Learning poker through freerolls...possible?

[rdm4k]

Free for discussion of course eventhough I can admit it's pretty much a rhetorical question
My answer would be: No, definitely not!

Playing with "free money" is like playing with "fake money". Most people don't care. This s why you see the all-in-frency the first 60 minutes

This s the only place where you lose so many hands due to a runner-runner

I could probably go on forever but that would ruin the thread for you. I guess you all have your own reasons to put in here

----

Don't get me wrong! I like freerolls just like the next guy, I'm just saying it's not the place to be if you are really trying to learn to play poker!
It's not the place to be if you intentions are to be a better poker player

that's not (totally) correct. I started with freerolls like lots and lots of players (when I started playing several years ago I started my BR with freeroll winning. That BR grew up to 15k in 1 year - brag inside ).
Freeroll are a way to experience the game without put money in it.
Then have to be said that coz the level is very low, if y play a solid poker you may have success. It's a fake myth that playing vs donks only you never win coz there are not capable to play: if rdm donk get in an hand with 72 and y got AA, y will definitely win 8/10. Play play play and number will turn up.

Make freeroll selection cos of course playing vs 4/5k ppl is a struggle and become hard to win.

CC actually has a variety of interesting games with a low field not totally rdm crazy. I never took part but I ve read a lot of.
Get hooked with CC, post, read, play and I can assure you: your game willl improve a lot!"!!

GLGL

 

[bnasp2]

Depends on freeroll.
At small freerolls like CC freeroll club, you can play actual poker from the start.
At bigger freerolls, just ignore what happens in first 60 minutes. But close to final table, its starts to be solid poker. Just be ready to play many such random freerolls before you get there.

 

[Himanshu]

freeroll are just crazy at start to much of bingo its no way to learn better play at 2 cent cash game its crazy but its still poker their .

 

[Roller]

Situational - some things can be gained others can not.

 

[bsam]

No way I see some of the worst calls, bets, you can basically go to one of those tourneys and learn what not to do. I love playing for free but oh my god some of the beats when I had the best starting hand lose to a 83 off suit or any worse hand you can think of its been seen there.

 

[teknishin]

Maybe in end table scenarios against actual poker players. but you can't really learn things from freerolls. you just have to learn the game by knowing the basics and figuring out your niche and going with your gut. imo

 

[micalupagoo]

if you can consistently run deep/ cash in freerolls
your doing something right
you adjust your game to the players and get it in good,
theres always flips, donks, badbeats...blahblahblah
Ive made final 100 of 1000s so many times (and more than a couple #1's)
my ftp daily edge fr today I placed 63/5718
and I took 2 huge beats TT<A5 got he got str8 on riv and AQ<A5 5hit
which left me very crippled and quickly out
was upset like 3seconds- but you gotta brush that shit off quick
it is what it is
every game is beatable if you spend the time to learn how to do so

you would learn more by reading, posting hands for analysis, and looking at your own playing to see where you take the worst losses and see if you can stop that from happening in the future

being an active member of CC will make you a great player even if you never played a game lol

 

[10058765]

For a beginner, taking the game serious there's something to learn in freerolls.
For example, you are struggling with counting outs and calculating odds.
Now, take a serious approach and practice these things in freerolls.
Whenever you see a flop count and calculate and you'll get experience in this.

Ofc you're also gonna do this in real money tournaments, but in freerolls you can get the experience for free.

What you should realise all the time, is that most players will play back at you in a different way than in most real money tournaments, meaning you're probably not gonna pick up much about playing styles.
I mean, if most people just play a push or fold game, there's just not much playing style.

Example....you got dealt aces....in a normal freeroll, well....just shove.
Chances are big you're gonna get called, so great opportunity to win a nice pot.
In most real money tournaments, that's just not gonna work.
You shove your aces and suddenly everyone folds and you miss out on a lot of value.

However, if you play the freeroll for the experience you might choose not to just shove the aces, but try to play them like you would in a RM tournament, meaning making regular raises or 3-bets.
Maybe you're just gonna see some calls and a flop which is good, because now, thinking about the way your opponents act , you can try to practice assigning them a range of hands.....again, this might get you some experience.

One last thing I'd like to mention is that freerolls are good for getting some experience with new software.
For example, you installed a new tracker and HUD.
Freerolls are great to play with it, testing your HUD, getting used to what is displayed etc.

So, can you learn in freerolls ? I'd say for a beginner that's definetely a yes.
Just be aware you can pick up bad habits which won't work in RM tournaments (like playing a push-fold game).

Now, if you're a little more experienced and meet the requirements you can play the CC freerolls and League games.
Believe me....that's where you can really learn a lot.

 

[Ezra2535]

Yea, learn how to play like an jackhole. hahaha

 

[Shumkoolie]

An interesting question. Simple answer - Yes!!!

Why? Very simple. As with anything in life, everything you do, every situation you put yourself into on a daily basis, whether you are in school, or work, or in a social situation with others, or in a competitive endeavour like playing a game, be it poker, or whatever, the choices you make have outcomes, be they positive or negative. You can look back at those choices you made, analyze it, and think to yourself, "How can I do that better the next time". We are presented with learning opportunities every day in our lives. Whether we take advantage of those opportunities is up to you.

So, going back to freerolls here, which was OP's original question, you can go back to every decision you made in these tournaments, regardless of outcome and you can analyze why you made the decision you made, and you can even bounce ideas off friends and see what their persepective is. It doesn't matter if people are going all-in every hand, let them do it. Just be there ready to take their chips. If it works, great, all the better for you. If it doesn't, then there's always next time.

