My first freeroll tournament

Earned me $2.50, my first ever online real money.
I was knocked out 105th in a field of 4000+.

My best ranking was 47th, slightly above average chip stack, but only ~20X BB.

Then, a short stack pushed in front of me, which would cost me 20% of my bank roll to call. I know they usually don't have monster hands at this point, so I called with Ad 5d to see his 10d 8d. He got an 8, though.

Then I had an Ac 4c hand. Two clubs flopped. I lead the minimum 1X BB blind in the 10X BB pot on flop and turn, got 2 callers. (No re-raise, nice!) Unfortunately no more club came.

Then I had an Ac 8h hand. After limping in BB reraised 2X BB. I called to see flop: 10 8 3 rainbow. I pushed and BB reraised all in -- oh oh. Another guy called BB's all in. BB had A 10 and the other guy had 99. Ha.

I then used my first online poker real money $2.50 to 1c/2c games. Got a few bad beats and a few "good calls" to turn that into $3.00.

And by placing in top 200 I earned a free ticket for the next round on Sunday. Sounds pretty exciting!

well played maltz, excellent stuff.
to come 105th out of 4000+ is a great achievement, especially as it was your first freeroll.
here's to many more cash places, and to winning your first tournament.
Good luck.
KD

congrats bro!!! that is a big accomplishment for a first timer!!!

Excellent I made $ 2.10 once, that's the highest i've done in a freeeroll

I came 3rd the once but prize was just over $10 so nothing spectacular, but i normally get board of freerolls and once i hit triple the starting stack i make loose calls and dont pay attention, so i rarley cash. Congratulations on your cash keep playing them and build yourself a nice bankroll with freeroll winnings before you grow tierd of them.

Well done. Its a good feeling innit? I started like you 4 months ago and am now sitting on a tidy sum. My advice to you is to try and keep adding to your sum by placing again and again in the free-rolls. Don't switch to money games until you are able to do this on a consistent basis, once you can you will be a profitable player.


Get yourself into the Cardschat freerolls. Probably the softest money on the internet!!!

Thanks for all your warm encouragement.
I played a little more 1c/2c games and experienced some swings, but now my $3 has turned into $4.
Ring games are not as exciting as tournaments, though.

People at 1c/2c tables exhibit the following exploitable traits:

(1) Bet tiny (like 1/10 pot size) when they think they have a reasonable hand, thus welcoming draws
(2) Chase straight / flush draws with "reasonable" cost (about pot size)
(3) Call any bet / reraise when they have top pair

Also, I find it quite important to switch tables when your stack stops growing for a while - especially when the table gets smaller (because the weaker ones are busted). Basically we are like livestocks grazing here and there... forward 2 steps and back 1 step.

maltz,

Your point about changing tables when your stack stays static or drops a bit is a good one. You need to constantly evaluate the table you are at and the players at it. It may be that when you sat down you were able to crush the table, but as people come and go you are now the fish (or close).

Somewhere I saw a quote something like "You can be the 9th best player in the world, but it does you very little good if the other 8 are sitting at your table".

Be honest with yourself and change when you can't beat the competition.