strategy for dummies

I've been playing poker for 30+ years, not professionally, and I always find myself playing the odds on each hand. Since hold'em has become so popular I've been playing that on a daily basis. I've found one thing to be true the closer I get to the money the more I get out drawn. I change up my game during the course of the tourney. There are times to be aggressive and there are times to play passive. It's up to each individual to figure that out. Because when you do Doyle and Johnny will have some very good company.
One of the things that really frustrates me about playing. Because I don't have a bankroll to play with I play in just about every freeroll I can find to try to win some $. I'm a patient player, wait out most of the rift raft that don't know what they doing. I make it deep into almost every tourney I get into. But when we get close to making the money I play hands that most of the time I should win when all is said and done. That's when I get outdrawn until I'm out. Example I'll flop an ace high straight with 2 suited cards showing so to get them off the flush I'll but high. Of course with a 5,4 suited they go all in, I call and on the river they hit their flush. This happens so much that's why the user name. Any suggestions would be hot. No I'm not going to stop playing. lol

This is called variance which is due to the fundamental gambling nature of the game. If it were not for this aspect us better players wouldn't be able to win money at this game over the long run. Essentially you want players sucking out on you like this because in the long run you're going to show profits from them gambling vs you when you have the best of it. For example a flush draw is about 1.9-1 to hit by the river so this isn't really some kind of amazing bad beat. That's just poker. You want something to complain about wait till your set over set gets out drawn on and the guy makes quads. But hey thats just the way it goes sometimes. Plus if you're only playing in free rolls I am not surprised one bit. It's free so you have to expect people to be willing to gamble like this in the hopes of getting a big stack to push people around with. See if it was like a $10k buy in though then people don't do this because they arn't willing to risk it all on a 1.9-1 shot. I suggest depositing $100-200 somewhere and playing real money games at the micro limits. You will learn a lot more playing for real stakes and have less bad beats like this. Hope this puts some light on the topic for you. Peace.