Freeroll Strategy

What would be some good strategies when playing freerolls? (other than not playing them)

Its the same as any other tournament, except that your opponents are going to be far worse. The only thing I'd offer is to focus on your preflop play, since its the most important part of playing correctly in a freeroll. Learn basic push/fold M zone theory, and you'll crush the limping newbs during the high blind portion of the tournament.

Any links or guidance on where I can hone these skills?

the way i play them is,
play very loose at first. but only with good hands. try not to challenge to many players at one time out of position. bluff a little and don't go all in to much if at all. remeber it's free.
good luck.

Find Poker Orifice a member here and watch him play. He is the king of Freerolls

I'd probably do pretty close to the opposite of this ^ (depends on what freeroll it is though).
Play tight in early levels,
build big pots with big hands,
rarely bluff,
value-bet the snot out of your hands,
cross fingers... ez game.

wtf? Probably wouldn't do any of that.

I had the good fortune of stumbling across these pearls of wisdom from a freeroll player,

When i was at fulltilt I played alot of freerolls and learned alot about playing in them. Heres some tips...
1. Play tight to the end of late registration. Only play premium hands (AA, KK, QQ, AK, AQ, AJ) in position (on the button, or in the cutoff). Play aggresively with these hands. Take a stab at the pot after the flop even if it doesnt hit your hand.
2. Never tangle with chipleaders if you don't have the nuts. More specifically avoid hands where you may have to play more aggresively agains a chip leader..
3. Save your chips, once you've have gained a position in the prize bubble save your chips, limp in to pots when you have 50+ bb. Let people hang themselves without investing too much to the pot.
4. Avoid committing your whole stack to any pot(unless you have the nuts). Remember as long as you have chips you can keep playing. Never shove preflop...NEVER...

Who can argue with such great strategies
I won't post my response, it may offend someone

Depends on the freeroll, how many players, how they are playing. You have to sit out a few hands to observe your opponents. In a average 1000 players freeroll you can play a more hands. let them knockeach otherout while trying to build a stack. In say the Carbon $200-5000players freeroll if you wait to long the blinds will catch you before you get a big enough bankroll. Play asseritive not aggressive. When you have the nuts go for it. A Carbon freeroll has a lot of loose players. Also aggressive where they challenge you all-in alot. You have to resist with second pair or you stand to lose your head. Some bluff alot-but some really do have a lot of good hands back after back. You choose the battle with the best odds of winning.

As someone else pointed out, listen to Poker Orifice.
I managed to start a bankroll from nothing on several sites using
freerolls (although they were smaller back then).

FTP still has that BR!

In terms of open freerolls with hundreds of players ans small prize pools, I think it's short-sighted strategically to focus on how to beat them. The main reasons are because (a) the payouts are minimal, (b) it's not very hard to become decent enough to win more at the micro- buyin levels, and (c) it's likely you'll pick up some habits that won't serve you very well when you do move up to the micros.

As a beginner, there's nothing wrong with playing such freerolls to work on aspects of your game such as developing a feel for position, starting to read players' styles, etc. This should be a much higher priority than how to win a few more pennies per tournament.

Am I the only one left scratching his head at this part of mickey's post?

wow, lots of great info here. The main reason I play freerolls are to get a feel for MTT play. I know this may not be the best barometer considering they are free and you will get a lot of DONK play, but it does help to get a feel for playing in position and also tightening up my play by playing a better range of hands.

Don't think that freerolls have the monopoly on donk play! When I used to live in a free country I would play a number of the huge field micro MTTs on Stars, and in there where many times you would feel like you're walking through a mine field.

This kind of stuff shouldn't take very long. It's not the same for different people, but fwiw, I probably played 150 to 200 of these big field, small prize tournaments when I started. In retrospect, that was more than enough. I told myself I was learning. While true, it wasn't the whole truth. I was also avoiding the possibility of losing any money even though it was from freerolls, not out of my pocket. .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-ratio

or, you know, you could always try here.

Thanks for the advice/input here...

Freerolls are how I worked on strengthening my game after being offline for a little more than 5 years now....and I'm especially indebted to this site as well for all it has to offer to me and other poker players/fans

most players will be playing aggressive so play really tight at the beginning, as the blinds and antes kick in start playing a bit looser, same as any tournament really!

possibly my favourite piece of bad advice ever dont play loose at the beginning, dont bluff, and go all in to get as much value as you can from big hands, someone will call, its a freeroll afterall

ABC poker. eazzyyy game

Push with good hands to get the bad players to call. Since there aren't many prizes in a freeroll, it's important to go for it when you have a pretty strong hand. Must be willing to flip for your stack.

I've noticed especially in the beginning quite are few seats are sitting out so by limping often chips are available for the taking. Some times only 2 or 3 players are seated so it's just taking turns with the pots. Watch out for the bullies though, freeroll bullies are the worst.

Lol, I thought that was funny too.

For Freerolls my strategy is just to say F it and shove my premium hands like AQ, AK, and TT+. Other good hands I might limp, otherwise just play super tight until the blinds get high. By then you have an idea of the players around you and can make adjustments. I try not to care too much and I know the tourney is going to end with me reraising AA all-in and losing to A2o.

Wow! time travel!