Freeroll help?

i need some serious help with freerolls and i was wondering if anybody could give me some tips?

freerolls are usually a waste of time and frustrating because the payout is usually a small percentage of players...

try playing only aa,kk and ak ....all in ?

i'd suggest playing only tournies that payout >15 % of players
pokerstars has a few 20% small buyins ....25 cent at 10 pm est is my favorite...

Listen if u don't have anyway to deposit, freerolls are great. My suggestion is in the first hour of a freeroll, go all in with any pairs and ak. If u build a stack then u can play some poker. It is about how many tournys u can get into for free. I have won some serious money with freerolls and it can start a bankroll, just have patience.

Play the different stages of the tournament. Here is how I approach MTT's.

Beginning stages: Early in tournament play there are a lot of people playing super aggressive and willing to stake their tournament life preflop with AKs, any PP small or large
and some maniacs with suited connectors. This is where I keep it small ball no reason to go pushing your stack around specially when everyone has a M factor of 33.
Keep it tight early on unless you got the nuts.

Middle stages: Is where I start to get aggressive and pick up chips. Remember your stack is you're best weapon. Try and steal from position and always apply pressure with premium hands.

Approaching the bubble: This is where you're M really matters. If you're chip leader on your table this is where you want to steal the blinds and ates from the short stacks as their play would be AI shove or fold looking for a double up or squeezing to get ITM. This is where being super aggro, mathematics and your M factor will come into play.

After the bubble: Basically starts all over again where the short stacks are now in the money and will push with anything looking for a double up to climb up further the pay ladder. Keep your hand selection tight and hope to win some flips to get you to the final table. Always play according to your M factor and you should be at the final table. Good luck as this has helped me to go deep in tournaments and make several final tables.
I hope this helps you and if anyone else wants to add on go ahead. GL on building your BR!

I have a startling revelation...... freerolls are great value

They are the best way to learn the game at no cost and build a BR if you have the patience

Early on play very tight but very aggressive and charge the folks who just like to see flops

If you look around there are plenty of them and there are some sites offering a winner takes all seat into major live events. To win you have to be lucky but hey it cost nothing more than usually a bit of research to find the password sometimes to enter.

Heres an extract wrote by Chris Ferguson to inspire....
I'm almost a year into an experiment on full tilt poker. I'm attempting to turn $0 into a $10,000 bankroll. With no money to start with, I had no choice but to start out playing Freerolls. Starting out, I'd often manage to win a dollar or two, but I'd quickly get busted and have to start over again. It took some time but, after awhile, I was eventually able to graduate to games that required an actual buy-in.
Even today, people don't believe it's really me when I sit down at Full Tilt's small stakes games. They ask what I'm doing down here, and often tell me stories about how they turned $5 into $500 or $100 into $1,000. Usually, these stories end with the person telling me that they went broke. There's no surprise there. These folks tried to quickly build a bankroll by gambling. They'd play in a game that was beyond their bankroll and, if they happened to win, they'd move up to a higher limit and risk it all one more time. Inevitably, they'd lose a few big hands and go broke.
For me, this experiment isn't about the money. It's about showing how, with proper bankroll management, you can start from nothing and move up to the point where you're playing in some pretty big games. I know it's possible because I did it once before, turning $1 into $20,000.
To ensure that I keep my bankroll intact, I've adopted some key rules:

• I'll never buy into a cash game or a Sit & Go with more than 5 percent of my total bankroll (there is an exception for the lowest limits: I'm allowed to buy into any game with a buy-in of $2.50 or less).
• I won't buy into a multi-table tournament for more than 2 percent of my total bankroll and I'm allowed to buy into any multi-table tournament that costs $1.
• If at any time during a No-Limit or Pot-Limit cash-game session the money on the table represents more than 10 percent of my total bankroll, I must leave the game when the blinds reach me.

