My way

Am I right or wrong in using free rolls as a way of building a bank roll?I know about the points and that I have to earn so many before I can collect,but at the same time using what I earn in free rolls to play money games I feel in mind will make me a better player in a sence that I have to use my knowledge rather than my credit card.Just a thought.

I am doing the same thing. I feel like I am learning alot in the process and besides I just can't afford to deposit at the moment. I don't think either way is right or wrong. Just with what your comfotable with. The down side to freerolling is the long hours of grinding away only to finish just outside the money. It can take your self esteem to the tank. I have for the most part gotten past this phase by analyzing my play - sometimes I messed up and sometime played correctly and lost. Just tell yourself that as long as your learning something every time you play it's a good thing.

PS: We call it the Chris Ferguson method.

Hope this helps!

Welcome to the club boys. I too am only playing freeroll winnings, and a bonus I got when several sites bugged out at the ban. I rolled it over to FTP.

You are right to use anybody else's money to do the learning. College educations are seldom paid for by the student, why should a good poker education be paid for by the student?

It is absolutely possible to build a decent sized bankroll starting with freerolls. Just look for the chris ferguson article already posted around here. Although I have deposited before, I have most recently turned 5 dollars from a CC freeroll into over 500 on bodog in the last few months and I am by no means a pro or even close to one. Keep plugging away at the freeroll and once u win enough money, start playing very small stakes SnG or .01/.02 cash tables. Good Luck!

You are both right and wrong depending on your motives for playing poker. If you just enjoy playing and are happy to fool around on a small scale for recreation then thats great.

But if you see a future in poker for yourself and are quite ambitious when it comes to the sport. Then it would probably be a good idea to make an affordable deposit and accelerate yourself up the ladder. Just try not to get deposit happy when you go broke and everything falls apart! Its a mistake i've made as I am sure everyone else has!

Good luck man, the right decision all depends on the person.

bw07507 said:

It is absolutely possible to build a decent sized bankroll starting with freerolls. Just look for the chris ferguson article already posted around here. Although I have deposited before, I have most recently turned 5 dollars from a CC freeroll into over 500 on bodog in the last few months and I am by no means a pro or even close to one. Keep plugging away at the freeroll and once u win enough money, start playing very small stakes SnG or .01/.02 cash tables. Good Luck!

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Exactly, had two good finishes in the 940 freeroll and 4am freeroll on bodog last summer , bout 17$ combined, and turned it into over 900 in a month period with an amazing run of cards and trny finishes...

I think as allsopp said that it depends on what your intentions are.

Chris Fergusen's article is cool and stuff, but remember that time is money too. And the time you spend working for 5 cents an hour in free-rolls and micro-poker is costing you money in terms of what you would have made had you been at your job. Furthermore you are also costing yourself money if you play micro-poker but could be making more money in a bigger game.

When you become king of the freeroll tournaments what is it that you are king of? A bunch of players who had nothing to lose the first place. What does this teach you exactly? How to beat those players. Does it teach you how to beat people who are playing to win your bankroll or protect their own?

It shouldn't be hard to tell if a credit card investment will be worth it if you can be honest with yourself. Just observe the games you want to be in. Sit there for an hour, as long as you like- it's free. Watch the players and make notes on them. Then predict as the cards fall down. Who is strong? Who is weak? Who has what betting pattern? How often are you correct when you put someone on a hand? Can you beat the game or not?

I have built a nice bankroll (over $100), multiple times by starting from freerolls.
It is definitely possible, but it is annoying when you spend 2 hours in a freeroll only to walk away with nothing. Or when you spend 3 or 4 hours, in a freeroll only to win $10.
I think the most important thing in building a bankroll from freerolls is, patience!!

wreckoning said:

remember that time is money too. And the time you spend working for 5 cents an hour in free-rolls and micro-poker is costing you money in terms of what you would have made had you been at your job. Furthermore you are also costing yourself money if you play micro-poker but could be making more money in a bigger game.

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Don't underestimate the value of the experience gained (and gained for free for cheap) of working your way up from zero (vs. making a deposit to accelerate your climb).

That way, you will be certain you can beat the game at the lower levels as you move up. How can you be sure that you have the ability to beat $1/$2 NL if you have never played it? Well, you could make a deposit, play, and find out. Or, you could win enough bankroll to get there by beating the limits below it.

Yes, it will take a long time to get there, but that's not a bad thing! You will have a lot more understanding of the game, having played so many hands to win the required BR.

Everyone thinks they can beat the game. Everyone thinks that if they only had more bankroll to play higher they would be making all that much more money. It's ok to think these things, just prove it to yourself by keeping good records on your climb to higher and higher limits...

aliengenius said:

Everyone thinks they can beat the game. Everyone thinks that if they only had more bankroll to play higher they would be making all that much more money. It's ok to think these things, just prove it to yourself by keeping good records on your climb to higher and higher limits...

