freeroll strategies

Hey guys,

i have a question about your poker strategies. it sucks that ervery time i play a tournement all idiots go with any hand all in an win a lucky two pair or something else.

How do you play???

Wait or play risky

With a free roll, you're usually up against 5000 other opponents and only the top 50 or so get paid. That means you have to finish in the top 1% of the field. And you won't get there without luck.

At the same time, your opponents are usually willing to give their chips away for free, especially early on in a freeroll.

I've cashed in a few, and my general strategy is to start out very tight. Play your premium hands, and capitalize on the idiots who are throwing chips at you.

Then later in the tournament (when the ante kicks in), just be FEARLESS! Steal every chip that isn't bolted down, take a few coinflips, threaten their tournament life if you think you don't have the best hand, and do your best to become a HUGE stack.

Then once the money bubble breaks, everyone will go CRAZY, because they're guaranteed money. So then sit back and just play conservatively, and ride the donkey wave to the final table.

Wait for aces, open push for 30BBs total, watch as half the table calls your all in and hope you're not outdrawn... easy game.

This dude was playing like he could see everyones cards or knew what was coming. I watched for a while. (montruo). After I asked him was he chip dumping or cheating, he kept going all-in every hand and tell one of the players to call. Then I searched for him to see what other games he was playing and he is on hide. LOL. I was going to report him but they probably just think I was mad because I lost. It just did not feel right. The other player that went all-in had J/5 suited.

PokerStars Game #17016244008: Tournament #82987095, 10FPP Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2008/04/26 - 19:57:14 (ET)
Table '82987095 149' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: XPOKERCHIC (2385 in chips)
Seat 2: rou000 (6190 in chips)
Seat 3: Hitman-180 (990 in chips)
Seat 4: montruo (5600 in chips)
Seat 5: mrniceguyGER (3390 in chips)
Seat 6: noni queen (3380 in chips)
Seat 7: thespida32 (1650 in chips)
Seat 8: crosscar (350 in chips)
Seat 9: bananette (1345 in chips) is sitting out
bananette: posts small blind 50
XPOKERCHIC: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to XPOKERCHIC
rou000: calls 100
Hitman-180: calls 100
montruo: raises 1700 to 1800
mrniceguyGER: folds
noni queen: folds
crosscar said, "zzz"
thespida32: folds
crosscar: calls 350 and is all-in
bananette: folds
XPOKERCHIC: raises 585 to 2385 and is all-in
rou000: folds
Hitman-180: folds
montruo: calls 585
*** FLOP ***
*** TURN ***
noni queen said, "sorry i thought i pushed the fold & sit out button"
*** RIVER ***
*** SHOW DOWN ***
XPOKERCHIC: shows (a pair of Aces)
montruo: shows (two pair, Fives and Fours)
montruo collected 4070 from side pot
crosscar: shows (a pair of Fives)
montruo collected 1300 from main pot
shade9000 is connected
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5370 Main pot 1300. Side pot 4070. | Rake 0
Board
Seat 1: XPOKERCHIC (big blind) showed and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: rou000 folded before Flop
Seat 3: Hitman-180 folded before Flop
Seat 4: montruo showed and won (5370) with two pair, Fives and Fours
Seat 5: mrniceguyGER folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: noni queen folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: thespida32 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: crosscar (button) showed and lost with a pair of Fives
Seat 9: bananette (small blind) folded before Flop

honestly.. its almost safer to play risky cuz when u get lucky they become the ones beat with pocket pairs.... i know exactly what u mean... happens to me all the time. it sux. but idk, u win some and u lose some...lol..

I've found that if I sit out the early rounds and let the loose-as-a-goose players "have at it," things settle into normal play. Usually when the game starts up, there are a bunch of wreckless players, most likely because the entry is free, or they've more than one pla.

Have a cup of coffee, sip it slowly, and watch your dealt hands for something "playable," in your view.

Eventually things will settle into normal play sequences. Food for thought.

Yeah but sometimes lot of guy play with lot of rebuy !!! All-in and rebuy !

You justn eed to play your own way, not what others say or how they play.

Sometimes, you just can't beat luck.

Butchers wife 1 post is banned already, what for?

In stud freerolls on PS there is a lull about an hr in. You can sit out early then pick up alot of chips fast from sitters. Otherwise its a long game. Work out when you have enough chips to sit out and make the cutoff. This can save half an hour at the end. In NL you're going to have to take some chances so might as well start early where you can build a stack and limit your # of allin situations

Hi bermuda, try to follow this guide http://www.cardschat.com/f31/how-suc...eerolls-63130/ (http://www.cardschat.com/f31/how-succeed-online-freerolls-63130/)

I hope it helps you!

Bad strategy. Dont sit out if you dont need to.

Be patient your cards will come your way, thats what I found to be successfull when I am playing and I have won some money by doing this

Its about the time involved philthy. This is just Rd 1, no payout yet. I can sit out of razz and either go from 1k to 4k in ten min or go bust. I can play first hour and get to 3k if things go well, but there are too many garbage reraisers that kill 2nd best hands. I'll take the ten minutes and see how i stand. Its a freeroll theres another tomorrow. When i get to say 50k 200 left in an ante game I know I can make it and I'm out. I'm not going to risk making whole time a complete waste.

FOR D'willus: I had some technical difficulty getting started with this site. For some unknown reason, the system would not work when I logged back in at a later time. So, had the Administrators [who were trying hard to help by the way] eliminate Butcher's Wife (in reality I am exactly that {smile}) ... now you can write to [itlegacy].

freerolls like everyone has already said here are extremely loose early on. Only play premium hands for the first 30mins or even hour. after that it does even out, but there are still some donks out there. The farther you go, the better the play. Later on I like to get aggressive on hands preflop. People that get close to the money tend to tighten up. Aggressive play more often than not gets you a lot of chips well into the tourney.

hey all i agree that hand hurt but as an avid freeroller i have become accustomed to these types of calls and plays and not a fan of them but have been on both sides none the less you just move on and look for the time when you are winning and moving forward anyways good luck and forget the odds calculators when it comes to freerolls rely on your gut and hope you have the luck.in closeing best of luck to you all bye

Free rolls are just that Free, so ppl could care less cuz,they know they themselves are going to get donked or donk someone, only thing I could say is play your own game and don't let it get to you. gl with everything

My advice is to save up enough money to make a deposit and play buy in tourneys.

Freerolls sponsored by the gambling sites(ie. pokerstars, full tilt, etc.) are nothing but donkfests. They are condusive to bad habits and tilt. You WILL take more bad beats than usual. The beats in the buy in tourneys are bad enough. Why spend hours treading through a field of 5,000 donks to get a whole $5 for first place. The private freerolls are slightly better because the fields aren't as large. Ie cardschat tourneys.

I am usually patient early on unless I have a great hand, usually after 20 mins or say is when the play gets a bit better.Then again I have been fairly far in a tourny and gone all in with pocket Aces and got called but 10 6 offsuit and the guy only had me outchipped by 500 or so he flopped the straight.As with all tournies you need luck probally more so in freerolls.