Freeroll Strategy Analysis

I've literally been "attacked" by players posting on how to play Freerolls and how to "get the best outta a freeroll" and avoid taking risks etc. So here we go.


While playing Freerolls :



1. You look up whether the freeroll your playing is worth it.Time is an important factor so you do NOT want to waste too much time playing freerolls which are'nt worth it!



2. So how do you know whether "THAT" particular freeroll is worthwhile? You first check out the cardroom.See their CashOut options. If you choose to play Risk-Free (i.e not wanting to deposit but just earning via freerolls and then requesting a payout) this is the first step you ought to take.YEAH , ITS RISK-FREE SO EARNING THIS WAY IS GONNA BE TOUGH ! Ok , you can cash-out (To Moneybookers Neteller etc. ) without making a deposit? Great. You target these freerolls of this cardroom.



3. Now , you've joint a (lets say) 500$ FreeRoll at (lets say) Bodog. You sit at the table. You observe.




4. Combating Tight Players : Ok, these guys are SHIT easy. They're all too tight.There are max 1-2 callers for every round.Raises are nowehere to be seen. So here: Position plays an important factor. You can bluff your ass-off and win all the little pots. If they ever bet you know they've got a strong hand , as the definition of a "tight" player goes.You shouldn't raise too often , cause that ought to intimidate them even more cause as you can see a simple call frightens 'em. A strategy you can try is one where your in late position or on the button and you've got a trash pair.Want to make some money on it? Table is Tight? Alright you make a medium sized raise.About 2.5XBB and you get say 1-2 callers.They check to you.Its your turn to act. You bet say 5XBB, and there you've got 'em though you had the shit.However, a check-raise should immidiately make you realize that atleast one of 'em has got something.Thats the time they completely reveal they're slow-playing or other styles too.(You don't lose TOO much since you've bet just about 5XBB which is rationally moderate.) Also, Make sure never to show a bluffed hand. There are advantages to this which i "might" come to later ; but against tight-players it wouldn't be such a good idea.Your wondering why.You'll get some more action on the table but its just gonna add to the chances of you NOT winning.They're gonna be agitated and committed to playing more hands cause no1 likes to get fooled! This really happens. So, stick to your strategy with tight-players and do not reveal it.A fool is one who reveals his/her strategy.Refrain from doing so.

One thing that beats me is why they play so "tightly" even though its a freeroll. So just to clear the air and break the ice i've mentioned the tight players which you will, but rarely encounter while playing freerolls in the opening stages of a .. umm.. freeroll .

That 500$ Freeroll at Bodog was my first encounter of a Tight-Table during the starting blinds. Think they were 10/20.My chip-stack? I think , hey really , i think i won 80% of the hands till i was moved to another table!! .I was about 6k & odd i guess within 30 mins of play. Hey you peeps :P they were "tight" players !!



5.Combating the so-called "Donks": Hmmm... mm mm mm La-La-La-La LA LA LA.. AAA.. AHHHHH!!!! "You have finished in 3000th Place.Thank you for Playing" Ok. kk. K. K MAN!
First and foremost: Are you , a , DONK?
Sry, i got to ask that question.
What? You do not know what that means do you??
A Donk is : A person who's confident , brave , and most of all ENERGIZED. He's got the guts , he goes all in with anything. He goes all-in with a J4 Unsuited. No , m serious. Yeah thats him.
Ok , so atleast since 80% of you are going to shout me a NO to the above question i shall proceed to tell you how to combat these donks and chop 'em off your table

Its easy. You dont call em!! What? You have AA? Hmm.. thats a good-hand , yeah above average , but its a no-no if the "donks" have asked you to join in the fun.Its hardly any use when it comes to "donks".Chances are your gonna lose that hand as well as the tourney since there are gonna be atleast 3 "donks" which includes you. So you just got to be patient. Dont miss out-on good chances though. Like if there is'nt any action pre-flop and you've flopped an open-end STFD you should and Have 2 move All-In and/or chase it. Thats how it works. You play the odds. You win.Especially in a freeroll where you have nothing or not much to lose. With that odd chase which works i guess 58% of the time you should be sure of kicking atleast 2 Donks out and + getting say around 4k of chips? You like that don't you ? . So do some research am not gonna help ya with everythin , look up draws like the one i mentioned and others which are potentially strong one's and which can guarantee you a huge pot especially against Donks who just loveee moving all-in with (most-of-d-time) nothin.



6. Surviving a MTT and Tips in General : Tickitey-Tock Tickety-Tock. The clock ticks by. the 1st break is around 10 minutes away.Let me look at your chip-stack. Hey, not bad sucka! you got 10k+ in there? All-right.

I'm not saying that you ought to have 10k+ as a rule ; but you have to be atleast moderately ranked since you do know a few strategies don't you? If they haven't worked as yet , hey , if they haven't worked you have'nt used 'em. Its as simple as that.50 mins of your life are precious! Oh so you've used them but your still 1.2k and the first break is on its way. That isn't possible.

