$300,000 reload freerolls

I boosted my Pokerstars bankroll $25 USD, so I could play these new freerolls that are running.

Played one just now, 5832 entrants (which is nice, earlier in the day there were 10k or more people in these).

When there were around 800 left my power went out (was stormy) and I managed to get back on about 15 minutes later.

Had 1/2 avg. stack, built up a bit. Then I defended my BB against a min-preflop-raise with a very marginal hand (95o), and flopped an open-ender,
pushed for my whole stack (pot sized bet), which was my main mistake,
but I thought to myself it was either shove and hope for a fold, or check/fold myself.
I had 1k left, and doubled, survived a minute or two, then lost with AKsuited to a pocket pair.

Think I played fairly well though.

I figured it out, and if I played every single 2k freeroll I'm getting about $20 in value of tournament entries. Which really isn't much. I'll try to boost my bankroll a few dollars at least this month through these freerolls and weekly round 2's. I'll try to play for fun this month, not worry about losing my BR, just play as many free games as I can.

what do you guys/girls think about limping very marginal hands regularly in NLHE mtts with huge fields. Is this an effective way of building a stack for any of you? Because I always find myself building a 1/2 average to average to slightly over average stack (playing TAG), and I'd like to find a more effective strategy, rather than getting late in tournaments and needing to win my coin-flips, is there a good strategy to slowly build a large stack throughout?

Many many people will reload!
Which is probably the reason for those freerolls....

I played these today also and wow what a donkament

didnt even get close to the money had QQ KK & JJ sucked out on by inferior hands everytime.

I think my future strategy in the rest of these is push my big hands & hope for the best to try & build a big stack to battle the loose aggressive field.

Nothing worse than playing 2 hours & still having to deal with the ATC mentality, but what can you expect for free money.

Good luck to you & everyone who is participating in these I hope you do well

i have had some decent results playing this way. i have found that if i can race less and try to see smaller pots, my chances of getting deep not only improve, but for the most part people are not as likely to mess with you if you repop them. let them play their marginal hands because they know when theyre up against you, your gonna have the goods, or at least they think you will because of your TAG style. its hardly perfect, but it works for me. gl

Yea, while I was playing TAG, there was a guy playing loose and bluffing plenty (but was doing quite decently),
but he soon stopped messing with me when he saw how solidly I was playing (he even once popped me twice when i had Q10 on KQ6 board with a river ace, i forget the turn, but I called him considering how bluffy he had been playing (he showed 25 and I took it, hah that was fun)).

But with the turbo structure and the storm, I was quickly shortstacked and relying on winning my coinflips.

"is there a good strategy to slowly build a large stack throughout?"
---
So, I've been spending a lot of time playing MTTs and large SNGs and I'm find myslf building a nice stack 75% of the time. Here's how I do it.

1) As you mentioned these games are FILLED with TAG players who join, try to double up and get a chip lead, and if they fail they'll play the next freeroll. I don't play my first 5 hands. Unless I'm BB in which case I see flop or unless it's a great pocket pair, in which case I'll limp if I can. Remember, these are usually NLHE games and youre going to get bet up PF all the time.

2) Don't play if you haven't go the nuts. Don't be afraid to drop down nice hands. I don't play any hole pairs under 9-9 or 10-10 and even those two I'll only play in LP with 2-3 players in the round. Play a very select group of hands initially. You won't be seeing many flops I assure you.

3) If you've got the nuts, go for gold. These are TAG players and many are unexperienced. They'll play the Calling Station in a hope to see more cards. I tend to bring in a nice middle bet (maybe 2x-3x BB). Once Turn (or Flop if you've done this PF with hole pairs or something else that's sure) hits I bring in a large enough bet to scare them off the pot. Don't want them seeing more cards and getting their out card or their runner-runner. Don't be afraid to push them off the pot.

Those are my strategies and it's been working well for me. Placed 145th in the 2300-man Cdn Freeroll at FT and been winning lots of bankroll-boosting SNGs and moneying. Let me know if you have any questions?

-Ozz

Ok, thx. Sounds solid. My strategy tends to be quite solid also, but I generally always play TAG, and haven't ventured to discover myself if there is a more successful playing strategy out there.
For instance, when I play the Round 1 freerolls on stars, my stack is continually rising, got 8th of 8000 in stud hi freeroll today (I know they are soft, ), but in nlhe my stack is consistently staying the same or slowly dropping, and sporadically it will increase, I'm just very restricted by my hand selection, whereas in these freerolls I'll play many hands (Stud, 5 card-draw, razz, etc.).

Im kind of feeling fooled by stars, these 300k freerolls sounded REALLY good when i read about them and also a LITTLE reload bonus...
I failed building my BR since i just deposited 10$ not that big a fan of pokerstars CG so really can't build there. It feels like they steal alot of rake , more then other sites.. oh well the freerolls last one now i played had 15k entrants .. sucked badly. I feel like if i knew of this when i deposited that the tournys would have so many entrants i wouldnt have deposited at all.. Nice fooling pokerstars

For a while during one of these i was running like 5/5/3 Which is just ridiculously nitty. Just raise your premiums, steal blinds somewhat aggressively, and don't limp please

With that, you'll do pretty well. I've made the money twice out of like 5 with one 16th, where I had to blind myself out b/c of class when I was in 5th with 40 players to go...

I have had success with the following. Play very tight the first 3 blind levels but hammer the big hands.. After the early blind levels return to a looser posture. Advertise a little if the opp. is present. Try to show a looser image than real.

welll second one and i cashed. contrary to logic, i played very tight early, hardly raised, got lucky and then had to hold on as i was down to 1k chips on the bubble, and was in sb allin with 401 left lol. i was like fak! if i bubble this im gonna be disgusted..won that hand with K3, trip Ks and had a good run.

Still no luck for me in these

congrats to those who have cashed

I'll just keep plugging away

I play my first one today and was doing well, I got to about 6000th/12000+, and dodged most of the ATCarders, the antes had just started and then I ran into the following.

Attached Images

My KK vs AA vs 99..JPG (89.1 KB, 23 views)

nearly impossible to fold kings preflop in a freeroll.
just keep trying i guess.

i finally placed in one: 120th of 10 000 or so for a free 2 bucks and a finals freeroll entry.

I noticed that once this deep with about 75k chips, its very tough to do well if you arent dealt hands. when 400 were left I just held on and didnt play any pots and watched my chips drain away to about 20k eventually at final 150 where payout switches. finally saw an okay hand (A3 diamonds) and with blinds at 6k, 12k, i called all-in, was against Jacks and didnt outdraw his pair.

and. happy to place.

I just missed placing tonight

went out 403rd I was super short so just hoping to make it to 400 & folded everything. Well I had 92 in the BB all in with 5 limpers & actually flopped a duece, but big stack pushed all in & everyone folded he's got 82 (lol) & hits his 8 on the river to knock me out

Will keep plugging away at them

I was knocked out 5th hand in the 2k round 2 with 2nd best flush.
But I guess it's better to go out then than waste 2 hours to go out on the bubble.