What is the best way to win a freeroll?

Hi,

I don't want to deposit so I try to win some money from freeroll, what is the best strategy that will help me to be in the money when 4000 ppl playing?

Thank you, David Shoval.

I always play very aggressive, until the field is narrowed down a bit...I figure if I'm going to bust it's going to be now not in 4 hours when I get outdrawn on.

It works well too with decent paying freerolls, everyone will take it real serious for the first hour, then people get sloppy, so you play aggressive when they are all playing tight in the beginning, and u clean house with nit play while everyone starts getting antsy

This is about the complete opposite of how most people playing those freerolls play. The majority of people playing in these will be one of about 3 categories... The first being the extreme beginner, who doesn't know much about the game and will be playing any two face cards, pocket pair and connectors(suited or unsuited) and they will have a very hard time giving up any kind of a hand, even if the board screams at them they are beaten.

The second type of player is what I call the freeroller, because all they live for is finding freerolls to play in, but they play slop the whole time. Many times, these are the players that are out of the tournament within about 10 hands, because they play very aggressive witch any hand to try to double up to a decent stack relative to the rest of the players, but when they don't double those stacks up, and they get a little down on chips, they push, with just about anything, hoping to get lucky...then they bust and they're on to the next freeroll. It doesn't matter to them that they aren't playing good, because who cares, it isn't costing them anything, right? When/If these players get lucky and build their stack up to a decent size, they will loosen up and then just play ABC poker for a while and try to slide into the money.

The third category of player plays straight forward poker. They are usually a little bit more advanced than the freeroller. They will play just about the whole game tight and really hammer the pot when they get a premium hand. They don't play many hands, which if they were playing with better players would really screw them(cause whenever they bet/raise a hand, you know they have something), but they are playing with people that don't pay attention to those details, just their own hand. I would say these players are the ones that are most likely to make it further in the tournament, having to loosen up once the blinds get higher.

Obviously, these are just my observations, I am open to argument. I have not played a public freeroll for a long time, these are just what I remember about them.

Pray

I would have to agree with absoluthamm, and completely disagree with soncheebs. Of course I haven't played many FRs at Bodog where soncheebs plays, being very aggressive early on in the FRs at Full Tilt is dangerous unless you have 1 of the top 5 hands (and even then you never know cause an all in might be called by ATC). Early in these is just like bingo, there are so many all ins with junk its almost unbelievable. At FT if you can play tight and last thru the first hour, most (not all) of bingo players will be gone. As you get further a long and closer to the money then its when you can get aggressive against all the tight players.

If you are willing to spend some time in the process the best strategy is to wait for a premium hand to knock out some of those players who go all-in in almost every hand.

It's very dificult to win a 4000 people tournament and sometimes in these freerolls the reward is not enough to be spending 4 or 5 hours playing.

If you don't want to spend so much time trying to survive maybe is best to play agressive and hope to get lucky.

I would suggest that you should not even look at your cards - you should effectively shove all.

That a boy... perfect strategy for Freerolls right there! I guess that is about what half of the other people are doing, right, lol

Patient... Don't go all in with Pair on pre-flop... Don't be agressive. play tight and wait to the losers go all in and lose -.- then you variate your poker strategies... good luck.

Play tight.. especially for the first blinds... then get a bit more agressive around the 25/50 mark because thats when the pre flop pushes are gone and most people are there to play poker... just try and be smart and dont think... "well i will call this just because its a free r0ll"

When I first began playing 5 weeks ago, I used to start out aggressively and very quickly would lose all. Then a friend tutored me and since then I have steadily inproved by folding the 1st few hands unless I was fairly certain I would win. Then I generally remain playing the hands that I have a high degree of certainty that I will win. I seem to get a feeling about what each player will do next and act on that! I've amassed nearly 50,000 chips in the later games...But eventually lost by getting too aggressive! So now, I'm working on that! And I'm getting down into the top 100 out of approx. 5000 entries! Today 100...tomorrow...who knows!

Ok I do it but the problem is that the other players call because it is freeroll and get hand, what can I do because I bet 4 times bb preflop and they call and hit in the flop, when I try c-bet they call and I understand that they will call to anything, what can I do? is it bad luck or bad strategy?
Thank you, David Shoval.

Try raising 2.5 x bb and c-bet less against players with wide ranges unless you got to hand of course. The smaller raise preflop means a smaller c-bet and you will lose less the times you do c-bet with nothing and get called.

Play good and run like god!

Bad tournament. There isn't much that is going to stop a lot of them from calling most of the bets that you make, but you can experiment with it... if they are calling your 4xbb raises with BS, then raise 5xBB next time, or 6x, ... If you are really getting sick of the people calling you with nothing and flopping out on you, then I'm sorry, but tough luck. A majority of players are not going to play one of these huge freerolls seriously, and you are at a huge disadvantage because you want to, because when you think you are making the right move, they dont even care, they are making the wrong one and it's going to end up costing you. I realize that you are trying to build a bankroll from nothing to something, but for the most part with these freerolls, it is hard to make it even worth your time.

