Please Help Me Understand

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darth007

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I just do not understand the nature of freerolls or more precisely why anyone plays them. I mean I do not consider myself dumb, unpractical, or illogical.

But many must do...I mean 500 players all duking it out over the same $2.50. So you will give up 4 hours of your life for a 2% shot at $2.50?????

Then do it over and over and over expecting different results....is that not the definition of insanity....

I played a free roll and won last year on Americas Card Room. It took me many many hours. I won the $2.50....I put that $2.50 into a cash game and got it up to $5 and then put that into a $5 SNG game and placed 2nd. Then entered a DON and doubled and then entered a good $50 MTT and lost in that MTT busting right before the bubble.

I thought back and realized this is why people play free rolls. To build it up for a chance to take down a large MTT......

I have never successfully done that again though.....

Why?

Beside the attraction of getting something for nothing, you cant learn much from them as they do not play the same as a real game. You cannot build BR from them unless you truly just absolutely do not work and have no life , no family, no kids, no friends, no pets, no need to eat or shower..lol

In all seriousness, is it purely the joy of winning something from nothing? Is that the pure attraction?

I guess private free rolls like here at card chat etc may offer more real play from more true players, but I'm talking your ever day run of the mill free roll on some big poker site. Why in the world would you play em in any serious manner outside of pure boredom and some free time?
 
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John A

John A

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People are broke?

But not all freerolls are for pennies. I played one (first one in a long time), that was 10k prize pool and only 350~ people.
 
XXPXXP

XXPXXP

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Everyone likes to be A hero from Zero.
LOL
freeroll gave them a chance or several chances to do this.
 
crusinnn

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I guess I'm consider one of them with no life since I used to play them lol. I don't really have the time now or I would still be playing them. For me it's a challenge , sometimes I want to see if I can actually get Rich from zero lol. Freeroll is not so bad for new players too it gives them a change to practice and get experience by risking 0. I get the point as to why would good poker players sit through 5000 plyrs for $2 but not everyone's the same , some ppl like to play them and some don't. You might see some pros sitting in those bankrollmob freeroll just to test their skills out from the fishes.
 
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spstevens

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People have different goals and priorities ,I like playing for real money but my father (very well off financially ) loves playing play money games. He has multiple millions of play dollar chips and it seems to give him pleasure.

I built my roll from freerolls , likely I would not go this route again but it was fun at the time.

Not everyone is looking to play big tournaments or high stakes games , some folks just play to pass the time ,stress relief,social setting etc.

Different strokes for different folks.
 
Arjonius

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if some people want to play freerolls where the EV is pennies for entertainment, fine. However, I suspect quite a few play those games at least in part because they're afraid to risk even a few dollars to give themselves a small starting bankroll. Some, possibly many such players tell themselves they can't afford to deposit. It seems likely that most of those are only fooling themselves since, barring pretty unusual circumstances, it's pretty easy to come up with a few bucks a week if we want to.
 
suby_rafael

suby_rafael

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you got t right

In a sense u answered your question yourself but i guess there can be other reasons like they must have deposited and went broke and cannot/don't want to deposit again, so they have this free shot at some $$ or that it may be a leaderboard kind of a thing where players play regular freerolls to earn points and the more points they have, they have a shot to earn some $$ prize money, some of them might be hoping to make a bankroll out of em and while some others might be there just for recreational purposes. They all got their reasons i believe unless they live like a zombie just like u mentioned no life nothing to worry :withstupi.
 
trolaAa

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just dont play freerolls :D and dont waste your time :)
 
BearPlay

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Why are there hundreds of thousands of people who play online games at Pogo everyday, if only for the fun and the accomplishment of achievement?

A freeroll is also a great way to test out new strategies without BR risk.
 
wanderingthehall

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I've always played freerolls. For the really big freerolls like PS has, when I could play there I would usually be multi-tabling, so it didn't take any extra time out of my day to play in the freerolls.

After BF, it became difficult to deposit and I didn't want to risk my own money, so I chose to build my BRs from freerolls. However, I've done it mostly through private freerolls just because there aren't many public freerolls left on the US sites. I don't use the winning to take shots, I let my freeroll winnings grow so that I can follow BRM. I'm a small micro winner now. It's taken a year to get to this points, but I'm happy with my success.
 
Cephas

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Chris Ferguson played freerolls and built at 10K BR. But that was quite awhile ago. But I kinda agree with you. Most freerolls are a waste of time.
 
