FreeRolls driving me nutZ

First post here, and it is a vent on Ultimatebet and pokerstars free rolls. I can not believe how many donkey plays knock me out of tournaments. I usually play tight and don't get over aggressive until I have a good feel of the table. What is killing me is the number of stupid plays that beat me.

Example: I have KK on the BB, and raise before the flop. Guy two behind me is chip leader on the table and reraises, I reraise, he calls. Flop comes Qh 2c Kd. I go all in, he calls. Draw: 10d 5d.
Showdown: I have three kings, opponent has a King high diamond flush because he called my all in on 9d 3d.

This is only one example, but similar situations are happening to me five and six time a night. I don't play $$ online so Free rolls are my only option. But it is getting extremely frustrating. I have lots of RL experience and this is driving me nutZZ.

Is there anywhere a decent player can play free roll tournaments without getting completely frustrated by the over abundant friends of Shrek - you know.. "DONKEY!! NO MORE BETTING!!"

Seriously, any advice? or similar experiences? arty:

Honestly, you will never find good play in a freeroll. Maybe in the later rounds when you are close to the money or at the FT, but for the most part you are going to be dealing with guys playing with just about anything. Play tight and aggressive when the time arises and you'll come out on the better end in the long run.

BealeD said:

First post here, and it is a vent on Ultimatebet and PokerStars free rolls. I can not believe how many donkey plays knock me out of tournaments. I usually play tight and don't get over aggressive until I have a good feel of the table. What is killing me is the number of stupid plays that beat me.

Example: I have KK on the BB, and raise before the flop. Guy two behind me is chip leader on the table and reraises, I reraise, he calls. Flop comes Qh 2c Kd. I go all in, he calls. Draw: 10d 5d.
Showdown: I have three kings, opponent has a King high diamond flush because he called my all in on 9d 3d.

This is only one example, but similar situations are happening to me five and six time a night. I don't play $$ online so Free rolls are my only option. But it is getting extremely frustrating. I have lots of RL experience and this is driving me nutZZ.

Is there anywhere a decent player can play free roll tournaments without getting completely frustrated by the over abundant friends of Shrek - you know.. "DONKEY!! NO MORE BETTING!!"

Seriously, any advice? or similar experiences? arty:

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It happens daily for me.

Example

I have QJ d on the button. It folds round to me so I limp in. SB raises. BB calls. I call.

Flop comes over Q 5 Jh ( cant remember what the suits were for the QJ but there was no flush draw on the board)

SB bets
BB folds
I raise to 3 times the bet.
He goes all in.
I call

He turns over ( and wait for it..... 3h 5h)

So hes got bottom pair against my two pair

Turn and river both come up hearts and I go out on the bubble.

deposit

:withstupi.

Freerolls...

freerolls are tough. The huge amount of entries coupled with a tight pay out structure make them the hardest way to make easy money. Not to mention that most of the entrants don't care about their stacks and are taking coin flips to double/triple up during the early stages. The TAG players then wind up dealing with freeroll-maniacs with big stacks.

Unless you are playing "just for fun" or to gain experience you're better off collecting aluminum cans.

In your example you got your chips in with the best hand and that's all you can do. If you're a good player then when you lose it's going to be from a suck-out more times than not.

Double-A said:

Freerolls are tough. The huge amount of entries coupled with a tight pay out structure make them the hardest way to make easy money. Not to mention that most of the entrants don't care about their stacks and are taking coin flips to double/triple up during the early stages. The TAG players then wind up dealing with freeroll-maniacs with big stacks.

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IMO, the correct way to play freerolls is to be a maniac until you quadruple up or something like that, then start playing poker. Freerolls have a cost in time if not in money, and it's pointless to waste your time with a tiny stack.

Although to be honest, i haven't played a freeroll in a looooong time.

Try here BealeD........... https://www.cardschat.com/forum/cardschat-freerolls-31/how-succeed-online-freerolls-63130/

KingCurtis said:

Try here BealeD........... https://www.cardschat.com/forum/cardschat-freerolls-31/how-succeed-online-freerolls-63130/

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Thanks for the advice all.

Nice article and much sense included. It is actually very close to how I have been playing.

