Just be sure to read the "Terms and Conditions" verrrrry carefully before you deposit or before you sink hours into playing freerolls. It's true that most of the industry has moved away from requiring players to make a real money deposit prior to their winning of freeroll prizes before they're allowed to cash them out. But some still do. The major sites do NOT.
The problem is that very few, if any, of them have outright freerolls that pay anything except relatively small cash pools divided up among so many winners that it's hard to earn more than a couple of bucks. The "free" satellites to bigger tournaments (like WPT and WSOP) are usually bought into using player points, which can only be accrued by playing in real money ring games and tournaments.
The cheapest, and most difficult, path is the one getting a lot of publicity right now with Chris Ferguson on Full Tilt: starting out with a zero balance and growing a bankroll from nothing but freeroll winnings. A long haul, indeed. It took Ferguson nine months to compile just under $30 to even begin playing micro-limit ring games and $1 buy-in tourneys. On the plus side, two years later, he has over $9K.
Keep in mind as well that most
poker site have a minimun withdrawal amount. So even if you take first place in a freeroll and win less than $50.00 you will have to win more before you can acutally cash out.
I am not saying to not play freerolls, I do all the time. Just do not expect to get rich in a hurry. As the poster pointed out about Chris' experiment building a bankroll from freerolls can be done.
No you do not have to be a pro to build a bankroll from freerolls. I played my first hand of NLHE in March of this year, with less than 20 hours of poker playing in my life befre then. I didn't even start playing in the freerolls until FT quit the WSOP round one freerolls. So in about 3 months of playing freerolls and out of a total of five months of poker playing I've managed to build a bankroll of over $30.00. I mention this not to brag but to show even you don't have to be a pro to do it. If a poker novice like me can anyone can!
IMO the multi-tourney freerolls like the Aussie Millions, the WSOP giveaways, Poker After Dark, and the like are almost worthless from a freeroll start. You have to win two tourneys to even have a shot at making anything.
Yes your average freeroll means long hours for a small prize. You are much better off, IMO, playing in as many private freerolls as you can. The prize pools are larger, the fields are smaller, and the payouts are flatter often paying out the top 10% or more.
Good luck and see you on the virtual felt,
D$D