat them. They truly believe they are the best player at the table.

I never rise to an argument but I will always point out how moronic typing Z';s is..this usually illicits responses of affirmation from other players and pisses the noob off, making him more vulnerable to a major mistake.

Periodically I will sit out and give myself a minute or two to collect my thoughts..I watch the play but since I don't need to make any decisions I can concentrate more on what others are doing. I am not concerned about missing a major hand because I have seen and have been victim to a really powerful hand bieng shot down on the river with junk. My most hated hand is the 6 2 off suit, I went all in with aa and then with kk pre flop and was noob called with that hand both times. Both times I was beaten on the river with a two pair. Damn noobs!

Always try to leave every game, win or lose, having learned something. About the game, or maybe a new strategy, or something you noticed about another player. Use your player notes. They will help.

Post soem of your strategies..I'll post some of mine for hour 2 later.

wow u sure wote alot there lol


i like or ways to deal with the crappy playes

Thanks Xeno i appreciate your intuition and look

forward to the next edition
Down with Noobs!

Forgot to mention 1 strategy i use i the first hour

I play very slowly figuring most of the "noobs"

will burn out by break time

the slow play also tends to increase their "tilt factor"

yes that was a lot she wrote, unless i am high pocketed i never call an all in before the flop

eric

simple plan: the first hour or so, play tight and let the loose players knock each other out. i like to refer them as loose and crazy players as the ones i like to see go first. if they're new, they're bound to make silly mistakes, but i wouldnt hold that against them. simply play tight, you'll probably lose some money on the blinds so make sure you keep your stack up by winning small pots and stealing the blinds whenever you can.

i play on FTP and in the first hour or so of tight play i usually only bring my chip stack to about 4,000 (start off with 1,500) so its not a big increase, some small pots here and there but by that time most of the loose players are already out. of course this just means i have to work a bit harder to catch up with the bigger stacks, but i maintain my tight play and slowly work my way up..but i shift gears and throw in some aggressive plays when i need to in order to win pots that could really help me.

Nice post, very detailed and a lot of information was include. I haven't played freerolls in a while, and am gonna try and make some extra cash playing them. Does anyone know of any site that has limit Holdem freeroll? Thanks for the tips again

very nice post...my strategy is i play tight passive and this almost always gets me to the second hour. the next couple of hours I play tight aggressive...After that is when I loose it. when I am like 20-40 people out of the money. My game goes down the tubes. I've tried loose aggressive, tight aggressive, loose passive and tight passive...nothing works. like last night I was in a tourney that paid 30 seats..and of course I went out 38th. Any advice would be appreciated

your game plan works up to a point then you can't seem to get in the money?

What size is your chip stack at this point on average? What I mean is ..are you below or above the average tourney stack?

This is what I do if Im out of the money by 50 or so people but my chip stack is 3 times the size of average or more I will sit out the majority of hands and only play the top 5 or 8 starting hands. I don't go all in at any time while I wait and watch the chip leaders push people around to see what they push with. I will call the big blind if I am on the button and 1 or 0 people have called before me.

I know this is hard to do, especially when the blinds are over 300 and the antes have kicked in.
But I find it easier to come from behind once the initial scramble to get into the money is over.
I recently won a bonus buck tourney at UB doing this..I was at 45k in chips and the leader had over 200k ..I eventually got to the final table, and fought back and fourth till I took it home.

some additional things that can be used at anytime in the tourney..

I seem to be very strong with a 4 or 5 handed table..watch for this to happen as people leave the tourney or sit out..you will eventually have all seats taken but only 4 or five working thier hands. i target the tables chip leader and go aggressive as long as my stack is above the current average at the time. Once I had a table of 10 people and 9 were gone..made 500 bucks in chips taking the blinds:P

Second..realize that there have been alot written recently about pushing when you have a big stack..when you see this happen, don't bluff and call only when you have the nuts..this may mean you will fold some good hands before the flop..but believe me, you'll survive to play many more hands than those. I saw Boyle Brunson give away a mil plus lead and evenually come in second instead of winning when he was heads up. he went all in three times with junk trying to knock out his opponent.

I used to make it into the money regularly by simply sitting out and just riding my stack on in. But I decided that I want to win big,so I have been trying to find a way to make my stack grow instead of just riding to the money. One time I rode all the way to second place..lol..I had arrived at the final table with the second smallest stack.
I don't want to go back to just riding in. There is something really missing from my game at the end and I am trying to figure it out.

True - if you notice, ANY freeroll, about 75% of the field gets knocked out in the first hour, and over 10% gets knocked out in the first 10 MINUTES!

Play smart, and call an all-in early on if you have a decent pocket pair - it usually works, especially when you catch the idiots with a 9-2off on their third consecutive all in.

I call it the "lets have a pissing contest" and see who has the fullest bladder.


New game starts, 3 -4 players go all in right away. CRAZY!!!


To a noob they either going out fast or have some chips to lose doing the same thing later on. I just fold on hands when they start doing that. Just a few less people I have to deal with.

