Spending time in Freerolls

I've been playing at Party Poker for a couple of months now and enter the freerolls from time to time. Thing is, I'm wondering if they are worth bothering with?

Party is a great site for freerolls, having lots of them every day, but you need to play for hours to get in the money. I played 4 hours to place in a Banroll Builder the other day, winning $0.03. Out of maybe 2000 entries, you need to place in the top 10 to make a dollar!

I was thinking they were good places to practice; where you could get copmpetitive without losing your money, but frankly, do they bear all that much resemblance to the money games? Players bet very loose and very much and I'm not sure that I learn much (if anything) from them.

Any thought on these?

Steve

I don't think these are a good way to practice because people are far looser than in any other tournament. You will get into the habit of playing loosely, as you will get donked out if you play normally. It's just a swingy luck-based game. Even at 1 dollar or 2 dollar the quality of play will rise dramatically.

Freerolls arent worth playing if you have any bankroll at all. As you said you have to play for a really long time to make anything so if you feel like playing for free and not winning anything just play the play chips. I would just stick to the lowest BI STT that there is

If you have no BR and are trying to start from zero, then yes, these tourneys are a great way of doing that. As far as practice, it keeps you playing thats the main thing, Learning hard to say, my 8.y.o son enjoys playing freeroll for the Learning aspect, and it gets him talking about Poker a lot more, asking me questions and the like.

FR's are okay but you need to play only the best hands and then be aggressive. Bodog has a nice payoff to the top 63 in their 500 freeroll twice a day. This forum has a nice prize too if you make the last couple of tables.

When I first started out playing poker online, I thought freerolls could be a great, risk-free way of building a bankroll. Ultimately, though, I found them a massive waste of time. Too many hours for too negligible a profit. They might be useful to dabble in if you have close to zero bankroll or poker playing experience, and are apprehensive about risking any of your own money, but other than that, I'd stick to at least low buy-in tournaments.

If you're busto they can be a way of rebuilding.
If you have a BR they can be fun, playing crazy hands, generally having a laugh.

I comprimized and opted to play in the private freerolls like here at cardschat. They are less time consuming because there are less people playing in them. Good luck in your poker endevors.

Freerolls are not a great place to improve your skills. they are a great place to get frustrated being called and beaten by loose players with bad cards. If you dont have the cash to deposit and want to make money though good luck

Those freerolls are not good to improve your skills. You should play the CC freerolls, better prizes and better skills of players compared to a bank builder freeroll.

I agree if you have a bankroll to work with freeroles are a waste of time. Too many loose playing lucky donks. If you are just playing for fun and want to have the possiblity of maybe making some real money for cashing instead of play or at $0 br then they are alright I guess..

freerolls aren't poker. just deposit. u will hardly gain anything in knowledge of the game

/spam thread

Ok to learn fundamental skills and build a micro BR but switch to forum freerolls asap.

In the CC freerolls for instance you can play against a field of 1/3 hardened veterans, 1/3 skilled recreational players and 1/3 aspiring members.

That's a great way to learn playing AND hundreds of $ added each month.

Check the calendar to see the schedule and stay active in the forums by posting quality posts.

Apply for the freeroll club when you have about a 100.

I haven't checked (lazy hehe) but I think all major sites and all of the others I'm playing at offer better public freerolls than the ones you're playing atm.+

So you might consider checking out other sites, too.

i cant see the point in spending that time for barely anything. go on to pokerstars and play some low buy in tournaments or the 180 man 3$ rebuys

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Too many donks and careless people play in most freeroll. The only thing you can learn from them is how stupid some people play, but at the same time some people are just there to have fun and play around.

So my advised would be if you just have to play them play very tight til the 1st break by then alot of the donks are gone and people are playing more serious at this point but be ware there still maybe a few donk left!

Also like many stated above try to get in private freerolls such as the one here at CC then u may be able to learn a few tricks here and there!!!


Good Luck

I agree with what others have said here. I find the first couple of rounds in freerolls a complete nightmare because so many people have the attitude that they are going to try and double up early on or get knocked out trying to do it. If you play really tight and avoid some of the crazy plays that go on, then you'll still be in the tourney but you'll be against players who have five or six times your chips because they gambled and you didn't. I suppose if you've never played poker before and want to feel involved in a game with zero risk then freerolls are okay. Also they have to be played if you're building up a bankroll from scratch. From time to time on PokerStars, they play regional freerolls with £2K added - I quite like these because the top 20% are paid and even though I might only win 50p here and 40p there, it makes me feel like my bankroll is slowly creeping up and by the time I get knocked out I am still in bed at a reasonable time!

i am new to online poker but have probable 100+ live tournaments. I find the type of play to be like everyone said but i think you can learn something but not how to play tournament poker.

I can say it has helped me learn how to play the speed of online. Making decisions faster with less information. (lessing meaning not being able to make a read)

I also like to be able to play against a table full of complete donks. I am not worried about the out come but want to see how i can improve my play against these players. I have been in real money tournaments where they are in all essences by the type of players a freeroll. Normally i sit out and wait for them to get knocked out but can i exploit this with minimal risk.

i also think they could be good at trying to improve different styles of play that make you feel uncomfortable. Don't worry about the outcome but worry about how you play. Say you are a tight player and have a hard time switching to playing loose aggressive. This style of play is needed but i think it is hard for rocks to learn how to play a lot of pots with out loosing their stack.

I don't think they would be a good place to learn to play tournament poker or poker in general. But i think they could be used by an average player to help with the right leaks.

I believe that playing public free-rolls hurts your game more then helps. More times then not the bad play by others carries over to their real cash games and by the time they notice there bank roll is gone.

This is alot better than what I have heard from most "new" online players until now.

Welcome to CC.

But it is not necessary to forget that game in freerolls and on micro limit strongly differs, from game in normal poker, and if you see 74/8 as the guy beats all with 95o while you top 20% over and over again rivered don't need to start to be played like a donk

Thank you. This forum is great. It's nice to be able to learn about the game differences without the cost of losing money.

I gotta agree with most the people here.... FR's will hurt your game. It teaches you to play loose and play to their game.

They are good for killing time though, thats about it. Otherwise, I would suggest depositing money and play in real money tourney's.

Good luck on the felts!!

i believe you can get great experience towards the end of the tournaments in freerolls if your trying to build a BR from scratch.towards the end of the tourneys people tend to play a lil less loose.

only free rolls IMO that are worth playing on Party is the Ones to the $640 Tourney or the Monthly million ones, yes they have like 800 players and only top 10 make it in, and yes there's a 2nd round where only top 10 make the seat to the big game, but in the 2nd round there's only like 400 players ever, and there easy to get into also...

I don't really know if you can take the Tourney Dollars and exchange them since I've never played past 20th in the 2nd round, but even if not your playing the Monthly Millions on Party poker...

Other then that really the Free roll Money games aren't worth a lick on party poker at all