If you've adopted some strategy your either well off, or your out of the tourney cause some prick is enjoyin , what according to the odds , were yours.

Ok , now since that's 'covered up ' lets look at how we're gonna survive this tourney.

Alright. Breaks shall end in 15-14...2..1.. Play Resumes.

Your around 15k and the blinds are um 200/400 lets say.

Be patient and observe. How is your new-table , or if your stuck to the old-one , whether these guys have changed their playing styles? Or is it the same ole shit. Call and raise with top pairs blah blah blah. You should have known by now who are the bluffers , who are loose , who are tight and aggressive(Yeah , they are'nt too bad , and if you notice they're as well off as you) who are absolutely "tight" or who are just normal occassional players who have some/negligible potential in earnin' the bulk of your tourney.

You play with them. Its not as tough as it sounds. Spot the bluffers . Notice the blinds are increasing. Every pot you pick-up would be a min. of 500chips. So you give the bluffers some action. Bluff d Bluffers. There's no better way to put it.Pick-up all the pots you can and dont be careless. You should know when and when not to bluff/call/raise and whom your bluffing or calling or raising. Avoid the tight players. They're gonna be all-out soon ; the blinds are gonna kill them.

Change your style after a period of time.Keep on changing them.If you've been playing exceptionally well and collected a stack of lets say 40k and just about 60-70 players are left you ought to cool down. Dont get hasty or tricked into calling or raising or worst comes to worst bluffing. However,this in no way implies that you must turn "Tight".

You collect the pots , increase your stack and know when you ought to fold.



7. Conclusion : SO, i hope you'll have read through this article properly. These strategies are worthwhile and it really invites comptetiveness.

Something you'll can do is post in this very thread your experiences on adopting strategies as the one's discussed or any hands or even bad-beats that we can analyze to the fullest. It pays off.!

Guys, if you'll disagree with me on anything please feel free to post it in here really.I'm 'Everready' to look into any mistakes of mine and rectify the same! Also , to learn from you'll any new strategies which are worth it (trust me , i've read a shit-load of some egregious strats which people use!)

Well : 'Thats All Folks!' GL At the tables!!

Cheers !



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thanks for the advice. i think it is really helpful. i actually won a tournament using your advice thanks.

Hey yeah , anytime mate ! Gl n Tc.!

This is a good read. Thanks for posting this. Seldom that you read something that is simple to understand in a poker post. I understand every word here.

Time for me to apply what I don't use now.

this is a good advice BUT, being a freeroll whore myself (and i consider myself as a decent player since i reached some results) advice is kind of useless because as you wisely said there will almost always be some idiots to call the great moves you can do following the best books and advice from your fellow players and i noticed that idiots have A LOT of luck.
Now with some distance i think to get trough the first break you need luck at some point or you get your buts kicked whatever you try or do>
But maybe i m not as good as i think, who knows ??

Hey thanks .. Gl at the tables!

hmm.. some stuff i gotta clarify:

1) Idiots have alot of luck :
There is no way of one being luckier than another , really. What i've described is a situation where you would get just 1-2 callers and since the odds are in your favour with the donks , you get "lucky"

2) At some point of time you do need luck to carry you through or you get kicked out. Thats precisely it. And most of the time , your well on your way , thanks to the term "odds".

good strategies. i've played maybe 30-40 freerolls lasted into the last 50 maybe 5-6 times and and only gotten in top 10 once. i mean it seems like these things are impossible to win i've played so well and still get the worst beats ever. so one of the strategys i like is to just go crazy first couple hands try to get lucky then once i got myself a stack sit out and save some time maybe 45 mins.

Hey thanks mate. Yeah i agree with you. Bad Beats are usual. Thats what makes the game interesting though . Donks d oget lucky once in a while but its all upto you eventually
GL at the tables!

Reasonable strategy. It explains many of the dubious challenges I've seen. But the best of all is your advise post-break ... therein lies my problem normally. Yep I do get in too much of a rush to "finish" and lose many of my chips at that point in the process. So, thanks for the reminder to maintain a steady discipline as I approach the final table ... that indeed does help.

good advice especially about the donks

Hey thanks guys . Much appreciated
Gl at the tables!

Cheers !

Excellent advice about donks (coming from someone who used to and still can be one every now and then if I go on tilt You just have to be prepared in a freeroll that your AA or KK is going to get called by Q3 suited for all the chips. Nature of the beast because it's "free".

Thanx. however, i want to clarify something which people have been arguing about:

The probability of going all-in with an AA in a 4 way pot will be about 60% chance of you winning.Now , if your chasing a 58% Open-ended STFD then why not call the AA and win much more??You have a 2% more chance of winning right?

This. is a terrible argument. The two situations are absolutely different. When your playing against donks , you should'nt call . That 60% is most unlikely not going to give you that HUGE pot spread out before you.

AND

If your chasing an Open-Ended STFD with 2-3 callers(who aren't donks) , and a medium sized/large pot , its worth the chase! You will end up making a huge amount MUCH more easily , rather than all-inning and leaving it up to lady luck.

