Freeroll tactics

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Sohmurr

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I'm going to be playing (probably) all of the Carbon Shark Week $500 freerolls. I've never been a huge MTT player. But I want to try and build a BR from $0 again, so I'm just looking for general tips for the upcoming freerolls. I'm pretty solid on bubble theory (enough so for these tourneys anyway). I'm looking more towards early-mid stage play tips. They are 5 minutes/blind level, starting with 100BB deep stacks, so it's definitely Turbo style. Is it better to take an early risk or stay tight? Am I looking to see a lot of cheap flops or push heavy pre-flop? Obviously what kinds of hands I get dealt are huge in these types of games, but there must be some sort of edge I can push that would be long run positive. Any advice is appreciated.
 
sj_pi

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Be patient, very patient.

Observe the table dynamics.

Instead of looking for fish, look for good players and avoid getting into a pot with them.
 
newbie in training

newbie in training

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the prizepools are kind of f'ed up on carbon because only like top 5 make decent money the rest barely make anything so basically play not so patient be more agressive build a big stack and continue being agressive risking your stack...last fr i play i came in 24th out of 415...dont play tight on carbon on a mtt play for 1st :)
 
kolecgoclaw

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very differently;)
try to be aggressive - Shoot so that opponents feared his chips :)
really no rules of thumb. at 888 today playing aggressively, going q8 (s) overcame aa. and when I waited for good. beat me 46
can sometimes really need a lot of luck.
Try to choose good hands: Ax pairs> 10 and high cards to low in color.
unless known things - but do work. although sometimes you'll get from 46;)

good luck
 
rytciaq

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very differently;)
try to be aggressive - Shoot so that opponents feared his chips :)
really no rules of thumb. at 888 today playing aggressively, going q8 (s) overcame aa. and when I waited for good. beat me 46
can sometimes really need a lot of luck.
Try to choose good hands: Ax pairs> 10 and high cards to low in color.
unless known things - but do work. although sometimes you'll get from 46;)

good luck
I think the opposite what you just said. I think you need to be very tight in freerolls, because nobody is actually feared to risk all his/her stack and goes all-in with basically any two cards.
 
kolecgoclaw

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I was doing and so and so ...
Today I took 4th place - was part of such cards ... can not believe it;)
you never know what will be the result until you see 5 cards!
if you will play and see - but it is often about allin and depart 5 random.
I tried to hang on Ak, Aq, QQ, - sometimes they beat me with shit!
Play as you like - I play as he wants. really sometimes you will be amazed.
(in normal games, I play normally, a lot of waiting) freerolls are weird!
really never know
greet.
 
kolecgoclaw

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now played on FullTilt;)
I had- jj. There were 4 allin.
66, 77, qq, and my jj :)
7 flop, turn, river seven :)))
Be smart
 
Kuphaldt

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I'm going to be playing (probably) all of the Carbon Shark Week $500 freerolls. I've never been a huge MTT player. But I want to try and build a BR from $0 again, so I'm just looking for general tips for the upcoming freerolls. I'm pretty solid on bubble theory (enough so for these tourneys anyway). I'm looking more towards early-mid stage play tips. They are 5 minutes/blind level, starting with 100BB deep stacks, so it's definitely Turbo style. Is it better to take an early risk or stay tight? Am I looking to see a lot of cheap flops or push heavy pre-flop? Obviously what kinds of hands I get dealt are huge in these types of games, but there must be some sort of edge I can push that would be long run positive. Any advice is appreciated.

I like to play tight until the later stages of the tournament and then I losen up a little bit. For the most part though just wait for the premiums so I can build a stack. Goodluck in the sharkweek freerolls it is going to be tough considering there is 3000 players in the first on and probably all the other ones. I will be in them as well. :)
 