D

darth007

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Well I certainly respect the variety of opinions on it. Appreciate the feedback. I particularly like the "people are broke" reasoning as that seems to ring true to me and may be the motivation. Still don't think you can learn from them. Not sure its realistic to build a workable BR on them, but thats why I ask. Always open to new opportunities that I initially don't see. Feedback and different perspectives give way to new possibilities....As i've never seen the return on them myself, certainly there are others that do. To each his own I guess. But thank you for your feedback. Maybe I'll reconsider as I think the response of ....you may have answered your own question....may have motivation for me to try to start from zero to hero again and see if this time I nail that MTT from the first free roll. I guess if I had won in the MTT I would be more open to playing them. Probably because I spent soooo much time working it up to lose in that MTT that it jaded me against them....Tks
 
Arjonius

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Chris Ferguson played freerolls and built at 10K BR. But that was quite awhile ago. But I kinda agree with you. Most freerolls are a waste of time.
This was also a pretty unique situation. Even though Ferguson is a world-class player, he still started off slowly in his challenges because of the variance and tiny payouts in the big open freerolls he played. And he stopped playing them as soon as his BRM guidelines allowed him to, moving to buyin games where he was waaaay better than the other players. Otoh, how many freerollers are even average at the lowest stakes levels?
 
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peowulf

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About a week ago I played a Bankroll Mob freeroll for about 7 hours and came first, winning $6. It also made me climb the freeroll leaderboard which can lead to additional cash prizes. Is it a waste of time? Some people play World of Warcraft 16 hours a day and they pay for it. I consider it a chore and a waste of time. I'd rather play a freeroll and treat it as a game I aim to get a good result. Different tastes for different people.
 
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hffjd2000

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Some freerolls offer tickets, tournament dollars, real money etc. The purpose of entering freerolls is to use that collected win to enter in a real buy-in tourneys.

Now for those freerolls with less price. People enter because not much for the less price but for the rank on leaderboards. Prices on leaderboards are decent enough.
 
D

darth007

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Well I decided to give em another shot.

I've played now about 3 days , approx 20 Free Rolls a day 60 or so in total, on Americas Card Room....took 1st in one. Got the $2.50....doubled on a $1.50 DON. doubled on a $3 DON. But this time when I went for the SNG to cash for the good MTT buyin , I lost at the bubble. I've got about .20c left...lol

So approx 45 hours or so in exchange for .20c
The variety of play is sooo different according to time of day you play. I have great success early early morning as I feel in US not many people up playing and more of my opponent field is bots and I know how to identify em and take their money. However as day goes on, Mid afternoon, the games become more Real and much more skilled players are my opponents. Then at night time its a complete donk fest....Almost pure luck.

I do best in the AM against bot heavy tables. About 4 cashes but no 1st. These cashes are .55 c....
Afternoon time is when I got the 1st. Normal players.
Have not cashed at all during donk fest night time.

I'll going to try refine by staying on the DON and not hit the SNG to build that MTT buy in. I'm looking to see if by playing those FR I got any type of ticket , or reward, or increase in combat points are anything of value to me and can't see anything.

But by revisiting it and testing the process, I think if I just stay off the night time crap, I may be able to get more MTT buy ins.
 
wanderingthehall

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Well I certainly respect the variety of opinions on it. Appreciate the feedback. I particularly like the "people are broke" reasoning as that seems to ring true to me and may be the motivation. Still don't think you can learn from them. Not sure its realistic to build a workable BR on them, but thats why I ask. Always open to new opportunities that I initially don't see. Feedback and different perspectives give way to new possibilities....As i've never seen the return on them myself, certainly there are others that do. To each his own I guess. But thank you for your feedback. Maybe I'll reconsider as I think the response of ....you may have answered your own question....may have motivation for me to try to start from zero to hero again and see if this time I nail that MTT from the first free roll. I guess if I had won in the MTT I would be more open to playing them. Probably because I spent soooo much time working it up to lose in that MTT that it jaded me against them....Tks

Well, it's been almost a year since I've started my zero to hero challenge. I have $180 on merge and about 400 swc. In that time I've made $240 in amazon and $50 cash with another $35 on the way. I've traded poker funds for amazon off of different sites, and get rakeback that is redeemable for amazon. My husband and I buy everything we can off of amazon even before poker, so amazon is like cash to us.