Sigh... 80%
RoflBrotheL!!!!!

good read, i wish the odds would work better for me
if it were 4 card holdem i would be rich

Haha alright .. as you say
Gl at the tables!

pretty good strategy...but i feel you have to try and chip up early to be able to make it with all the loose cannons

Hey yeah , thats true..

The strategy ive written is more generalized.

And hey , you will chip up. You've got the odds in your favour and so you can make good bets.Experience counts .

Gl at the tables!

thank for the advise dude

just like to say, i play on ultimatebet.com and i play all the freeroll tournaments (am in one now as i write this LOL) and there great plus easy to get far in, the only thing i got a problem with is theres 5000 people starting off and only 20 prizes. sumtimes $9 for the winner. i think they should space the $50 dollars out a bit more. i can always make the top 100 but mosts times get knocked out around the 50 mark. seems a waste of time to win nothing for 4 hours work

This is probably some of the worst advice I have ever read...

Hey thanks irish , practice and ye shud get 2 the top!

Why? any specific reason ? or its 2 begginerish 4 u ?

this is great advice but there is a problem..when the donks get lucky and gain a good stack, they are involved in almost every pot and bully the other players so what should I do then?

i sure don t want to argue with you but my point was that in most freerolls there are so many that it s sometimes like being on a field surrounded by machineguns, even if they are the worst shooters on earth you re on a difficult position.
BUT, anytime i placed in a freeroll it was by following your advice.
I ve read a lot about variance in small buyin tournaments, waht about it in freerolls ?
I think freerolls like the CC are somehow easier because there no All in frenzy during the first hour, otherwise it s hard to resist the number.

nice tutorial but i just play semi-tight

Good info and thanks for sharing. I play a lot of freerolls myself and learned the hard way to be willing to lay down pockets preflop especially the first few hands. One thing I learned too is not to raise in an early position even with pockets because there will be some donk that will go all in with queen 8 off and 2 people will call him leaving you to either fold the pockets and lose the raise or risk it all first hand and leave it all up to luck and I have seen too many donks hit. I watched a guy hit 10 - 5 off earlier today first hand allin preflop and take out 3 other players including ace queen suited and a pair of pocket 9s.

What was the point in this post? Arn't we here to help one another and give eachother advice? If it's the worst advice you've ever read, then why? Do you have different advice or other ideas?

I feel your freeroll post is very helpfull and I plan to use your ideas in my game.

To inform all of you that are "plan to use [mrknwitall's] ideas in my game" that you are hurting your play.

Its not AG's responsibility to play poker police & correct every tiny detail that is wrong in the opening post. In fact, this opening post is so absolutely terrible, that it would take a ridiculously long time to explain everything that is wrong with it.

Sure, AG's being negative. But he's certainly justified in this case.

I won't go into all details but I need to comment on this thread:

1. Is a freeroll worth playing ?
A freeroll is always worth it, it's a good place for learning and it won't hurt your bankroll.

4. Combating Tight Players
Sadly point 4 is completely false
- what do you mean with tight (tight aggressive, tight passive, nitty aso.) ?
- stating that tight players check to you is over-generalising
-sticking to a strategy all the time (if it is any) and not being able to change your play will hurt you.
-you do encounter TA / nitty players in EVERY freeroll - it's them who mostly place (I do place in freerolls regularly).
-probably the table wasn't tight, they were sitting out...

5. Combating the so-called "Donks"

Point 5 is false too...

Fold AA in a preflop donkfest ???

Just an example:

52%
13%
12%
17%
6%

This doesn't mean you'll win every time but more than 50%
And if you do win you'd get an 4:1 payout (e.g. 6K for 1,5K bet)

-don't chase straights or flushes or straight/royal flushes esp not by going ALL IN, odds are against you.

Enough said here.

Nice post.
I woud like to know what's your best finish in $500 at BoDog and which %age did tou reach the top 63 (ITM),

Great guide, helped me to finish 3rd place in pokerihuone.com freeroll!

In regards to 1., a freeroll is not always worth it. There are a lot of freerolls out there. It pays to do a little research in determining which ones maximize your reward to time spent ratio. It's about opportunity cost.

I pretty much agree with the rest of the criticism.

For 4., I'll add that any half decent player will recognize what is going on and start check raising you.

For 5., fold the AA and chase the draw...? While this is completely ridiculous, I will say that you are on to something here in that you do not want to risk all your chips even with relatively good odds. If you go all in 5 times and are up roughly 6:1 (approximate pair vs unpaired under cards), chances are you're going to bust.

If I had to give one piece of advice for playing freerolls, it would be to keep pots small unless you have a monster hand. In this sense, targeting the tight players is the right idea.

Eventually, you will have to play a donk in any freeroll. To defeat said donk, one must find a hand that holds up, no other way around it. You need to determine very quickly which opponents are donks, and which ones are not.

thanx 4 all the helpfull info. it's greatly appreciated