Martinez

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Iv'e been sticking to freerolls since I decided to take a break, comming back to poker earlier this year.
Building a bankroll from these requires a tremendous amount of luck simply because there is no personal risk involved with your own money so you can expect to see a lot of donk play. Don't be afraid to mix up your game on occasion.
I have found that in order to maximise my chance of making the money I have more than one site. If you play at ACR and Black Chip, they are run by the same skin. The $10 on demand usually has about 450 -550 players with top 10 getting a payout. It's not big money and if you get knocked out early you can change to the other site and rejoin the same tourney. You will never get rich by these but you can build up a small bankroll to get you started again.
I know just how good I am and don't delude myself into thinking I am the best, but have won two of these and final tabled about 20 times now..
Full tilt gives hourly freerolls where you can win tickets to larger freerolls. Top 200 hundred receive a ticket, so there is no reason to try to take it down just make sure you make the ticket entry, these are not too hard to get.
poker stars freerolls are much more of a Challenge as only 64-72 tickets get paid out but to bigger freerolls. only problem, you have to wade thru 1600 to 9000 players. Th PS freerolls are a good way to learn different types of poker as well and as you get near the finishing line see a good amount of solid poker play.
You have I see made enough posts to now get into the CC freeroll league which have a $100 - $150 prize pool. Quality of play is better and a much lower field of entries, so if not already in, then apply.

Hope this helps a little.
 
pokertroll

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In the beginning of tourney I play a bit loose but make sure I'm not playing crap cards getting those fast chips from donks and fish are great to have when going into the 1st break.
 
babydrago9

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Try to find out which players are fish and what ones are solid. You can then just exploit how the fish play and just pretty much stay away from the good players.
Some freerolls especially on carbon you'll need to get a high finish to get decent money, so don't tighten up at the bubble and play to win.
 
newbie in training

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Try to find out which players are fish and what ones are solid. You can then just exploit how the fish play and just pretty much stay away from the good players.
Some freerolls especially on carbon you'll need to get a high finish to get decent money, so don't tighten up at the bubble and play to win.
exactly if you want any kind of decent money you cant be a tight ass waiting for a hand...if you see a donk shoving with A8o before then call with a pair raise all jn with a pair of tens or jacks and once youre on top dont stop dont sit still continue to pound their faces in with agression on the table lol eventually theyll get short stacked or have to act and when they do shove...just fold lmao
 
puppetkiin

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About Tournaments freerolls

Hello guys, im new member of the forum, and of course, i love poker like many of you do out there.

I like to play tournaments freerolls to get some experience, but i notice the level of poker played there is pretty bad.

People start to shove every trash hand and still manage to beat premium hands since many people enter in the pot.

So i know that AA or KK i cant fold. But what hands do you think i have to call an all in pre flop against these type of maniac players in early stage?

I know many people says dat you have to play tight in early stage (first 30 min or so), but its not often you get AQ suited, AK suited or AJ suited. And even if i make a pretty strong size bet like 4 or 5 bb people still call with trash or even go all in. Its very sad to get beat by a worse hand and be out of the tournament this way.

From experience what do you recomend? And another question, is there a big difference of freerolls to 1 or 2 USD dollar buy in tournaments? I am thinking about making a deposit to play some "better" poker tournaments.

Thanks in advance!
 
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I know exactly what you're talking about in these freerolls. It's extremely frustrating to have a good hand raised to all-in and potentially get beat by a trash hand. But basically what you've heard is pretty accurate in that you just need to weather the storm for a bit. In my personal experience in these though, the all-ins only last for the first couple of hands, so unless you're sitting on a top tier hand or if you are one of the last to call and can see if anyone has stupidly raised all-in I would recommend just folding them in for the first few hands. Just my 2 cents!
 
fubarcdn

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I will play any hand pair of 8's or higher and definitely AK and AQ first few hands all in.
If you lose it doesn't cost you anything anyways.
What I hate is playing for an hour and then getting beat out by 2 trash cards because the player that has the biggest stack is often someone that is playing trash but having a good run.
If you play at enough sites, which I don't there is usually another freeroll starting in 15 minutes.
 
teepack

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The first thing you have to do in a freeroll is be lucky. Since there is no strategy for that, then you have to come up with a strategy to avoid being unlucky. The strategy for that is to simply avoid the donkfest that occurs in the first 30 minutes. Let the dust settle down. If you get AK go ahead and bet it preflop, but if the knucklehead right after you shoves all in (for the 4th hand in a row) and 3 other people call before it gets back to you, then fold it and wait for the next hand. You just have to let the idiots play themselves out and then start playing your normal game.
 
n3rv

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I never really understand players complaining about donks in donkaments. If you can't beat them, who do you expect to beat?