It's a ridiculously small amount of money for the time I've put in when you think about it as a job. When you think about it as a hobby, which it is for me, then I can't think of many hobbies that would give me a little extra money like poker does.
 
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It depends on the free rolls prize pool and the amount of entrants i played in a twitter free roll last month and finished 4th place for $62 out of 140 players which was worth it for me plus there is no risk involved
 
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Entertainment value? Not everyone who enjoys playing poker enjoys playing poker for money. Look at the millions who play on Facebook, phone Apps and many other places where it's 100% play money... they aren't even playing for the small prize of $2.50 and many of them BUY play chips to play "higher stakes". Look at how many are playing play cash on pokerstars at any given time.
 
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I hate playing freerolls. However, I spent most of yesterday playing fr after fr. I took 29, 21, 17, 14, 11 (that was crushing as they pay 10. I ran into AA with my KK. Maybe I should have folded to his all in? Hmmm...Have to think about that.) and finally took 6th. It was for .75. I then put it on a cash table and promptly took a bad beat. I will continue to play until I have a few hundred bucks I can spare. Then I will place it on ACR and crush...or be crushed. Either way, I'lll have more fun than I am currently. I do enjoy knowing that I can get in the top 5% on a fairly regular basis. I just can't seem to get past that money bubble enough.
 
zEric7x

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I play free rolls if I ever want to play MTTs usually because I wouldn't think of playing a buy in event any time soon. It just something interesting to do.
 
mange1234

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Freerolls are fun

I just do not understand the nature of FreeRolls or more precisely why anyone plays them. I mean I do not consider myself dumb, unpractical, or illogical.

But many must do...I mean 500 players all duking it out over the same $2.50. So you will give up 4 hours of your life for a 2% shot at $2.50?????

Then do it over and over and over expecting different results....is that not the definition of insanity....

I played a free roll and won last year on Americas Card Room. It took me many many hours. I won the $2.50....I put that $2.50 into a cash game and got it up to $5 and then put that into a $5 SNG game and placed 2nd. Then entered a DON and doubled and then entered a good $50 MTT and lost in that MTT busting right before the bubble.




I thought back and realized this is why people play free rolls. To build it up for a chance to take down a large MTT......

I have never successfully done that again though.....

Why?

Beside the attraction of getting something for nothing, you cant learn much from them as they do not play the same as a real game. You cannot build BR from them unless you truly just absolutely do not work and have no life , no family, no kids, no friends, no pets, no need to eat or shower..lol

In all seriousness, is it purely the joy of winning something from nothing? Is that the pure attraction?

I guess private free rolls like here at card chat etc may offer more real play from more true players, but I'm talking your ever day run of the mill free roll on some big poker site. Why in the world would you play em in any serious manner outside of pure boredom and some free time?

Hey,

For my part, Freerolls and Play money games are fun. Freerolls being the most fun. I have won hundreds of dollars playing the Freerolls over the years. Mater of fact, I put flooring in my unfinished attic using money from Freerolls.

But, I do not play with the expectation of wining any appreciable amount of money. I have spent hours on the freeroll tables. And, figured that I was working for a few cents per hour.

Could have went to Mickie Ds and flips a few burgers and made hundreds of time more money. lol

Also, freerolls is a good place to socialize and make some on line friends. I have many on line friends that I think a great deal about. There are many wonder people in these forums which sponsor many Freerolls.

I believe my life has been enriched by meeting many on line poker players.

Good luck on and off the felts,

mike
 
Spocinss

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you just need to find a coherent freeroll
 
NCDaddy

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I started my online bankroll before BlackFriday on promotional freerolls. $10 here. $5 there. I was just learning the game and it was a great learning ground for me. Plus it was a fun thing for me and my friends across the country to do together online. They do a few things, at least in my opinion. They teach you patience to dance around the landmine/donks that these are filled with. They allow you to experiment with different strategies at no cost to you but your time. I don't like them so much now b/c the rate of which you win is piddly but, since I'm starting back up on Carbon with $0...I have no choice. I have $ on Bovada and in the old days I could swap sites in an instant with neteller.....and bonus whore....but.....gone are those days.
 
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Ok you think playing freerolls is not good it´s a waste of time but for all the people who play them it´s not maybe it´s a way to raise little by little their bankroll or in some cases playing with people from some forums like cardschat freeroll
And by the way it´s a FREE way to play poker with the edge of winning real money
 
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