Freeroll strategy

I see a lot of these forum topics on here. I never have a solid strategy for finishing in the money, it takes a lot of careful moves and even more luck. However, as the saying goes...you make your own luck.

So now that I got that out of the way. I always grew up playing poker games, or any competitive card game. I tell you this only so you know I really only feel comfertable betting on holdem. So here is my advice to everyone looking to make some money in a FT freeroll. Play the non-holdem games. For example Razz or omaha. The people entering the freeroll have no idea how to play these games intelligently. It takes a lot of the variability out of the game. I have played in these tournaments only 4 times, but managed the money or very deep every time.

You really just need to play your hand and it will all fall into place. Well that is all I have to say. Good Luck out there.

isn't that just telling more people who really don't know how to play in those tourneys to actuall play in them? Maybe before they play in them they should read up on them and figure out strategies and not go in there blind like you said most people do.

That is why I told the background story...I meant it for people who understand the concept of card games. Meaning that this gives them the edge over the competition. Sorry I should have made this more clear. I thought it was obvious you should have some idea how to play the game you are registering for. Meaning try to concentrate on playing these freerolls.

For most freerolls i see that people are recomending tight play in the begining and looser in the ends. However I got another opinion. Playing loose in the begining definetely pays u off simply because there are lots of fishes. Playing an 87s would work quite well if u hit straight or a flush, and maybe even trips. The fishes would feel strong by having pair of kings and ship half of their stacks to u. I recomend limping and slow playing in the begining as fishes would tend to trap themselves easily.

i never knew there was a strategy for freerolls.

I tend to play really tight at the beginning. Just like any other tourneys i will learn my opponents tendencies a adjust my play accoringliy. I think, there is definately opportunities very early and late in these tourneys to pick up a lot of chips. Early with all the loose play and late with alot of people tryingt to steal the blinds.

Tendencies in a freeroll. Cmon. People are busting in every 30 seconds, and your table is changed every 10 minutes. Dont tell me you can bust someone based on 10 minute observation.

Bet for value. Win.

I would also recomend, calling all in preflop with almost every two J high cards in the early stages. Its simply because there are plenty of donks who go all in first hand with 95o. Even if u get busted you have played 5 mins in a freeroll thus u dont lose neither time nor money.

I dont know if thats great strategy but making money through FT freerolls is not really a sane idea..usually you sit through 2699 other people for 6 hours just to get a max prize of $15.. More than likely you end up with under $1..

Ive made those final tables a couple times and it takes 5-6 hours...

I have to agree - making money on freerolls (especially at FT) can be a serious test of your patience - yet I still play them sometimes. Two night ago I invested 3 hrs 45min for $0.10. Go figure

freerolls are a complete waste of time unless you are really lucky. that just comes from my experience and unbelievable bad luck.

Well it depends, if you play fulltilt's free rolls then top 27/2700 win, which is 1% of the tournament (terrible odds)

But if you play a private tourney and lets say there are 900 entrants and top 50ish win, thats a 1/18 chance or a 6% chance (this usually varies from 5%-12%ish)

If you play the 500K freeroll, (pay 500K playchips to enter), you have about 18/40ish, with a roughly 50% chance to be in the money (18th place usually makes a min of 2 dollars).

So it all depends on what freeroll you play, and this is jsut for FullTilt. Im sure there are other Freerolls out there that can be fun, exciting, and not too difficult to make money on.

just play by ur own strategy in the freeroll any freeroll. then if youlose to a donk going allin with 78 atleast you can say ur were playing your best and dont let the donks play your by betting in to you. if your not comfortable for whatever reason preflop then u should get out of the hand.

Ofcourse, this is good advice if you're a good omaha or razz player
If you're a good hold'em player, play good hold'em and soon enough you'll win.

I consider myself a decent omaha player, but the omaha freerolls seem tougher to finish in the money than the hold'em freerolls. I see a lot of people get beat with some crazy stuff, especially on FT.

I agree with your sentiments on playing the limit games such as razz and omaha. I have had some great successes with pot limit omaha on full tilt. I love it when these guys really hold on to their pocket AAs like it was No Limit Holdem.

ya i have played in those games and some pepole dont no what there doing... i won some cash on HORSE game freeroll and razz

the blinds are so small that invariably the pot sizes reflect this, therefore there's less value in winning them there are far more novicy players in the tournament at this stage than any other, the potential to lose to a substandard hand is greater as a result rather than get involved in high risk and low reward situations like these, it is recommended to play patient poker only using the premium hands dealt to you; you will develop a solid tight table image and reduce the number of bad beats taken by amateurs playing mathematically incorrect poker.

Play like a Freeroll player

You have seen all the Donk play at the beginning of a tournament, lot's of All Ins on Draws/middle pairs/etc

So Play like the Freeroll player, take some Risk early and capitalize by pushing All In when you have a Good hand. The Donks are gonna Call regardless so in the early stages of the tournament you will have the Best chances to chip up.

