Freeroll Strategy

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Vulgar

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I've recently crept back into online poker, and I was an avid player back before the USA made it harder to play online. I find myself playing freerolls as placing money on these sites doesn't seem completely safe and I've heard all kinds of confusing things about receiving winnings. That's another topic for another day. So I'm playing freerolls..

My first strategy that helped me go deeper into these tournaments, and any tournaments was to sit out the first 30-45 minutes. This allows most of those all in til their out players to go out, and it allows for a more predictable field of players to compete with. Beyond that, I try not to go all-in AT ALL in any circumstance unless I'm holding the nuts. I usually wait til im in the money to put all of my chips on the line.

Anyone have any other points of strategy that might help me more consistently make the cuts for payout. I apologize in advance if this has been covered, and if it has a link to a similar conversation would be great.

Thanks!
 
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JimmT7

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For freerolls I have found the first 30min to be one of the best. I play real tight only play good cards and at minimum bet. If you pull a good flop with high pair or better. Give it a good raise and usually you will get a allin or 3 take it usually they got small or nothing. If you don't hit fold don't fish. I sometimes get snagged and I'm out But majority of the time I am 4 times or better with in the first 15min. Then I will sit out or play tight till the storm passes. This strategy usually puts me deep in the tourney. Some freerolls that I play after first break is far worse than the beginning, blinds are high and allot of med stacks. I play the same way there. Double up or better than sit back till it passes. I have won and placed in a few.
Goodluck Freerolls are tough!
 
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freestocks

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Good luck! Be patient.
Just accept you are going to lose most tournaments, and some after hours of playing. You can start a bankroll if you have time and patience.
 
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karl coakley

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I think you have the strategy backwards. You really want to play at the beginning with all the donkeys. You can chip up very easily. After that, I would tighten up. Don't know how passing up on easy chips helps. Its a free roll, if you bust out there is always another. I'd be trying to set myself up for success.
 
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You shouldn't sit out the first 30-45 minutes. Just play a little cautious and wait on good hands.
 
antonis32123

antonis32123

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You can deposit money on ACR , I bet it's safe there to play .
For the freerolls , I play them from the beginning , it's best this way to wait for the big hands and try shoving then or play with very large bets to put the chips in the pot , play with Ax and draws carefully to build stacks quickly, how loose and how much wide your start range wil be it depends on the freeroll structure ,field , prizes and the opponents aggressiveness. I most of the time play the big hands only at the beginning all in :) . Most of the times you'll win the donks , later start playing tight aggressive style , I guess that's the only way to keep your stack growing cause if you wait sitting out you'll be blinding out in the end .
https://www.cardschat.com/forum/learning-poker-57/freeroll-strategies-302143/
https://www.cardschat.com/forum/learning-poker-57/how-play-freerolls-304667/
 
Andrey Smirnov

Andrey Smirnov

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Imo, sit out isnt good idea, you may lose many profitable situations, just nit up at early stages instead of sit out, blinds arent so huge.
 
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mikey481968

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You shouldn't sit out the first 30-45 minutes. Just play a little cautious and wait on good hands.
because if u do this u might get 4 callers to go all in when u hit ur nuts
 
SaintNick1968

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I would just remember that a lot of people make really stupid calls, and the table dynamic is usually insanely loose passive. Keep betting and take thin value when you can. People don't actually bluff that much, and so you need to be wary of calling stations betting three times. Just make sure you know what kind of player you are up against and adapt to their style.

If people are just limping preflop, then you can limp along with hands that flop well multiway like Axs or suited connectors, and raise bigger with good hands like high pocket pairs to take advantage of the fact that people call too often, and to prevent an awkward stupid 6 way pot :p

Good luck!
 
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acemenow

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Well I started to explain my approach and am now thinking maybe it's not the best :). If its a $10 free roll I take part in the shootouts with only premium hands, however this depends on my position as well. If I lose to a suckout or if someone has a better premium hand that holds up - I figure its worth the risk so that I can build a healthy stack early. When that happens the trick is not to piss it away. My biggest problem is near the end of a tourney say 1800 players or so and 200 or less players left I catch myself making stupid moves. A few times I wasn't paying attention to my rank and did so with a bad semi bluff and was within 10 players of the money that hurts.

$100/$300 free rolls I take more seriously at the beginning. Problem is I have not kept track of my stats so don't really know what works best just what feels best to me
 
ribaric

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You have to play very tight at the beginning and loose up at the mid stage of mtt. Luck has a big influence. in most mtts some dok will KO you thats why i dont prefer all in.
If u get a good flop dnt be afraid to raise there will be some donk who would go all in and you will beat him
 
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Vulgar

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Thanks for all of the input guys. It is much appreciated. I'll try to sit through the "donkey stage" in my next free roll.
 
Moonchild

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If I play freerolls, I let my strategy also depend on the structure of the game. (amount of chips in beginning, slow/fast structure, ...) And it also depends on what your goal is. Some freerolls have a leaderboard, so you can build your bankroll at the end of the month. F.ex. on pokerstars, I started to play the Open League to get my way into the Premier League and like that I get around 20dollars at the end of the month often.

