Building BR with Freerolls

As I read through CC it seems that a bunch of you guys built your entire poker bankroll through freerolls. I'm really interested in how you guys did this. How often did you play freerolls? Once/twice a day? What percentage of the time did you cash in freerolls, and how big was the field?


I play 1 freeroll a day on Carbon where there are a few thousand people per tournament, and I have never cashed. (Iv'e probably played 25-30 times or so and made it to the final 100 a 5-6 times). My problem is that the blinds go up so quickly that I always feel I need to make a move and eventually bust on one of my "double-up" attempts. Any advice for cashing more on freerolls and what cash rate can you expect to have? I realize freerolls are a bit of a crapshoot.


Also, any suggested sites that offer nightly freerolls or freerolls with smaller fields would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, as always.

First, make a move early in the game, don't wait until you have to.
Second, look for the private freerolls. Smaller stakes, but smaller field. That's how I did it last year. I came in first in a $100 private freeroll at full tilt (Ashley5178) with around 200 people in it. It paid top 3, $50, $30, $20. Started with that $50 and 3 months later cashed out $900, left $200 in my account. 4 months after that cashed out another $950. I screwed up and only left $40 in my account and went bust. It's no easy or fast, but it is possible.
For tourny's with a few hundred people, I'm ITM around 10% of the time. I play the carbon freerolls and never cash.
Hope it helps you out.

how do you get into private freerolls?

I know cardschat has some type of private freeroll but I am new to this site s obviously can't play yet. Isn't it hard to get a password to all of those private tournaments?

Look at carbon's fun step under the "sit-n-goes". Win the 3rd step...get a $1.00. Mint Poker also has something similar and they also have freeroll tournament. Since Black Friday, there are not as many "free" games around to start a bankroll if your US, but it's a beginnning along with forum games. Good Luck!

I notice that several of you are relatively new and don't yet have your PLAYER ID posted in your CC Profile for Carbon, etc ... I think that's a requirement when you become eligible for the freerolls ... get active and you'll be playing all of CCs soon. GL, Wally

you definitely need to find the good freerolls to enter. the ones at carbon where there are thousands of ppeople registered are never easy to cash in

it is possible to work up a decent bankroll without ever depositing though. just find a lot of good freerolls, and be very patient

You can check also with Rakeback. Some rakeback companies have freerolls like one company, that threw a few in Nov-Dec on Cake . I don't know if i can list the rakeback company here. At the moment they have a few promotions going.

Take chances early, play tight but aggressively. Once you get into top 100 you should have a fairly big stick or at least an average one because you should be stealing blinds and making moves by then to put yourself in position to get into the money.

Regardless Fun Steps are more profitable considering everything.

The fun steps on most merge sites are a decent way to go,play max games per day and multi table while you do it which will minimize your time investment.The step 1 is just a bingo game for most players so just play patiently regardless of the chaos and they will do all your work for you , step 2 is similar and step 3 you need to pay more attention. Sheer volume will grind you a starting bankroll. GL

Apppreciate the responses. Quick question though, say you successfully build a BR by freerolling. Are you able to cash out of any poker site without first depositing? It seems like you could make a couple hundred dollars and if I wanted to cash it out, I wouldn't be able to since I never deposited money onto the site. Is this an issue?

Depends on the site and their regulations. Go ahead and e-mail customer support about it and they will let you know.

I've done a bit of research and from what I deemed most profitable in terms of time is probably Hero Poker.
They have the $100 Trumviate and MTT $99 daily, it's pretty worth it. Only around a field of 120people.
Other than this, forum games are probably my other choice. Low field, but small prize money, usually only FT gets paid. Hope this helps.

Most sites I have come across do not allow you to cash out without depositing. However, you can just make a minimum deposit using your own money, immediately cash everything out from the site, and then put your minimum deposit from your own money back in your normal bank account and not let it mingle with your poker funds. Your poker bankroll is still 100% created from freerolls and is now free for you to use as you wish. Keep some of this bankroll in your poker account and you can then use this money to make minimum deposits on other sites you may have accumulated freeroll funds from and you are golden.

One additional thing to note is that some sites also have a minimum amount wagered or hands played/points accumulated rule. I know that 888poker does, as I won some money in a private freeroll a while back and tried to cash out after having made a minimum deposit and they said I had to have wagered at least $150 or so before I could cash out.

Those look really good, and they're only for US an Canadian so, for once, a plus for US players.

They also have freerolls exclusive for Australia and New Zealand players.

Pick your spots and get it in the middle. You have to double up before level 8 to stay competitive. Private freerolls give you a better chance but they are a dying breed. Once you win $20.00 or so you can start playing the limit games at micro level and work that up. Freerolls only is going to take a long time.