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Very true, AG, and well said.

Don't get me wrong,I have made a couple of deposits and all went ok for a while but when I got down I caught myself reaching for the bank card.I guess both ways are right.My bigest thing is learning the patients to play the game.True it sucks to spend a few hours to make a couple of bucks,But at this moment in time I'm looking more to improve my game.The way I figure it I spent 30 years learning to play guitar and I'm good at that,whats another few years to get to a decent level of playin poker.

flynrench said:

I am doing the same thing. I feel like I am learning alot in the process and besides I just can't afford to deposit at the moment. I don't think either way is right or wrong. Just with what your comfotable with. The down side to freerolling is the long hours of grinding away only to finish just outside the money. It can take your self esteem to the tank. I have for the most part gotten past this phase by analyzing my play - sometimes I messed up and sometime played correctly and lost. Just tell yourself that as long as your learning something every time you play it's a good thing.

PS: We call it the Chris Ferguson method.

Hope this helps!

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I had this happen to me just a few days ago on Fulltilt. In their 2,700 person freeroll. With the top 27 finishing in the money. I was dealt pocket 9's and was introduced to an all-in. I called and went down to an Ace on the river. Going out in........28th place!!!

aliengenius said:

Don't underestimate the value of the experience gained (and gained for free for cheap) of working your way up from zero

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Playing for play money is an excellent way I believe to teach someone the very basics of the game. But if you try to take it beyond that with tactics and strategy you will be learning things that may not apply in a more "normal" game and may set you back quite abit. Chris Fergusen isn't trying to teach himself how to play poker. He's seeing if how long it will take a pro player to make an online bankroll from nothing.

aliengenius said:

Everyone thinks they can beat the game. Everyone thinks that if they only had more bankroll to play higher they would be making all that much more money.

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I don't think that at all. I think the level at I play at is challenging and if my financial situation was such that I could buy myself into a bigger game, I wouldn't. Also if my bankroll was not technically large enough to support playing in this game, I would pad my bankroll with personal money. Because this is the game I should be at, and if I turned out to be wrong I wouldn't be afraid or ashamed to admit I was wrong and step down.

BigTimeSmith said:

I had this happen to me just a few days ago on Fulltilt. In their 2,700 person freeroll. With the top 27 finishing in the money. I was dealt pocket 9's and was introduced to an all-in. I called and went down to an Ace on the river. Going out in........28th place!!!

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This is absolutely nothing man, wait until your playing for hundreads of thousands of dollars. Or both!

Worst tournament bubble beat I have taken is in a wsop main event qualifier. Top 5 places get $15000 packages to the WSOP including flights, accomadation for two weeks, spending money and tournament buy in's.

45 runners, we are down to the final 6. I am second in chips but blinds are now becoming crippling. I have about double the amount of chips anyone else has at the table expect the chipleader who has me covered by a few hundread chips. UTG I am dealt QQ. I push all in, the other big stack calls with AK, an Ace spikes the river and I am out in 6th with nothing.

Total sickness, it literally took me months to get over!

wreckoning said:

Playing for play money is an excellent way I believe to teach someone the very basics of the game. But if you try to take it beyond that with tactics and strategy you will be learning things that may not apply in a more "normal" game and may set you back quite abit. Chris Fergusen isn't trying to teach himself how to play poker. He's seeing if how long it will take a pro player to make an online bankroll from nothing.



I don't think that at all. I think the level at I play at is challenging and if my financial situation was such that I could buy myself into a bigger game, I wouldn't. Also if my bankroll was not technically large enough to support playing in this game, I would pad my bankroll with personal money. Because this is the game I should be at, and if I turned out to be wrong I wouldn't be afraid or ashamed to admit I was wrong and step down.

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At no time did I advocate play money as an effective strategy for improving your game. The OP is starting with $25, necessitating the very lowest limits of tournament play based on bankroll guidelines. My point is simply that you should NOT necessarily be all that eagar to buy in to a higher limit game by "seeding" your bankroll, that there are advantages to starting at the lowest levels.

I would also like to add to this discussion is that I really believe freerolling builds discipline and patience for those who are serious about building a decent BR from nothing.

shinedown.45 said:

I would also like to add to this discussion is that I really believe freerolling builds discipline and patience for those who are serious about building a decent BR from nothing.

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I have decided to build a BR from nothing, starting with this, I have started b4 but have not been too serious about it and ended up donking off all my freeroll winnings.

Keep us posted, Shine. Let us know how it goes.