Gauging my game via freerolls?

Since I've taken an interest in HE, I've been studying strategy through books, online content, and videos. I've not been playing very long and I've only stuck to freerolls so far so as to learn the game well enough to feel confident with real money.

I'm wondering if its a good idea to continue gauging my progress through freerolls? I do pretty well in the ones I play on FullTilt, and I usually do very well in the sng's. I recognize the competition is much different not playing with real money, however I play it from the perspective of shaping up individual aspects of my game.

I would like to move into the micro limit cash games and sng's but I seem to get trapped much more then I like in the freerolls and I'm not sure if tha'ts a common occurrance just because it's a freeroll or if it's really a good place to progress my strategy before getting into real money stakes?

What do you guys think?

Never gauge your progress through freerolls, although it can help you learn the basics of the game, freerolls contain very little poker strategy (in the beginning). If you are losing don't take it as your progress not going well, once you get your br up you'll notice that the books you read were intended for those games, not freerolls, check out the freeroll strategy section on this site

Remember, playing in Freerolls you have invested the same amount of money as the play money players.
The quality of play in FR's is better than in play money, but strategy is still a foreign word at this level.
Your decision to move up to real money games should be based not on your profit or loss, but whether or not you are making solid poker decisions.

I have played a ton of freerolls and it is a good way to practice different techniques but you get a lot of donkey all ins but if you play good hands at start you can do well but it is very time consuming to say the least.

^This.

But I would have to say the play in the CC Freerolls is a lot better than all public freerolls and way better than any other private freerolls I have played in.

Playing in a freeroll tournament and a cash game are two completely different strategies/dynamics. The gameplay is almost completely different, but almost anyone can be decent and learn at the micros, so once you have a decent size bankroll just give it a shot.

I don't gauge my progress overall and definitely don't take into consideration if I don't win or get itm. At this point I'm basically just focusing on individual aspects such as proper pre-flop play, correct betting amounts, and my biggest problem, cutting down on getting
myself trapped particularly on the river.

Is it helpful to learn in these public freerolls dealing with all the maniacs out there while working on these individual aspects of my game? I should say, will it help me in real money games?
Or would it be more beneficial to get away from these public free rolls and just drop in 25-50$ to play the micro .10 or .50 sng's or other types?

So for a beginner who's never played for real money online..would sng's be better for me to start with or?

Is there a site that might be better for me as a beginner to enter into the cash games? Besides the deposit promotions, I don't really know what else to look for when choosing a site to deposit my money at.

Well, no. If by "real money games" you mean cash tables, I think you could actually hurt your progress by thinking that what happens in a big public freeroll is "real." If you plan on focusing on tournaments, I guess they're O.K. to get your feet wet and to start getting yourself into good habits with regards to the different stages of tournament play, but you're going to get frustrated very quickly. Smaller private freerolls are the way to go if you must.
Regarding your question about depositing - try and get a rakeback deal on any site you're going to deposit on (google it, there's lots of places that offer it). Some places don't offer rakeback - like pokerstars, for example - so look for a good first deposit bonus OR sometimes you can get free tracking software, look around before you just plunk down some cash there's some good deals out there.
Hope I helped, good luck!

Really a matter of which you prefer playing. Either choice though, proper bankroll mamagement is critical.

You should have earned some money to play the money games!?!
Try that and continue learning...
But do not try to learn the game just by playing freerolls!

$50 on Poker stars would be a good investment for you. For a start you won't be at the mercy of the time constraints of most freerolls, which start when you might not want to play, continue for longer than you would like to sit down for and it can take four hours to achieve nothing when you lose an all-in to a completely random hand.

So in terms of time spent productively, you may as well deposit some cash and play the games you want to and when you want to. And you may wish to play something other than HE, so you'll have a choice.

The only freerolls you should consider playing in should be private/forum games.

If you were to make a deposit on Full Tilt you might consider playing the Forum Gathering games. It's as if these games are somehow magically hidden, because even though entry is usually pretty unrestricted some of these games get very few players, such as a recent nine player turn out for the $5 HORSE with $25 added. A finish in the top 33% would have netted you a nice profit.

I agree with people that told you to deposit $50 somewhere, freerolls are quite fun to play, but I don't think it is valuable to consider if you're getting better on poker based on them.
people who plays them don't care about it, and just try to shove with any decent hand to finish itm
so you're not able to test your skills based on them, microstakes tournamnet I think it's pretty much the same thing as freerolls, if I were you I would put like $150 or $200 in a software and try to play some decent sit and go tournaments

^^ both of these.

Also, search the forum for Belgo's thread about 0 - 10,000. I think that's where he expresses his regrets not having deposited and gotten out of the freeroll world earlier because it hindered his development.

Belgo's pretty focused on his development as a player, and he's not the only one around here that is, but I myself am not nearly as much. But you may be more like him than like me, and if so, depositing $50 on Stars to get going wouldn't be a bad idea to get playing against some better players.

It is good to play freerols as much as u can. But u can practice strategy if u go deep . Only the last 50 players know a little what they are doing . Lucky donks do not last forever in 1000+ persons freerolls.
Even the last 50 are easy to overplay cose they do make mistakes. Some of them play too tight , some too loose, some are sloplaying too much, some are overbeting and u can practice strategy without being afraid if u know how they play.

If you are talking about public freerolls then I think there is little merit in trying to use your stats as a learning tool. Some of the private freerolls ( not the ones invaded by password thieves) are a good basis for learning. In general the Cardschat freerolls are played as proper poker games and I would suggest that you stick to this game type of game to form a view of how you are doing.

I'd say freerolls aren't that helpful for getting used to the game. Sng's are a good way to start.
The rake for small sitngo's is huge, multitable sng's are better ROI-wise, it's a solid way to build a bankroll. If you go broke you can always try again, if you don't, good for you, you're moving up in the stakes.
Cash game? Yeah full ring is an easy way to win some money too at the micros. But cash game play takes a lot of patience and discipline, the swings can get to the most restrained poker players and tilt controll is a big problem for new players.

Real money is just way too different than freerolls and play money SnGs to get a gauge on how good you'd be at real money games...

This doesnt mean that you cant learn some important things from freerolls.

1. Patience, freerolls last a LONG time, especially the 7500 person freerolls with a standard blinds raising time of 10 minutes. It takes a lot of patience to not start donking it up, shoving every hand and not thinking about what you have, what your opponents have, and your position.

2. Stamina, again freerolls can last a long time, so can real money tournaments. It may seem easy to sit on a computer and just click fold ten times, then play a hand, playing only a few big hands an hour. It can get really tiring, especially when it matters most around the bubble.

3. Freerolls teach you the basics of playing hands from preflop to river. You'll learn that you should never limp with aces, bet the flop with a possible four flush and learning you can even bluff freerollers (especially around the bubble).

You're never going to be able to learn how to play poker like a pro by playing freerolls, but if you play freerolls seriously for six months while reading on CC and other books before depositing, you would be way better off than just depositing fifty dollars and jumping on the first .50/1 cash game table you see.

I think what you are doing is right. Because the competition is at the right level for you. Once you've master the freeroll level, you should be able to go up. Just be patient and good luck on your bankroll.