Freeroll food for thought

For those of you that play freerolls, one interesting tactic that I have accidentally discovered is to sit out for the first 30-45 minutes. I know this sounds like a bad idea because you will lose about 1/4 of your stack, but you get away from all of the first hand all inners and its less likely you will see 36 offsuit calling your AK all in. Just a thought...

I like that too, and the only downside I can think of is having to play from behind against more non-donks than usual. Not ever finishing in a horrible place (getting out on 2nd hand) helps my confidence I know a guy who sat out for an hour, then won a few all-in hands, and was right back in the thick of it, but otherwise I don't know...

At least lots of other donks get knocked out before I do!!!

I like that advice though! I should try it sometime.

If it's a Full Tilt freeroll, make sure that you play at least one hand before sitting out...

A variation on this theme, that I like a lot better, is to only Play AA,KK, QQ during the early stages. Since those hands don't come around all that often, you end up getting a much better feel for the folks at your table, and can capitalize on that after 1/2 hour.

After the first hour in almost any freeroll I can remember, the play normalizes. So sitting out is fine.

IMO

its ingrained in me,its just the method i play early or latter,seems to me freerolls are the donk magnet anyway..some are going to get lucky,you might as well have time to watch the players and build your stack some.

Cuz god knows I hate when that happens...

Does that mean going all in and have better than a starting stack, and go in with the donks? And then if you win, sit out a while?

No. It might mean limping once and then folding, whatever it takes to stop Full Tilt automatically eliminating you from the tournament, which is what they do to people that have sat out from the start of the tournament until the first break.

Thanks for telling me (save me potential wasted time signing up and then getting kicked out ) !

I've gotten ticked off at some people in the past who just sat there incessantly without playing a single hand; I thought they never kicked anyone out on Ft (I'm understanding that if you must play at least one hand or at least limp in before each break, so on, and so forth).

You're right. I should have clarified that on some sites like Full Tilt you will get kicked out of the tourney if you dont play a hand for the first 15 mins or something like that. It's not like that at bodog, however.

And to the idea of only playing AA KK QQ in the early stages, that works too but I don't like sitting around only being able to play a few hands. I'd much rather rejoin play when, as one other poster said, the play normalizes.

If you haven't tried this "sitting out" strategy I think it wouldn't hurt to try it once and see how it goes.

Yeah, I like this variation too. If you dont have enough discipline to not get involved with the other stuff, then the other variation is better - lol, rather just move away from the pc for a bit so you dont get to see those cards and be tempted!

I't just seems unethical to sit out and wait 30 to 45 min. when were here to play. Nevertheless,I feel your correct. WHAT type of advice can one can give 4 instance, I seem to play good the first hour and can get my chip count to 60 to 100 thousand, then I cant seem to get past that.I've placed 30, 28 and within a 100th place in a 2700 player tourney.whats the key to getting past the 2nd hour? any advice will be appreciated and used. thanx,SHADESTR

I see no difference between sitting out and sitting infront of the PC and clicking fold. The only thing is that you may actually have a SB fold to your BB if you are not sitting out. I used to use this tactic often on the old old UB site. And, it worked well. I don't play freerolls nearly as much as I did 3-4 years ago. So, now I sometimes play to accumulate chips early or be out early. Time is money--play to win!

Either way I may play, I would never be afraid to shove and pray early in a freeroll with AA KK or QQ.

Im with the whole AA KK QQ strategy. If its one of the huge freerolls with thousands of people i do that until the first break. It gets boring as all hell, but thats specifically how i do it. Just sit there and stare at bad hands for an hour.

I have previously posted comments on freerolls and one of these is to sit out during the early stages. However 45 mins is maybe a bit too long but the principle I agree with.

How about the beloved AK?

I did that before, and also limped in and wasted lots of money trying to see the flop with cards like 78 suited, 66, KJ off, KQ off etc. I ended up losing money in the first hour, and was one of the lowest chip stacks when the break approached.

Sticking with AA KK QQ sounds good to me JJ sounds really nice (I heard it's a top 5 hand), but I don't touch it usually.

AK is part of the reason I made this post. In a freeroll recently I raised preflop with AK it was reraised to half my stack so I go all in and he has 25 and wins. I'm not saying you won't be successful if you play the entire freeroll, because given the right situations you can 10x your stack in the first 30 mins, but I'm just saying sometimes it is good to avoid the all in first handers that stick around for 30 mins or so.

A big mistake!! You definitly want those bad hands to call your A K. You
want that possible big jump start in the beginning of the tournament.
Now if your skeptical about going allin with those hands, just sit down
and fold all the hands untill you get a BIGG pocker pair! I mean sitting
out could making you lose AA, or KK, imagine how much money you could
have made instead of loosing all those blinds. I mean if you want to sit
out most of the time fine, but keep your hands open to interpretation
and if you see an opening take it!.

I agree with some of the others, why not just play very tight early on for those 45 minutes that you would be sitting out. Pick up AA, KK, QQ, AK, and take the donkeys money. Plus who says you have to be all-in before the flop, just hit a hand take their money, or already have a hand and take their money.

Ehh...? This is bad because?? I want the other guy to fold, not constantly push on any draw, eventually hitting it and wiping my stack out on a rivered 4 outer. The whole point of this strategy is so that you don't need to play with those donks, lol.

this is a bad idea. why sit out when you can get your AK in preflop vs 36? you'll win more times than not, and with a stack of around 4K you shouldn't have a problem getting any money. and even then, it might not be AK, but something like JJ against K-x. who wouldn't take those chances?

I don't think that's smart. The best thing to do is get alot of chips in the beginning and then sit out. Atleast on sites like ultimatebet that worked for me. But on fulltilt it's a different story you just have to play from the start till the end.

i used to do those hubble freerolls on pokerstars and one day i signed up and fell asleep. i never played a hand. i finished much higher than i ever did before. it sort of told me something about my play. someone who sits out would play better than me playing. it really hit home and i started to work harder at my game. i honestly think if you put your mind to it and try you can play better than sitting out. if that means playing super tight and only betting strong hands then do that. thats how i play early on in most tournaments. i wouldnt shove that AK pre so them stacking me w/36 will be very hard to do. i find protecking my stack is more important than protecting my big hands(early on).

Tend to disagree with sitting out at the beginning of a freeroll.
By sitting out you might miss out on playing the top hands and possibly increasing your stack. You should be more concerned with adding to your chip count in the early rounds of a tournament rather than eliminating players. Also, if you have a lot of sitters at your table, you could miss out on winning the blinds. If you do get a top hand early and go all-in and lose, it's only a freeroll and you haven't wasted much time. It can also teach you patience and discipline.

I find the sit out strategy works well.

It is great if you play a few hands and get your stack up to about 5k first though.

Full Tilt do not kick you out of the tourneys if you don't play to the first break.

Don't know how you came up with this idea m8 but it's a figment of your imagination!!

I agree and disagree with everything everyone is saying, waiting out the first 15-20 mins works pretty good cuz more of the "better" players are still around. My thought is rather than sitting out just play super tight (pocket face cards or 9 or 10 suited w/ a face card) and dont call any bets or raises bigger than 20% of your stack. atleast then you can try to build a decent stack for the end of the tourney. i make it to the top 9 out of 225 on a regular basis this way. no matter what we do most people are still going to view it as free and play more reckless than they should.

i agree with dj11. you just have to resist the temptation to push aj, aq, ak, etc. preflop unless ur prepared to take a beat.

dj11 has the best solution. only push the top 3 preflop and maybe jj.