Tight, tight, tight, then loosen up

aggressive with great hands otherwise slow play and be patient and wait....play the table if u have a serious table but if not then u just have to wait it out....focus only on ur table and dont look at where u are in the standings cause u cant control that....it only makes u feel inadequate and forces u into bad plays

go all in preflop.just kidding. If u play on PokerStars the better way to start from scratch is to play playmoney games and then sell those chips that u earn. that is what i did when i didnt have any money. there are sites outhere which will buy your chips and give u dollars for them. most of this sites are scammers but they are few legit ones also. one of them will give u 0.50$ for 100k chips, 5$ for 1 milion.

At the beggining of the tournament you have to be tightand you have to be increasingly more aggressive.

You don't want to be aggresive early. Half the field plays this way early. Play tight and weed them out. Take advantage of these aggresive players when you have monster hands.

pacman what site is that?

I find the best way to win is to end up the tourney with the most chips
just kidding. It seems alot of advice has been brought to this and Its all good I use a little bit of most in different situations

flopping cheap early,watching out for all in atc players,playing position,switching gears,setting goals chipwise example players x starting stacks divided by pay spots

4000 x 1500=6000000 divided by 30= 20000 average stack at the bubble..
good luck and work out what works for ya good luck (sounds like a cake poker tourney )

http://www.luckystacks.com/

Most of the time the guy from this site is only selling chips, but he is buying them 1-2 days in a month. So you should send him a message that u wanna be informed everytime he is buying chips.

Some of my better freeroll cashes have come being somewhat wreckless early than playing a tighter game.

One thing to do is be aggressive make big bluffs then showing after all other players fold. Than the weeker players willl be more apt to call when you have the big hand. No big shocker here but since many weak players play in free rolls it tends to work.

There will always be those at freerolls that don't know what they are doing you just have to find the donkeys at the right time.

Something to remeber

If you do actually build up money starting from free roll wins, most sites will require you to deposit money before you can withdraw anyway.

Which sites require me to deposit and which don't?
I play: carbonpoker, bodog and ultimate bet.
If you know more good sites with good freerolls and with the option to withdraw without deposit tell me about.
Thank you David Shoval.

i think you might try fulltilt. thats how i started with freerolls and there's accually one tounament that pays real money from playchips. there's is a thread that talks about it here. read through it and see if ou think its for you. i wouldnt sign up for to many sites with out a deposit. because as you get good you will want a rackback account and will not be able to if you already have an account there. anyway heres the link to the thread.

Play money: the road to 10,000,000

as far as playing freerolls for me there are 2 different ways i play. 1st way was discussed play tight bet big with made hands. loosen up when the blinds get big. the 2nd way and the one that seems to work best for me is to try to see as many flop as cheap as possible. if i hit it i bet big. if i miss i bet small(the min amount). one move i do twice an orbit on average is to make a miin raise preflop the make a min bet on the flop. you will be surprised how many time this works. i still bet my big hands strong. but find people dont know how to adjust to my playing evryhand. they often start shoving into me w/junk. this work great for me until i change tables then i start playing tight or stay at my style if a got nough chips to do it.

+1 i do this for evry tournament i play. here if you reach 20k and can keep it till the money you will have an average chance to win.

I think you have to be very tight the first hour, avoid all ins preflop where there will be 3-4 others in the pot. After the first hour, most of the all inners are gone and you can loosen up your starting selection a little. Now you will be facing the bigstack bullies who only have their chips because they won an allin fest the first 3 hands. Get into a pot with these guys when you have a great hand, they are willing to donate their chips cause they dont know how to take care of them.

But I think the best thing you can do, cruise through FT's private tourney tab and see what other forums have freerolls and become a part of those forums. Building your BR through private freerolls where there may only be 200-1500 players is easier than battling thru the other freerolls.

Thank you for the help, I played at ultimate freeroll and finished 55 after I were 12 and I lost to the chip leader because bad luck AT vs A6 and he hit 6 on the turn. I played tight and wom my big hands and I think that this is very good stratgy
David Shoval.

When you divide by 30, is that the number of places that pay out, or is that a different number ?

I try to play just like any other tourney. Tight aggressive and hope i don't get sucked out on too much.

Most sites requirer you to deposit, to withdraw. 1st hour play High PP, try to keep from calling all-ins, let the all-iners take there selfs out.
Just wait for great hands, play them the right way, don't let the chat get to you.
TAG can get you a great chip stack.

Which sites do not require me to deposit to withdraw?
Top 19 pay out at ultimate bet.
Thank you.

what i do is take the starting stack then multiply that by the # of entries this gives me the total amount of chips in play. once i know the total amount in play i devide by the # of paid spots. to get the average stack when ITM.

eg tilt freeroll 2700 players pays top 27.

1500 x 2700= 4,050,000 / 27= 150,000 avergare stack size w/27 plys left.

say it was a satellite to ferguson where 100 get the prize then its 40,500 but you would need so much less as there likely to be many SS's.