Beginners: avoid freerolls (except Cardchat's)

This is a followup to a previous post of mine.

I actually win consistently at the lower microstakes and lowest buy-in MTTs. But at freerolls it's a lost cause (except for CardChat's). I can buy-in for $4 at $0.02/$0.04 and 8 of 10 times I finish with $12 or $16. The same for low buy-in small-field MTTs I do reasonably well.

Freerolls are not real poker because no value is placed on your initial stack. They are "lotteries" with Russians/Ukrainians/Brazilians going all-in every 2nd hand. There's so many of them that a few will luck-out and double-up 5x in a row and you have no hope of catching up to them.

That's a very exploitable strategy. Shove in late position when it's folded to you with a good hand and call shoves with premium hands. Push/fold is a part of poker and I definitely think freerolls have some value. Especially if a beginner places his bankroll has some money for the first time.

That's a good point you made that it's very exploitive.

I just get discouraged (and go on tilt) because the other players place no value on their "free" stack and a few double up a lot (but 80% of them do bust-out).

LizardDan said:

Push/fold is a part of poker and I definitely think freerolls have some value. Especially if a beginner places his bankroll has some money for the first time.

Click to expand...

I agree. There is no reason to discourage beginning players from taking advantage of a free opportunity to familiarize themselves with the game and to create a bankroll. Freerolls are an important first step in many players' progression.

bdc100 said:

This is a followup to a previous post of mine.

I actually win consistently at the lower microstakes and lowest buy-in MTTs. But at freerolls it's a lost cause (except for CardChat's). I can buy-in for $4 at $0.02/$0.04 and 8 of 10 times I finish with $12 or $16. The same for low buy-in small-field MTTs I do reasonably well.

Freerolls are not real poker because no value is placed on your initial stack. They are "lotteries" with Russians/Ukrainians/Brazilians going all-in every 2nd hand. There's so many of them that a few will luck-out and double-up 5x in a row and you have no hope of catching up to them.

Click to expand...

There are big difference in freerolls. Some are really ridiculous (mainly with thousands of players plus turbo) but in some frees many ppl play ok. Eg there were some pokernews freerolls few years ago with few houndreds players. They were fun to play with normal starting stacks and blind levels.

Micro limits not better frerolls. I already oftentimes talked that these tournaments in any way are unconnected with a poker. There is not strategy on these games . To be aggressive, when in a game enter for 6 persons in every distribution. It is a lottery and if it will be lucky you you will win that.

Olgert1992, just because your opponents are playing in a way that seemingly incorporates no strategy doesn't mean that you can't employ a strategy of your own to exploit their play. Poker is not a game where one strategy is good for every situation. Different situations call for different types of strategies. Even "playing with no strategy" is a strategy, though it may not be a calculated strategy. The fact that these types of players may be difficult to deal with, especially in large numbers, doesn't make it a lottery. It makes it a different situation where a different strategy is needed to take advantage of the situation.

LizardDan said:

That's a very exploitable strategy. Shove in late position when it's folded to you with a good hand and call shoves with premium hands. Push/fold is a part of poker and I definitely think freerolls have some value. Especially if a beginner places his bankroll has some money for the first time.

Click to expand...

I totally agree with this. If you know someone is shoving with basically anything, wait until you have a top tier hand and call. A quick double up goes a long way in these massive free rolls.

I would never tell a beginner at poker not to play freerolls. I think freerolls is the best way to learn poker at first and if you can cash in freerolls, or even get in the top 20, then put some of your money into it. I say this because I been there and it cost me a lot of money just trying to learn. I don't want anyone to go through that. Poker should be fun, but when you start spending money you don't have to play poker, then it becomes everything but fun. And when you get stressed about losing your money, you will surely lose a lot more.