GL on the tables!
 
yelmopoker01

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Strategies used in tournaments

Hello guys,

Through a lot of concepts about poker tournaments, I believe that today I find myself focusing on micro limits up to $ 5, like Big 2.20 / Hot 1.10 and similar, with a strategy of early in the tournament playing a few hands, In the middle trying to steal safely the blaides and at the end of the tournament being more aggressive for mantes a reasonable level of blaides. Overall it's like this, betting usually 2.2x the BB and hardly giving limp.

So that's it, we meet at the table and it's all in the rag !!!
 
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amadeusace

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I was told that the best way to play small buy in tournaments and freerolls is for the first 5 lvls to not play cards less than QQ. No squeeze, no fancy moves, no bluffs brefore the river. if you get a pocket pair try to go on the flop with less than 5% of your chips and dont try to follow large bets for the turn.
 
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Dudu

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i think that the best strategy is to play tight, in the beginning its a gold strategy.
 
shody

shody

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My strategy in freerolls at the beggining when a lot of players go all in with anything is to be patient and go all in just with aces but theres a chance to be kicked out with aces too,stay calm and be armed with a lot of patience,with some good hands you will get in money.
 
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sellless

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Have to agree with other posters saying that you shouldn't sit out the first 30-45 minutes. Just play extremely tightly. You'll still lose frequently but you're wasting a potentially great opportunity to double or triple up early on thanks to fish.
 
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16clumsyandshy

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One mistake I find myself making is shoving with a weaker hand, not remembering that people will call after limping with a hand that I'm not doing that great against like Q8s or JT. So I'm almost forced to tighten up as stealing is not as effective.
 
Tech101205

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As your strategy is not bad regarding playing tight in tourney
But to tell u the truth , in order to go deep or win tourneys u need to play loose aggressive then tight
especially in the freerolls where most people play any two , u should be ready to make a call with any decent +Ev hand and accumulate stack
and also set mining is another best thing to rip those fishes , dont fold pairs if u have oppurtunity to set mine by limping or calling
the most of the chips u can win is actually in those first 30 min of tourneys from fish
so sitting out is bad idea
It is important that u change styles and range of hands from time to time depending on stack size & position in tourney combined with aggression in order to make a good run.

Good luck at the tables !!
 
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MrMiyagi420

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I've recently crept back into online poker, and I was an avid player back before the USA made it harder to play online. I find myself playing freerolls as placing money on these sites doesn't seem completely safe and I've heard all kinds of confusing things about receiving winnings. That's another topic for another day. So I'm playing freerolls..

My first strategy that helped me go deeper into these tournaments, and any tournaments was to sit out the first 30-45 minutes. This allows most of those all in til their out players to go out, and it allows for a more predictable field of players to compete with. Beyond that, I try not to go all-in AT ALL in any circumstance unless I'm holding the nuts. I usually wait til im in the money to put all of my chips on the line.

Anyone have any other points of strategy that might help me more consistently make the cuts for payout. I apologize in advance if this has been covered, and if it has a link to a similar conversation would be great.

Thanks!

playing a freeroll is always more difficult cause there is no risk to your bankroll makes people fearless i think that the first hour is where you should take more risk( they just give their chips away) to get your stack up as much as possible as the time goes on tighten up a bit that is what i do. would you rather spend 4hours for a penny or have a bigger stack to make the final table your choice. good luck in your future tourneys:)
 
LCool888

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You have to be very patience in the first minutes that are always a "shoving fest", after that, make notes of the players, try to study them!
 
Sil3ntness

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Usually the first level or two is a shove fest because people are just trying to get a quick double up. People will call REALLY light at the beginning so it's not too crazy to shove strong hands deep preflop and still get called by ace rag or something.

Mainly though you want to play tight in the beginning of a freeroll.
 
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chronical

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1 sentence - DO NOT SHOVE!
 
ubo

ubo

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I've recently crept back into online poker, and I was an avid player back before the USA made it harder to play online. I find myself playing freerolls as placing money on these sites doesn't seem completely safe and I've heard all kinds of confusing things about receiving winnings. That's another topic for another day. So I'm playing freerolls..

My first strategy that helped me go deeper into these tournaments, and any tournaments was to sit out the first 30-45 minutes. This allows most of those all in til their out players to go out, and it allows for a more predictable field of players to compete with. Beyond that, I try not to go all-in AT ALL in any circumstance unless I'm holding the nuts. I usually wait til im in the money to put all of my chips on the line.

Anyone have any other points of strategy that might help me more consistently make the cuts for payout. I apologize in advance if this has been covered, and if it has a link to a similar conversation would be great.

Thanks!


Well, this is the standard I think the strategy for freerolls....
To peresidel 30-60 minutes.
All of the Allin players will leave, but then a lot of them remains...
But not going to Allin you also run the risk of not winning

But on the winnings, you keep the money? How do you win from freerolls then use?
 
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