Small Ball Poker at Donkaments/FreeRolls

yonosemanana

yonosemanana

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Is it possible to play small ball poker at freeroll tournaments? Or its the best strategy to play TAG?
 
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bnasp2

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It depends a lot on position.

You can hardly get often on flop with small raise from early-middle position. At donkaments there will be big raise after you and you cannot call that with some speculative hands. You also cannot hope to bluff them out, they will call with anything.
 
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SnowedIn

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I find, especially in freerolls, they just become a shovefest. Would say of the opening 10 hands i play in most (FTP) freerolls around 7 or 8 are all in pre or on the flop
 
xaxawa

xaxawa

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If you intend to win a freeroll, your strategy should be: tight, solid, aggressive poker.
Play only good starting hands.
Make big raises and big bets, more than in a normal game.
If you have a good combination, bet, bet, and again bet!
If you have nothing, well, nothing can be done. Don't try to bluff.
 
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seghill

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patience and aggressive (full on) when you have hands - if you lose that's the nature of freerolls.
Once you have built stack you can come in with a slightly looser hand but usually not for the first 2 blinds. After that players are still going all in on Face cards without A or high pair but lesser hands will be only looking for the flop to improve.
 
Mr Sandbag

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After awhile I've learned to not confine myself to a "strategy" like small ball or TAG. No strategy is going to work in every situation, so you are better off learning how to adjust to different table dynamics and player types. Proper decision-making based on the information available to you is more important than executing a strategy you decided upon before knowing the players at your table.
 
2Pacavelli

2Pacavelli

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freeroll players are mostly calling-stations, so it's simple to play against them , it's just always play with value.
 
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bbiase

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I usually join the limpfest with AQ/AJ and 22-JJ. People over there will call your raise with any two suited cards (specially on early stages where they are deep in stacks), doesn't really matter if you raise it or not. Those guys love to shove top pair with random kicker, you'll be in a very good shape when they shove a top pair made from Q5 or K4 and run into your set or better kicker. I think not going broke is key to get ITM consistently on these kinds of tourneys.

There's this nice concept from small ball that I think it is great to use on Donkaments: avoid difficult decisions. Think about the next two streets, and if you can keep barrelling if your hand doesn't improve. Check behind often unless you pick up a solid read. Even the worst players can see that it's better to slowplay the monsters they flop.
 
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yonosemanana

yonosemanana

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After awhile I've learned to not confine myself to a "strategy" like small ball or TAG. No strategy is going to work in every situation, so you are better off learning how to adjust to different table dynamics and player types. Proper decision-making based on the information available to you is more important than executing a strategy you decided upon before knowing the players at your table.

Perfectly said. Did you copy this!?
 
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spazdm

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Personally i just play tight no matter what kinda of tourney im in, it seems to mostly work for me. only when i get bored and play out of my style do i get screwed over the most.
 
ern11

ern11

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I often plays that if a table not hyper agressive.
 
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floweryhead

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Play your opponents in these things... and neither tag or small ball. bear in mind that your competition is highly likely to be weak... in which case... they're either going to be too tight or too loose etc... it'd be foolish to play TAG at a tight passive table... just as it'd be bad to play loose passive at a really laggy table. I tend to look at the first player in and their style and if it's exploitable to me... if another player comes in before me I have to readjust again. So there's no point in picking a style to play... just look for opportunities
 
Rawdeal1955

Rawdeal1955

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I find in a freeroll I play low ball to get a read on the table, losing small pots gets you out of trouble. Winning a lot of little pots builds your stack for the war on big pots.and gives you room if you take a big hit. On freerolls you a big call range in any part of the tournament. good cards good games to you
 
TeUnit

TeUnit

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sure you can play small ball, watch one of hotjennys training vids on dragthebar- she usually plays a small ball strategy
 
EvertonGirl

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sure you can play small ball, watch one of hotjennys training vids on dragthebar- she usually plays a small ball strategy

I will have to watch more of her vids, as I like the small ball approach, just crap at it :D
 
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rondecuba2

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Best strategy for freerolls is to play only value hands. I know it sucks :)
 
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Stalfos

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These tips will help me, thank you.
 
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hffjd2000

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I would prefer being TA than using small ball.

Mostly freerolls are turbo with limited starting chips. That said, it limits the use small ball strategy.

But do agree can be use in early rounds.
 
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