You can play tight-aggressive and you can beat them long-term. There is no reason to play bad poker just because everyone else is. If you are short-stacked just push all-in with a tighter range than your opponents. If you are getting it in behind or with coin-flips early on and you expect to last 3 hours then consider folding more, especially out of position or with too many callers. It's not that hard to min-cash more often if that is your goal. As for winning, you just need an upswing combined with the consistent good play.
 
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PapaC

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I'm also registered for all those tournys and going to use much of this advice here. But mostly i'm like kuphaldt, I plan to play tight, not only up until first break but the whole game. That is the way I play anyway. If i have good starting hands i try to just see the flop and see if i hit. Because for me raising pre-flop does not work and costs me a lot of my chips. But i will see a raise and usually it cost me less than it would to raise myself.
 
n3rv

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I'm also registered for all those tournys and going to use much of this advice here. But mostly i'm like kuphaldt, I plan to play tight, not only up until first break but the whole game. That is the way I play anyway. If i have good starting hands i try to just see the flop and see if i hit. Because for me raising pre-flop does not work and costs me a lot of my chips. But i will see a raise and usually it cost me less than it would to raise myself.

In my opinion, there is very little reason to be in a hand at all if you are not going in with the intention of winning it. You could be playing perfectly tight poker and still not be aggressive enough when you are in the lead both pre-flop and on the flop against most fishy players. Personally I think limping in with a hand you are unsure about is still wasting chips... it is just wasting less chips than min-raising and folding.

If you are confident you are ahead of your opponents' range most of the time then bet enough to be heads-up with one of them going to the flop. This could mean going all-in, or betting incredibly larger, and then betting again regardless of what the flop is (especially if you are in position and the play is checked to you on the flop). If you are not confident that you are ahead pre-flop and you are not going to bet the flop unless you hit it perfectly then you might as well just fold and wait for a better hand in a better position.

Hello guys, im new member of the forum, and of course, i love poker like many of you do out there.

I like to play tournaments freerolls to get some experience, but i notice the level of poker played there is pretty bad.

People start to shove every trash hand and still manage to beat premium hands since many people enter in the pot.

So i know that AA or KK i cant fold. But what hands do you think i have to call an all in pre flop against these type of maniac players in early stage?

I know many people says dat you have to play tight in early stage (first 30 min or so), but its not often you get AQ suited, AK suited or AJ suited. And even if i make a pretty strong size bet like 4 or 5 bb people still call with trash or even go all in. Its very sad to get beat by a worse hand and be out of the tournament this way.

From experience what do you recomend? And another question, is there a big difference of freerolls to 1 or 2 USD dollar buy in tournaments? I am thinking about making a deposit to play some "better" poker tournaments.

Thanks in advance!

Hello, welcome to the forum.

Let's say you have AQs in a good position and you are making 4BB bets and more than 2 players are calling or re-raising you all-in with worse hands. Why not just bet larger and go all-in before they do? There will be less players willing to call you if you are more aggressive, no-one can re-raise you, and anyone that does call will have a worse hand most of the time.

Personally, I think the key is just to always bet for value when you are confident you are in the lead. If your bets aren't getting respected and you know you have a better hand then bet for even more ridiculous value!

The more you bet big or fold the better. Try to avoid calling/limping in or raising lightly with premium hands - that is what allows too many other players to also tag along and catch up. If too many players are already in the pot before it gets to you and you are in a bad position then maybe consider folding.

Hope this helps. Boa sorte.
 
Henry Minute

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In freerolls, early stages anyway, the old maxim "tight is right, tighter is righter" applies IMHO.

Middle stages, open up your range a little but be careful in early positions.

By the time the bubble is near you are, mostly down to people that have some poker skills and at least think about what they, and you, are doing so you can play more poker.

Just my 2c.
 
madsquirrel

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are these freerolls started already?
 
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we will rock you

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nice shark promo coming up
 
Blu2323

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Tight at the beginning, lots of lose play just take advantage of it. In the mid you need to open up and start taking those big risks to set yourself up to have a nice stack for sitting down at that final table. You don't want to be in push fold mode at that point.
 
newbie in training

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i play mostly loose tye whole tourney and last time i played in a freeroll tourney i came in 24th out of 415 people for a nice 6 50 and when i went out i shoved my 8s with 10 bb in late position and got called by KAo...but i was ahead and should have won
 
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