I think a lot of players would do well to apply these rules. One great benefit from this approach to bankroll management is that it ensures you'll be playing in games you can afford. You'll never play for very long in a game that's over your head because, when you're losing, you'll have no choice but to drop down to a smaller game. You can continue to sharpen your game at that lower limit until your bankroll allows you to move up and take another shot. These rules also prevent you from being completely decimated by a bad run of cards.
Dropping down and playing lower limits is difficult for a lot of players. They view it as a failure and their egos get in the way. Many want to remain at the level they'd been playing and win back their losses. But this can lead to some pretty severe tilt - and that can go through a bankroll in a hurry. I know that dropping down was difficult for me in my run from $1 to $20,000. When I first played in the $25/$50 game, I lost. Sticking to my rules, I dropped down to the $10/$25 game. I had a losing streak there and had to go down to $5/$10. That was tough. After playing $25/$50, a $5/$10 game was boring to me.
But I had the discipline to stick to my rules, and that motivated me to play better at the lower levels. I really didn't want to lose any more because I knew the consequences: I'd have to play even lower and work even harder to get back to where I'd been, which could take as long as a month. If you ever find yourself bored or frustrated playing at the lower limits, you're obviously not playing well. Take a break from the game. Often, stepping away can give you a fresh perspective and heightened motivation to play well when you return.
There are a couple of more tips I'd like to share regarding bankroll management. First, you should never play in a game that is beyond your bankroll simply because the game seems to be soft that day. It's never soft enough to risk money that puts your bankroll in jeopardy. The other point is that you should avoid playing in games that are at the top of your bankroll limits, when a lower game offers more opportunity for profit.
I'm confident that by sticking to these sound bankroll management rules, I'll make it to my $10,000 goal. These rules are sure to help you as well, as you pursue your own poker ambitions.

rollnutilt said:

I HATE PASSWORD THIEVES!!! :fight::boxing::stupid:

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what do you mean?....surely if a password is located in say a magazine...you purchase magazine or listen to a show etc etc ....thats what i mean

I NEVER would pass on a password via a forum for example..that then puts the legitimate player at an unfair disadvantage

I think freerolls are great, well some of them. I once won a 2700 people winner takes all tournament and won ......wait for it......... a dvd lol. But it was a serious confidence booster, although I must have been extremely lucky.
I think the best strategy for most of the tournament is to just raise AA,KK,AK,QQ all-in straight away. You will usually get a caller anyway.
Any pairs, suited connectors I would try and look at for cheap, if you hit go all-in. Just keep your fingers crossed because anybody needs a lot of luck to do well in these. At the end it turns into real poker and a totally different strategy is needed. Check the strategy articles here too.

https://www.cardschat.com/forum/pok...ins-46/tournament-dollar-freeroll-win-173982/

The last public freeroll I ever played.

I hate playing the freerolls with winner takes all and usually avoid them since a couple years ago I played a 4,900 runners freeroll on FTP with a seat in a major event in London as a prize for winner...I came 2nd after 6hrs

well no i dont avoid them i played one 2 days ago but now just go for a big stack early or bust.....i dont wanna come 2nd again

Early on there's loads of people who sit out. Try stealing couple from blinds from those people. Stay away from those all in idiots

i totally agree with pfbb. Thats really all you can do when your in a freerole and want to be successful.

I think freerolls is a great way to learn how to play MTT. Also ur able to get some playing time in for free. I would recommend looking into private freerolls. It seems at least to me the private freerolls play more like real tourneys than the public freerolls where it seems to be more of a luck factor than skill factor. What i have learned in playing big MTT's is i use the Mzone factors and that helps determine how i play throughout the tourney. If u need help with understanding the mzone factor i can point u to some articles that will explain it clearly. I know i play a style thats similar to small ball. Its mainly pot control so that i can play lots of hands to pick up a lot of small pots but only lose small pots not big pots if that makes sense. Also u want to mix up ur play as u get deeper into the tourney. I have some good links to help with MTT play just pm me and i can send them if ur interested.. Well i hope that helps u....

MrHopeful said:

I have a startling revelation...... freerolls are great value

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Not necessarily. It depends on your perspective. If you happen to get lucky in the right tournament, you can win a large amount of money or a live tournament package. However, if you consider how much you're likely to average per hour over the long term, it's not very much.

And if you're capable of averaging a buck or two per hour from freerolls, you can probably make more playing small buyins.

I'm certainly not against freerolls, witness the fact I play them. However, I don't consider them to be great value from a dollars per hour point of view.

Freerolls are a good way to practice different techniques I personally have learned a lot from playing them. At the beginning try playing premium hands till you build up enough chips. You have to have a lot of patience and be willing to spend the time they take or they are not for you.

ok thanks for all the great advice...the ferguson bankroll management makes alot of sense so thats what ill go for

freerolls is how I started, if you're lucky enough to cash and lucky enough to run good the first couple sessions/sng's you can learn a lot about the game before you go busto (because you most likely will)

I'm one of those who played his first cash game online with money won from a freeroll. That was many years ago. I still play freerolls. Not because I have no br, but because I feel the need to keep in touch with my roots.

These days I won't play a public NLHE freeroll, but will seek out a Stud, Razz or HORSE game. Freerolls are what they are. Free opportunities to waste a lot a of time for the chance at pennies. And the major lesson to be learned is patience. No fancy play lessons, few position lessons, and generally few other lessons can be learned there.