Now.. How do I handle the urge to reach through the screen and strangle the nearest donkey that just went all in on a 9-4 off and won? These monitor replacements are getting expensive. cguru:

BelgoSuisse said:

IMO, the correct way to play freerolls is to be a maniac until you quadruple up or something like that, then start playing poker. Freerolls have a cost in time if not in money, and it's pointless to waste your time with a tiny stack.

Although to be honest, i haven't played a freeroll in a looooong time.

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Some folks, BBB & dj come to mind, use Freerolls to experiment with different playing styles, other than that play as Belgo suggests or play tight & work on not tilting. Freerolls is what they is & they aren't gonna change.
Good luck & welcome to the forum.

I agree that Freerolls are extremely time consuming, but the idea of winning a few bucks and turning it into a large bankroll is so worth it, at least to me. I may just get lucky in freerolls, but there are a few strategies I've incorporated that work for the most part:

1. In the early stages of a freeroll, you want to play only your suited broadways and pocket pairs (I don't mind playing small pocket pairs in ANY position really, but ideally late position is best). LET THE FIELD THIN OUT. People say that freerolls deter them because of the huge field. I don't mind this because really, you're not up against 5,000 people in a 5,000 person freeroll. You're up against 2,500. Check out the tournament lobby as you play, people are shoving right away, raising way too much right away, cold calling right away. Sure, some of these people get lucky, but most lose. That's good for you because you will soon find yourself in a decent field of players and you can get down to playing poker.

2. DO NOT tangle with big stacks. After you've increased your chip stack (either from stealing some blinds or just doubling up against donks with your good hands), you're going to want to apply pressure. But applying pressure does NOT mean re-raising a big stack with Ace Queen off. Ace Queen is better than most people's ranges in freerolls, sure. But a big stack has you covered, and there's no point in committing a large portion of your chips to a pot, especially pre-flop, when your tournament life is on the line. If it's checked to you and you've got AQ, feel free to put in a standard raise against players with smaller stacks. But going up against big stacks with non-premium holdings is more often than not just bad news.

3. Be patient. A freeroll can take hours upon hours, all just for a few bucks. For most people, it simply isn't worth it. I can't really make an argument for the ROI you get from playing in a freeroll, for as they say, time is money. Since you're staring at a computer for at least a couple of hours, you probably would be making more money trying to find change on the street. But if you were going to play poker anyway, and you have absolutely nothing to lose monetarily, why not? If you rush your play, you're going to play sub-optimally. Wait for other people's mistakes (believe me they will be making plenty of them) and then seize the opportunity to make them pay for it.

4. Don't risk your life for a few more chips!!! When it's the late stages of the tourney and you've spent hours on the computer, stealing blinds, bluffing nits, doubling up, etc., the last thing you want to do is call a huge bet from a big stack. Let's say it's 10 people outside of the bubble. Someone's got you three to one in chips. He puts you all-in, you look at your cards and see Ace King suited. What do you do? If you can't lay this down at this point, you shouldn't play poker. In almost any other scenario I would probably call, but risking your entire evening's worth of hard work is simply not worth it here. It doesn't matter if he has 27 off. FOLD. You will get a chance to play back at him once you've guaranteed yourself a few bucks. (The only exception of course is if you're on the verge of being blinded out, in which case you really have no choice but to call.)

There's not really much else to it besides that. I certainly am not a poker guru, but you don't have to be when it comes to playing these free tournaments. Anyone can play, and that certainly means people that have no clue how to play at all. Play smart, have fun, and win a little bit of money for your hobby for free.

BelgoSuisse said:

IMO, the correct way to play freerolls is to be a maniac until you quadruple up or something like that, then start playing poker. Freerolls have a cost in time if not in money, and it's pointless to waste your time with a tiny stack.

Although to be honest, i haven't played a freeroll in a looooong time.

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this!
I played one yesterday morning, pushed all-in first 3 hands with junk, just for fun, and won every race. Then i switched gears, sat tight, waited till we neared the money, then got TAG and final-tabled it out of 3000. You just have to dodge the mines(all-inners) early on, then switch to a more convential style.

That is kind of rough. I would not have called that if I was the chip leader. That is the kind of play that unfortuantly sometime causes a bad beat. If you have money in an account, a cash tourny can hedge against some of that type of play.