If you are from US, you don't have many options of freerolls. Mostly the carbon ones and the hero poker.
In case you are not from US, I remember that I started my bank on everest poker, there you can cash out without deposit or completing any requirement.

I haven't deposited on a poker site for about (can't remember)
over a year ago or longer.
I built a BR of $260+ on fulltilt then black friday hit.
I have been playing the fun steps on carbon and the CC carbon freerolls now and again.
my BR there is now $59.04 (no deposit).
It is possible to build a BR from from freerolls.
you need to have patience and good BRM.
you also need to play with full attention, as if it was a money game.
I'm only a recreational , fun player, but I enjoy the challenge
of building a BR from zero.
treat it as a learning process.
I do study the game and try to apply what I learn when I'm
playing.
I would advise everyone to try to build from nothing as an exercise.
Lots of people say freerolls are a waste of time , but I would disagree.
they are a way of learning the game for free.
If you can't beat freeroll donks or micro fish , your not going to beat higher limits.
It's the same game whether it's a freeroll or the wsop main event.
Move up when your bankroll allows.
have fun and good luck.

i built my br from 0 starting with the ferguson freeroll in the late full tilt poker
top 100 of 2700 players win 1$ there, and it was easy for me to cash
then with good brm i built a br of about 50-60$ and after that i cashed out $1880 in a massive tournament.
anyway i couldnt cash out the money because the check delayed 6 months and after that black friday and now everybody knows the story

freerolls and micro play helped me a lot to improve my game, and also you will notice that you cant play the same way in every stake or type of game
i remember rush poker was very easy profit for me

Freerolls are the best way to build a bankroll, it should automatically teach you bankroll management. Every site has freerolls and sites like minted even have freeroll steps sngs.

I have yet to be successful transitioning freeroll winnings into a bankroll (I'm just not that great or lucky yet) but have earned cash in carbon freerolls and private. My philosophy is that I refuse to spend money playing online poker so the only way I can build a bankroll is to win money through freerolls.

just keep playing them. pokerstars is probably the best if youre non-US

Annette Obrestad
Check out what this girl did by playing freerolls. It will blow your mind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annette_Obrestad

As mentioned already in this thread > find some private ones if you can as the play is generally superior (< so it'll actually resemble poker as opposed to bingo) & will have smaller fields & better payouts.

Really though... I'd just make a small deposit if you can & play microstakes. Large field freerolls where only top handful get itm are pretty much a waste of time (from the perspective of attempting to build a roll). There doesn't seem to be nearly as many priv. freerolls out there these days (although maybe it's just cuz I don't look for them so I don't find them).... FTP used to prob have the most of all the sites.

Your question about depositing before being able to withdrawl funds.... 'yes' on some sites (pretty sure all the merge sites require a deposit before making a withdrawl... I could be wrong though.. I'm not a big fan of merge & rarely play on there).

My experience with Carbon/merge... I was going to play in some priv. tourney, thought about depositing but then noticed there was a freeroll starting up just after I'd downloaded the software (this was in early '08,.. maybe late'07 ?).. it had umpteen gazillion entrants in it & was at around 10-11pm my time. I enter it but mostly just to get familiarized with the software (I intended on purchasing a MC-GiftCard the next day). I accumulated a bigstack & then just kept on playing. My partner went off to bed... but I kept on playing.... & playing.. & playing. It was after 4am & I was still 'playing'. 5am & it was lookin' good to get in the money!!!.. Yes!! Only top10 got paid & I was going to be one of them!!! Weeeeee!!... Lucky me & only my first try on the site!!!
5:20am., we're on the bubble.... I'm in SB & it's folded to me & I look at my screen & see 'AQ'... YES!!!! I SHIP IT! (happy to pick up blinds & antes).. BB Calls with garbage... a really terrible call given the time we'd played, the stack sizes of others on the table, ICM, etc. etc. (J7s)... he runner runner hits backdoor flush & 'bink'.... 'gg' me. What a HUGE freak'n waste of time!!!
I try to sleep at 5:30am, knowing I've totally fk'd up my next day by staying up into the wee hrs. to play a #%#%**%!!! freeroll & won NOTHING!!!
I still planned on purchasing the MC-GiftCard... but when I got up I said 'fk it!' & didn't bother with it. Skipped the game I'd hoped to play in... then luckboxed a $2 score in another 'private' freeroll that had small field of players. Ran that $2 up to over $1,100, playing very few games on there... mostly just CC games (& a few others). Planned on withdrawl all of it... left myself logged in during holidays while out of town... woke up in morning to discover my acc't. had been played on & lost near all of it playin' $80 6mx DoN's (< person who'd never played online pokerzzz... & had zero clue). Huge sigh.