Private freerolls on the other hand are a totally different animal. Our CC freerolls not only have limited fields with decent prize pools, they play very good poker. Exceptional learning tool for the bankroll challenged among us.

Number one lesson for noobs to learn is that it is OK to fold! Think along the lines of; A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush. If you don't have a bird in hand, don't waste your time, and chips chasing one in the bush. Speed the game on, fold and get on to the next hand.

Strategy for a big freeroll

Here's my strategy, and remember, I'm no expert. This is just my opinion and some of the things that work for me.

Divide the tourny mentally into segments. The first part of the tournament when the blinds are low there will be lots of limpers who will hit their 8/3 os and take out your better hand. You usually can't raise them off the pot for a standard raise. Just be very cautious. I tend not to do much raising because it doesn't accomplish what I want (which is building the pot and eliminating players) It ends up just costing me too much of my starting stack. I usually look for the player and hand that will double me at this point. If you are patient it will come!

The middle of the tournament you have to really know your table mates. Who will fold to pressure, who will call anything. What do they have when they raise, etc. This tends to be a very strategic part of the tournament. I always am looking just to stay in the middle to top part of the remaining players.(If I'm better than that, yippee)

As we get close to the payout level you can be thinking about 2 things. You can often do some stealing from people who want to just "make" the money, but you probably don't want to get into it with someone who has a bigger stack at the table. They will be very aggressive (rightfully so) at this point. Again, it is key to know your opponents.

After you make the money everything will loosen up again. Watch for opportunities.

Hope this at least gives you something to think about.

All in every hand until you have 100k chips then go to bed.

in the FT 7500 person FR's(non turbos). 1. Play Tight/Aggressive with AK or pairs untill the blinds are 50/100. 2. Then you can loosen up a bit if youve managed to build your stack 2x or 3x or ^ the starting stack. playing with suited connecters. 3. When blinds are around 250/500 is a good time to start trying to steal blinds here and there. 4. If you play smart the rest of the way you should be fine for the win. 5. You have to be able to COMMIT to a 6-8 hour tourny if you want some money. - OR you can try this if you dont want to sit at your computer for the whole tourny.
1.Register, come back to the computer 1 hour after the tourny starts -blinds will be at 40/80 or 50/100. 2. You'll have roughly 600-1400 chips, wait for a good hand and move all in (if you lose oh well, at least you werent sitting there for an hour before) try to increase your stack to 15k-20k. (try to have 80-100xthe BB.) 3. Then you can sit out for 45min-hour. 4. come back check on your stack, play for a bit, then you can decide to repeat step 3. 5. when there is about 200 ppl left you should play till the end. - I tried this again last night/this morning and I finished 16th got $3 lol and I only played for about 2.5hours.
I know alot of you won't agree with these methods but it does work most of the time if you just COMMIT. GL

Get enough posts here at CC and qualify for this sites freerolls. The players are great and not many considering the tons of people that play in public freerolls. Of course adhere to the wonderful comments by the folks here as well on playing the Freeroll.

Theblueduce said:

Get enough posts here at CC and qualify for this sites freerolls. The players are great and not many considering the tons of people that play in public freerolls. Of course adhere to the wonderful comments by the folks here as well on playing the Freeroll.

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Heartily agree, the CC freerolls are the best private one that I know of. Good payout percentages, play, and not really a huge time investment.

1.Register, come back to the computer 1 hour after the tourny starts -blinds will be at 40/80 or 50/100. 2. You'll have roughly 600-1400 chips, wait for a good hand and move all in (if you lose oh well, at least you werent sitting there for an hour before) try to increase your stack to 15k-20k. (try to have 80-100xthe BB.) 3. Then you can sit out for 45min-hour. 4. come back check on your stack, play for a bit, then you can decide to repeat step 3. 5. when there is about 200 ppl left you should play till the end. - I tried this again last night/this morning and I finished 16th got $3 lol and I only played for about 2.5hours.



Wish i knew this before, I spent 7hours in that tourney for 6th and $6.25.

The good news is that its now $15!

My partner and i enter the Full tilt NZ freeroll all the time! its a pretty easy game only 4/5/600 players and cash for 27 ppl. Theres some good competition from our pub poker players and great banter. Looking forward to battling some of you guns in the future.

If you do not want to deposit any money in your account then freerolls are the way to go. However, you will spend hours working on acquiring that monee. That's only if you end up in one of the payout spots. But you can make some good money.