How to Succeed in Online Freerolls

I am a new member and found it, so had to get others reading it again.

Great information and greatly appreciated T1

Hope to see you on the felt sometime.

Alf

The one tip you have to be careful with is "9. Avoid hesitation." Yes, it could be a sign of weakness. But it could also be someone multi-tabling, who was held up. Or went to get a cup of coffee. Or had to go answer the phone. Or has a bad connection. Or... is bluffing.

But the rest sounds good. I've had a little success in freerolls already (having only played for about 2 weeks now.) But there's a couple of points in there which I'm gonna try to stick to in future. A pretty good guide, I'd say.

I liked the post very much. but I too, agree with what others have said about hesitation. NOT always a sign of weakness. any number of reasons could cause an abnormal amount of time. i know i take some time to decide what is the right bet if i hit a hand. just my 2 cents.

i always loose when i do something else while I am playing the freeroll. Next time I turn off the Tv

the best way to succeed in freeroll poker is the play in every single one you can. more games you play the more chances to win. if you use some of those suggestions from that article and implement the ones that fit your game you might stand a chance to be ITM. the two most important things are probably patience and DON'T CHASE straights or flushes.

I agree with your strategy but . . . in a FreeRoll tournament getting to see the flop is practically impossible until the number of players get down to about 50% or so. It is a fuzzy poker free-for-all. I sit tight through all of that and sometimes wind up on a final table. Getting to N1 spot eludes though. I'm always on a short stack and the software seems to feed short stacks low count cards. Maybe thats me imagining that, I'm not sure.

Just noticed my previous post. Sorry.

well like you already told us to play and win a freeroll is not so easy because it is very different then a real money table. All kind of players play it and i have played on ultimate bet and almost got kicked out before the winningsstack down to 750 chips average was over 10.000 but still made it to the final table and even maneged to win it. Sometimes you have to be agressive but be patient is the main thing.

Good luck all playing poker

very good advice, especially paying close attention cuz 1 screw up could screw up ur whole game and basically end it for u...i been ther! ha

are good tips & if you folow them you will have a huge succes!

I notice this is a very old post. All of the suggestions are good, but I will take exception with one.

The don't hesitate suggestion doesn't work as simply as the OP suggests.

If you read someone as hesitating, it could easily be a bad read caused by any number of unrelated circumstances, such as;

-Funky connection. I would guess that most online players are high speed connected, but that does not rule out network traffic, site issues, virus or spyware delays in each users PC, etc.

-Decision making. With an increased knowledge of the game, more and more players are making better and better decisions. Sometimes these decisions are complicated and take time. Related is indecision delays. It has happened to me. I know I want to raise or reraise but the slider or whatever mechanism is clunky or poorly designed, and to zero in on the bet I want to make takes a few extra seconds. The decision was made fast enough, but the indecision of how much to bet, along with the aforementioned clunkiness, makes it look like a long hesitation.

-Multi table players. It is VERY OFTEN the case that a players apparent hesitation is really caused by him playing more than one table at a time.

-Told tell. A player may be hesitating for dramatic effect, or because he wants you to react to a hesitation. Often seen when a player has been raised and holds a monster.

Discount any reads about online hesitation you might perceive. A wrong read here is much worse than no read at all.

Great advice. Thanks. I will definently try to use these tips to improve my game. Good luck!

I have had very little luck in free rolls because the maniacs always seem to get lucky. Even when I have a really strong hand I wiil get called on an agressive raise or an allin an get beat by a 72 or something crazy like that.

I have found that in freerolls, i do better by just playing the cards. With such a hodgepodge assortment of skill levels, trying to play the player doesn't work out for me. I just use alot of patience and bet my live cards aggressivly.

I was looking for a thread like this early this morning...im glad someone bumped this back up....great advice. Can't wait too use the advice to win!

Wow, that's an excellent post. All of these tips are spot and will definitely improve anyone's play. Well done

These are great tips, thank you. I seem to play fairly tight waiting for good or descent hands and sometimes end up with nothing due to no good cards. Now if I can actually win with AA or KK I would be thrilled.
Thanks again

ty for the infor and an interesting read

I think this is a good list for not only freeroll mtts but any style of poker other than cash games and smaller tabled SNGS. But of course natuarly good advice ive usually tried to play this way all the time!

Playing online, most of the tips are great and do apply. The only one that means little online is the hesitating. There are a ton of reasons why people hesitate online. Some for theatrics, others to chase the pet off the keyboard, many are playing numerous games and have different screens to respond to, they play from work and are 'multi-tasking', the phone is ringing, etc. All of these are conditions that normally do not exist in live play. In live play, hesitation is used to portray and determine tells.

but what happens if u do all that and some bingo junkie comes along and gets lucky? the tips are usefull but it also counts on the luck of the cards

good advice ill try and use it to help me play

There is alot of good stuff there , tx for posting it

This is true. While many don't like Phil, I think you should do some reading of his writings.....he IS brilliant at tournaments.

If you do read any of his writings, you'll see he's very proud of himself when he can do well without ever going all in. Well, he's ALWAYS proud of himself...but you get my point....haha

It is the same as any other tourney. Card, position and betting...

Great advice. Expecially the ones about aggressively playing good hands and using table position. I've done the first but never really looked at the latter. I'll give it a try no doubt.

-Oz

This is a great thread. Taking the advice into heart.

Thanks for tips

I have and have been using these sort of tips for a long time. Result, I always make it at least past the second break on pokerstars. I have played in about 12 round 2's this year alone. Will you always win by following these tips, no, but you have a great chance of making a deep run and having fun on the way!

yea thos are all pretty much comin sense but thanks some other ppl might need them

The post and following comments are excellent. JSAW mentioned that his KK often gets cracked. This is where I have really improved my game over the years. I used to be married to those Huge pocket pairs. Now, I am able to readily lay them down. With an ace or flush or straight draw on the board, you have to lay them down quickly! I see too many people chase with KK or QQ with an ace on the flop and a big bettor. They think they may get the set on the turn and/or river. Well, most times they don't, and they have wasted a lot of chips.

I am especially weary in the early part of the tournament before the donks have knocked themselves out. Players raise all in with the big pocket pairs and are out on the flop with the ace hits! Hard to win against players that will call an all in with A 4 off!

Also, there is the fold or not to fold situation against a player that raises your blinds every round. That is a rough decision too. You can't let him run you over but you must pick the right time to push back. So many players just get disgusted and push back when the raiser has a real hand.

Anyway, great discussion, I am looking forward to reading more input on this topic.

How do the rest of you handle the guy that wants to buy your blinds every round?

Noticed earlier in thread to widen hand selection when most are sitting out.
Does anyone have a hand selection chart for this?

I play those freerolls on fulltilt occuring every 5 minutes very aggressive in the beginning to multiply my chip stack. If i fail, i play the next one.

these tips work for me most of the time but i sill get very bored at a tbl and start multi task i wish i could over come that

My tip to you to prevent yourself from getting bored is to play a play money ring game while you are waiting to get those monster hands.
It dosn't matter if you lose those games as it is free, but it will prevent you from getting bored, but you must pay more attention to your freeroll than you do to the play money game. And as soon as you get that monster hand fold and sit out of the play money game even if you have a royal flush.
Thats just one way to prevent yourself from getting bored while waiting to play.

Ty very much
for this good tips