So..
cliff notes:
just go make a small deposit.... 'unless' you can patiently wait for a CC Freeroll on there & hope to make it into the money.
(personally I'd just go make a deposit)

I've built a bankroll from nothing before..mind you, it was only about $170 at it's peak. Play the Merge Network Fun Steps until you accumulate about $5. Then I think the best way to go is $1.08 double-or-nothings...Cashing in 60 out of 100 will net you $12. If you are disciplined and have good bankroll management, you can make it happen. It takes a lot of time and it's not for everyone, but I'm doing it again..started this week with $0.24...up to $4 now..woohoo!
Merge $200 freerolls are just about impossible to cash in IMO, and not worth the time, with the exception of the HORSE one, which usually has a little smaller field, but I play it as a change of pace while grinding the fun steps/DoN games.
Intertops has 2 daily freerolls with max fields of 250, top 8 get tickes into other tournaments, have played about 5 of these with no luck yet.
Best of luck to you!

I just look for private freerolls and try to build a small bankroll off of that. It takes a lot of time though. Good luck on building your bankroll. Depositing is a little is def a good way to go though.

not only private freerolls are good for starting a bankroll but "SPECIAL" freerolls are a great way to get started . a little min deposit to access new depositor freerolls is also a gr8 way to start .i was lucky enuff that a poker site closure funded my first ewallet with a little seed capital (from a frreeroll cash of course)and i just went from there taking advantage of new dep offers is gr8.didnt ever have to use cash from " real world"all my deposits came from cashes at other sites .been running with it every since .of course i do tend to play more buyins now than i did a few years ago .kinda fond of the intertops bounty games 6.60 ,33 , and the 10 dollar buyin on fridays aand growing quite fond of the 6 dollar buyin shootout on party

Freerolls, at least the open ones, are not the best way for everyone to build a bankroll. For those who are sufficiently risk-averse to feel that an EV of pennies per tournament is acceptable because there's no possibility of losing any money, fine. It's not like there's much other choice.

Even private freerolls have dwindled dramatically in terms of how many there used to be, the small fields, and the prize pools that were offered a few years ago.

it can happen, just need a ton of time and patience

I keep a record of all of my private forum tourney cashes (freerolls & buyins).

In 2011, just in 'freerolls' I cashed for $1,406.10 & also 2x 30day DTB memberships & a $50 Amazon card. It was worth it.

I try to play as many fun steps as I can on carbon while I'm going to school full time and working full time. Then when I get a break from school I try to work on building my br. I did make a min deposit on carbon but that was only to get the first deposit out of the way. I was able to win 5 level three fun steps before making a deposit.
I started off on Betonline winning $16 in a freeroll. I was then able to get that up to $70 within a couple weeks untill I decided I didn't like playing there. The good thing about Betonline is they have freerolls every hour. Plus there is plenty of fish and more DoN's going on than at Carbon. The major advantage I found at Betonline was that they have $0.50 DoN's while Carbon only starts at $1. This could be helpful to those with a micro size br like me.

While the raw numbers are nice, how "worth it" winning this much was is, IMO, a matter of personal perspective, which can bring in other considerations. For me, one is the amount of playing time, which factors into hourly win rate. My freeroll winnings last year worked out to under $3 per hour. That was alright because it was within sight of my buyin win rate. But if I were good enough to make $10 or $20 per hour from buyins (or ring games or SNGs), it would have been a substantially -EV use of my time to play the freerolls that I did.

Building a bankroll from freerolls is a grind especially if you are trying to do it from public games. Best advice is get yourself qualified to play private freerolls. I noticed earlier that Victor Chandler are running $50 bankroll builders with 200-300 players. Might be worth a shot.

I did it on FT and PS before the free rolls were 5k and only 2.5k players.
(all before Black Friday)

Now it's a lot harder BUT it can be done.
I've won a small amount on the Merge Fun Steps and plan on building a BR from that.

$/hr. is insignificant because they're being played at same time as I'm playing a session of other games.

Build up my BR with freerolls 2, after I reached a nice amount.
I made an e-wallet cashed the money and there on new sites, read about the (new player)promo's on the different sites and build it up even further, sometimes even without spending to much of your BR.

I also searched for tourneys with overlay wich boosted my ROI (nowadays there are much less), kept a schedule when they run, and also looked for valuable freerolls where you didn't had to do much to qualify.

With my nice shedule I almost forgot nothing and had really nice months without risking too much.

Nowadays I sometimes still do this but at a lower pace. Only when I am in a bad losing period I play more to get my confidence back.