I just play my game its not hard, go all in when you have a dominate hand and play slow and relaxed,

If you dont go all in you cant loose, so play chips and the cards and not the other players bets, make them play against you not you against them, cause If that happens at one point you will be urgged to go all in If some idiot gives up and goes all in wth nuthing.

two parts

1.play tight

2.when you do play "get lucky"

i got lucky with a pair of 4s and all the cards in the community were higher and they guy in the hand with me lost to my 4s wow

eric

yes i also hate the noobs but if you have ever tried being a noob i tried it once when i registered for a tourney and then something came up and i knew i had to leave within the first 1.2 hour of the tournament...so i decided to go all in on a lot of hands like j10 suited anything with an ace those kinds of hands i ended up working myself up into the 6 and 7 thousand and was one of the chip leaders...i guess you could call noobing a strategy but my real question is how in a nl holdem freeroll you have guys with over 15k in chips within the first 5 min???

try jetset they have pot limit tourneys
i personally like the tables
have seen 3 finals and 2 1st places
and i am a rookie
good luck

I play very tight for about the first hour or so. I'm genearlly content to increase my stack from the $1,500 start to around $3K ot $4K at the hour mark. By that point, most of the idiots are our or hurting. I never call another player's all in unless I'm very confident that I have them beat, meaning I already have a strong pair. The all-iners will fade. They don't realize that a tourney can't be won on only one hand (except for the final hand). It can, however, be lost on one hand anytime.

I think the first hour is like you are having a heartattack and you wait of the rescue Team lol

You have to survive somehow the all-in calls and whatever you have in the pocket you allways to think that it can be a all in call....

Yesterday i had my FAVORITE LOST !!!!

Have Pocket A/K suited in heart.

Bet the Blind ... all ok Flop comes Heart J , a Diamond 2 and a Diamond 4.

So i just check and the guy goes all in. Hmmm, what he can have ? Flush Draw some stupid pair or so. I fold.... Don't want to waste my chips. Another one calls him.

First Guy has a 2 / 3 not suited nothing... other one 4/5....

It came a ace and a king.lol

i was pretty pist and the dude winthe pot with a pair of 4.

After i have J/J and again all in . So i called it.

2/7 !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Flop comes 2-K-Q....... Turn 10... I have a million outs lol

I win with 9-A-J and i had the flush draw.

It comes a 2... GAME OVER.

Whatever you do in the first hour THINK OF IT

it always takes an hour or so for the losers to get out in a freeroll, or the "noobs" your system of noob naming is similar to phil hellmuth's system for players, the jackal, the elephant, the mouse, the lion, and his modest title, the eagle

soemtimes i watch phil in his tables on tv and find him both amusing and annoying at the same time.

eric

I don't know how many times I have lost to that kinda of situation. Is it just me or is this a common thing. It seems like the worse the hand pre flop, the better the chances of winning.....I hardly ever come out on top with cards like AK suited or not, AA KK KQ. I can't remember a hand that I have won going all in pre flop with these cards. The first hour I play really tight and smile at all the alliners playing lotto poker. I will even fold AA to a preflop allin. It seems that I am lasting longer in tournys than I used to. Only been playing for about 3 months....still have a lot to learn...wish me luck

Dave

very interesting - i will consider that in my futures hands i play a lot of freerolls during the week - i always play the same my tipe of poker - and sometimes goes good others not so good

Time to test various tactics at multi table freerolls. Bet365 is running one 1k freeroll in an hour and another 2 start simultaniously an hour after that. Ill add a 300usd Pokerhost freeroll for the hell of it. Reporting back later, when i'm probably dumbstruck, confused and beaten to a pulp card wise.

Might change my tactic here, as i found a 20k freeroll starting at the same time. Seems worth giving my full attention

In my case I try to play as tight as possible however sometimes I get monster hands pre-flop so I get aggressive and try to take people out. I've gone out early quite a few times but when the cards come your way it's nice to have the cushion when the break comes around.

I agree with you on everything espescially playing only top ten hands
and be as patient as possible I always seem to place when I'am patient

Thanks Xeno

most crap players are almost always on a draw or two high cards.. be patient and crush them when u get a good hand.. dont lose focus when u see bums winning with a J4. they will lose eventually

yeah,, i always play tight to see off the noobs,, trouble is by the time they have all fallen off their chairs i have no chips left?

I suspect that your strategy is too tight to maximize your results. If you go in with KK and lose so be it.

considering they probably lost to rags at least when you go all in with a pair or AK and get busted then at least you left the tournament with a better preflop then your opponnent.

eric

I never lose to a good hand in a freeroll, it's always my 2 pair losing, or aces beating kings.

Since the blinds-to-chips ratio is generally very small during the first hour of play, I try to at gain as many chips as possible. Usually, this means i'll play tight before the flop, but aggressive afterwards in order to develop a sturdy chip-count. This works fine, because if I'm ridiculously stacked before the first break, I'll just sit out for a few hands and take care of some other things.

I think there are two strategies you could follow early on in play.

1) While the blinds are low, and as long as no one raises preflop, try seeing a flop for some otherwise marginal hands you would fold later on. The cards might be there for you and you can build a bit of a chip stack. If you try this and the cards consistently aren't there for you, then by all means, change your strategy. The idea here is that Aces and Faces are not the only cards in the deck, and with so many people in play, you are more likely to lose those big pockets to some idiot who calls an all-in with 8 / 9 suited or something.

2) Patience. Sit back and wait for the good cards to come to you; they almost always certainly do sooner or later, and wait for the "noobs" as I have seen them called here (lol--I like it! ) to fall out of the tourney. Usually by the end of the first break, you are left with more quality players.

But remember--don't be afraid to mix it up once in a while! If you only always play top pockets (pocket pairs, AK, AQ, whatever) then when you try to make a move to get some action, everyone will fold right away. Bluffing is part of the game....remember, if you're not caught with your hand in the cookie jar once in awhile, then your not playing poker! lol

cheers! slow play is a good idea as this may force the "noobs" to crack under pressure. If you can last the first hour, these people will have gone by then so you can then concentrate on your own game

That kinda stuff happens to me ALLL THE TIME....I brew over it for a bit and then go on, If I dont then I will go to bed mad about the idiots that I have to deal with sometimes in the freerolls...Always gonna be a few at each table that wanna go all in every hand. I am just relieved if I make it past them, after their stupidity has got the best of them and they are gone.