Later in the tournament start to pay more attention to what your opponents are playing, watch their cards. Are they chasing/donking hands? Playing tight or aggresssive? Remember that the chip leaders at your table have been Lucky already so use some Caution against them. But if you have a Good hand then Bet it Big and let the Donks build your stack if they Call.

Just always keep that Freeroll mentality in your head so can Think about what the other players are Playing eh?

Good Luck and Good Games!

My freeroll strategy is to survive the donks for the first 1500 of the 2700 players and then try add to the hopefully reasonable stack taken from the donks. I have cashed in a few, but still haven't worked out the perfect strategy. lol

is there really a strategy because ive been inside 75 people on full tilt a few times 27 pays and still run into that hand that usay is a winner and gets beat by ace rag or 5 7 off it does get disgusting u play for 3 hours for 0 dollars but no br so have no choice but freerolls .

Please do not read any further on the Chip up Early strategy if you:

• Are a poker purist who could never make a stupid donk move
• Would hate to be one of those freeroll donks that goes all in with 2 7
• Want to kill people that go all-in first hand of an MTT freeroll
• Are playing freerolls to gain knowledge and insight to use on the money tables

If you are still reading this, then you are probably a freeroll donk. Detested by the poker purists, you have decided to win freeroll money the best way you know how - donking!

First, let me defend the chip up early strategy by saying that you cannot play poker with the goal of making friends. You must have a goal in mind, and do whatever it is that helps you best attain that goal. This means playing like a stupid donk in big field freerolls.


The Chip up Strategy

Most freeroll guides will tell you to play tight in the beginning. This is very bad advice, because there are many, many, many easy chips available in the beginning. And, we are not really interested in playing in a freeroll unless we are one of the chip leaders. So, how do we insure that we are always a chip leader?

By downloading 5-10 poker rooms, you can assure that you have a several freerolls to play every hour. Plan out a timetable of all the freerolls, and get to donking! That's right, go all-in several times within the first 10 minutes. You will get called, don't worry. Most of these you will lose (lose only a few minutes of time that is, no money), but a few you will double/triple up. With those few, stay aggressive until you have curtailed your tournaments to the 2-5 that you can handle. Now tighten up and enjoy your status as one of the chip leaders. We are only going to play large field freerolls when we have a better shot at winning. This is to save on our only investment - time.

You will be hated. You will be called a donk. But, you will find that your money won/time spent ratio has increased dramatically.

Nice advice but I am one of those players who have no idea how to play these games intelligently.So i stay out of them ...and stay with Holdem

First, we will consider that you by heart know poker rules, have well accustomed on candy wrappers (plej-attract) and have enough studied literatures on poker. So, you have decided to play poker on real money. Firmly all having considered, having weighed pro and contra. Well, it is good, however the main condition to start game is good base knowledge. It is desirable, that the theory has been still supported also by practice.

So, features freerolls: 1. It is A lot of participants. 2. A small prize fund. 3. A considerable quantity of bad players. 4. Simple and effective strategy of game.

The most suitable style of game on freerolls (and in general on all tournaments where many bad players) are tajt-agressiv. We wait a good card and we enter considerable raise, we check chip flop if there is a possibility with a mediocre card, having caught what or a combination is played it aggressively, except for some moments. In general all is simple, but is effective.

Those 2700 freerolls, but there's a few of them out there that aren't so tedious. Be on the lookout for Turbo Freerolls, which pop up every once in a while, and the private freerolls are where its at.

In freerolls I push heavy after people settle from the first two to three hands of all-in play. Start out big to give yourself a better position as the numbers dwindle.

I love playing Hold em, and i think that is my best game, but the only freerolls i ever seem to cash in are the horse and Omaha PL. What is the best way to start cashing in hold em?

Take the time to study the game. There is all kinds of strategies out there for freeroll tounaments. Find them, and tweak those to fit your style. This site has some great references to them.

I like to raise early and often. I'm not afraid to lay down if I know I'm beat and I'm not afraid to call an overbet. I have cashed in several freerolls.

Public freerolls are just plain crazy. Unless your LUCKY enough to make it to the final 100 is when the play actually gets good. The first hour if not more or full of donkeys. Yes, we all have a little bit of donkey blood in us but not like some of the crazy poker players out there. Personally, I just love when you get lucky enough to sit at a cash game with one of these donks that are new and decided to deposit and put their whole bankroll on one table.

the hardest part of freerolls is getting past the first 30mins. if u do, and play solidly and your hands hold up, u might have a chance.

is it really that hard to make it past the first 30 if you play tight?

In my opinion, yes it is that hard at times unless u are on a luck streak and then u rack up in the first thiry minutes because of the all-in donks. lol They will make u or break u in the first thiry minutes to an hour.