 

[left52side]

I would honestly say there are both positive and negative factors here,
Freerolls are a good way to see huge variance,and large playing fields.
Yes there are the ATC players who shove every hand,but they seem to weed themselves out pretty fast in acctuality.
One of the down sides is that until that point you really dont gain any knowledge of the game,but on an upside they will definatly teach you patience.
I think they have both good and bad qualitys .
And not something I would recommend anyone who is serious about learning poker to try and learn from.
There are plenty of good learning sites out there for a small charge that can teach basic stradegy,but the best place is right here and its free.

 

[markjfixit]

You will learn basics. Betting, raising, position but the rest is waste of time. freerolls often end up being all in fest and nobody seems to care. They are a good way to get used to some new software or a game style your not used too but really not a good measure of what to expect when its real money on the line.

 

[tothbopo]

You will learn basics. Betting, raising, position but the rest is waste of time. freerolls often end up being all in fest and nobody seems to care. They are a good way to get used to some new software or a game style your not used too but really not a good measure of what to expect when its real money on the line.

Yes you can learn a lot of different stuff from freerolls but I dont agree that they end up being all in fest. Mainly because the last thing you write is when money are on the stand in the end of a freeroll there actually is money or tickets on the stand or points for a leaderboard. So I really believe that there is a lot more into freerolls then just crazy play.

 

[FixdIncm]

I learned how to play poker by reading a few books, reading forums and playing in freerolls. At a minimum, learning how people play in freerolls and how they bet with certain hand strengths will teach you how to beat low stakes players who have the same tendencies.

 

[fubarcdn]

You can learn a lot from freerolls.
The key to learning from free rolls is to play like you mean it and learn how to make the right moves without worrying about the results.
The second thing is to learn how to control your temper when someone goes all in preflop with a 23os against your pocket aces and hits the small straight and to add insult to injury he gets it with an ace on the river which gives you trip aces. Just happened to me a minute ago. It is a lesson I am still trying to learn 10 years later. Does anybody have a used monitor for sale cheap by the way?

 

[punctual]

pretty much over the first half of a freerole is a joke, but as you get deeper and closer to the money, the play gets a little better, enough for a beginner to learn some stuff...

Exactly my thoughts. However, I have noticed that the $215 buy-in on carbon with rebuys and add-ons is very much like a freeroll....people taking all sorts of crazy risks and rebuying and adding on like $215 is nothing....lol....

So who knows, maybe mastering freerolls can help you in the bigger buy-in tourneys which have R/A.

 

[REALITYPOKER]

I believe that freerolls are a great way to start out playing. It is a true way to seeing if you can be a winning player or not. Of course the variance is going to be quite higher with 3+ donks shoving all in preflop at the early stages with hands like 78o Q6s and so on. But if you have a solid strategy you should be able to make a plan on how to beat these games. I am currently doing a building bankroll challenge at America's Cardroom, and I do have to say after about the first hour, I have seen some great playing from some of the freerollers and have seen some of the better players plenty of times at the FT.

Always have a plan
You can learn something new from every situation

Good luck and see ya at the tables!!!

 

[ChipsOwnerRO]

I don't think you can learn something from Freerolls. You will see many people going all-in in first 30 minutes trying their luck even if they have good hands or not. Maybe when the tournament comes to end the players will play their hands seriously, but in the first minutes they don't care about their chips.

 

[brokenlung911]

agreed 100% so many morons if you really want to learn find a casino where you are playing face to face it means a lot more trust me

 

[n3rv]

You can learn a lot from freerolls. A lot of people just have poor freeroll selection and don't know how to adapt to different opponent types.

 

[alunelu33]

Nothing to learn from online freerolls, except bad beats every day that make you sick and never wana play again. Softs that help week players. Only bad play rewarded. And when you try to play like them you always lose. Disgusting.

 

[micalupagoo]

Nothing to learn from online freerolls, except bad beats every day that make you sick and never wana play again. Softs that help week players. Only bad play rewarded. And when you try to play like them you always lose. Disgusting.

????????????REALLY??????????
I cash freerolls on a regular basis
maybe you're just not as good as you think you are??
good play IS rewarded 60-70%+
if you cant top 100 out of 1000s at least occassionally if not regularly,
you have lots to learn

BTW donk plays and badbeats are at every level of buyin online and live

 

[bluejay2220]

If you really want to learn poker, tournament style, play in a $20 buy in, even a $10 could work. People play way better, though that doesn't mean everyone does. You start to see the changes of play through buy in levels. I think people can learn a lot through freerolls personally. Players have to exercise patience and discipline to get through the knuckle heads in the beginning, but you can also have fun and be one of the knuckle heads too, so there's that, you have to change your play in the second hour and by then the blinds are getting big and ante's kick in. By the third hour its basically a shove and people wait for good quality hands and or positions, and if you make it to the final table its a wonderful feeling cause you had to make it past all the obstacles and a whole lot of people!

To tell you the truth, low buy in tournaments are really no different than freerolls, especially rebuy tournaments.

 

[Xiao]

For sure there is always the opportunity about learning how to survive in freerolls and slowly build a bankroll for free without having to deposit (not really a worthy investment in terms of time but there are some, including myself, who prefer this method of bankrolling)

In terms of helping you in poker overall sure you can start picking out what hands are good to call the bingo players with and learn to shrug off bad beats and just try again. If you can manage to consistently cash freerolls I can't imagine you doing TOO terribly in buy-in tournaments, especially at the micro/low buy-in levels. Being able to focus on freerolls is good practice for discipline and gives you a certain level of experience in MTTs

I would not say that this is the fastest tool to learn with unless paired with study methods and incremental amounts of self-improvement in gameplay.