Trouble in freerolls and lowstakes

elflake

elflake

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I played for a living from 2003-09 and then left poker. I recently had a catastrophic knee injury and while laid up I decided to play some online poker. Either I'm not as good as I used to be or playing freerolls and 1 cent-2cent Holdem is just too much luck and being beat by people who don't know how to play. Open to any suggestions on how to walk through these minefields.
 
UberRogue

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The first few levels you will see crazy plays. People donking all in a lot. I tend to play tight for the first few levels. Usually when the antes appear is when I goto normal playing.

The exception is CardsChat free rolls. It seems normal from the beginning. I still play tighter than what I would in a cash game.
 
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scubed

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I played for a living from 2003-09 and then left poker.
With your history as a pro, you should be able to adjust fairly quickly and work your way back up. Poker players have gotten smarter than they were back in the years you played for a living - both live and online. Study the trends to catch up with the latest plays in poker.

To walk through the mine-fields, ensure that you aren't tilting and making it worse. You WILL see the most ridiculous hands being played that make zero sense (for example, a 73o winner against AA when the hand was 4bet pre-flop, YES, it happens online). When you are on the wrong end of these types of plays, it can become frusterating.

My advice is study, keep your composure, play your A-game, and do your best not to fall into the trap of playing poorly.

Good luck!
 
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freestocks

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Making money from poker is like riding a bicycle, it will come back to you.
 
huefers

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Tight is right in the freeroll streets. You'll see 4+ way all-ins early on in the majority of tourneys. Wait for premiums and for others to make mistakes.
 
kraemer

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You should make a lot of money against people that don’t know how to play... Just make sure you have the bankroll to let them walk away with their occasional bad beat...
 
Newzooozooo

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Everything is very simple, you need to be patient and wait for good cards.
To begin with, you need to play freerolls, and when you start earning money in freerolls you can start playing at more expensive tournaments.
 
kratos

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I played for a living from 2003-09 and then left poker. I recently had a catastrophic knee injury and while laid up I decided to play some online poker. Either I'm not as good as I used to be or playing freerolls and 1 cent-2cent Holdem is just too much luck and being beat by people who don't know how to play. Open to any suggestions on how to walk through these minefields.
Welcome to the club!
To win freerools you need to know that every low pair your opponents have ;they will not fold;because is a freerool so It's hard to win this way.I See AA KK being beated by 33 55 or 77.Luck has to be with you a little bit.
 
bablovod

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30-40 minutes after the start of the tournament, many kamikaze lay their heads. after that, the pressure decreases, but still remains. so, you can take a wait-and-see attitude at the beginning.
 
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Inuksah

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Hi:) (i dont know if i'm in the right subject) i'm new on cardschat (and i'm a beginner in poker in general) i played a bit in play money to get handy with some mechanics, then watched couple hours of strategic help poker videos, and now i'm starting to play real money. I like pretty much spin&go, could you tell me if it's a good thing to start a comfortable bankroll and be able to play small tourneys/low stakes cg ? thank you very much :) (Sorry for my eventual English mistakes, not my first language ahah^^)
 
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MrTerek

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Welcome to the club!
To win freerools you need to know that every low pair your opponents have ;they will not fold;because is a freerool so It's hard to win this way.I See AA KK being beated by 33 55 or 77.Luck has to be with you a little bit.
this variant of the development of events is possible in any tournaments. in freerolls it happens more often at the begining)
 
elflake

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I had won 95 cents, 55 cents, and 11 cents twice in freerolls and started playing 2 cent blind cash games. I ran that up to over $7 and then spiraled down, then back to over $6, all the way down to 29 cents bankroll and then back up to over $6, eventually busting out. I know that two "mistakes" I made was buying in short,( back when I played $200 tables I would always keep the max on the table ), and not having enough of a bankoll to handle the variance,( when I played for a living I always had at least 10 full buy-ins for whatever table I was playing ). Need to win some freerolls now to get back in the cash games, though I'm seriously considering just depositing and playing "real" stakes.
 
elflake

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I have done this before, playing freerolls at ACR in 2002 that I ran up to a real bankroll. I was playing a $5-$10 limit weekly live game,( yes, we played limit poker back then; I remember when things started switching in 2003. One of the greatest inventions of online poker was the capped buy-in no limit game ), and I remember oohing and ahhing that 2000 people were online at Paradise Poker. I only deposited once, $500 at party poker,( for the deposit bonus; I moved money around constantly, making over $40,000 just off bonuses ). and lived off playing for 6 years. It was a godsend as I took care of my father the last several years of his life and I could sit in the living room with him while playing. Just back playing for fun now and have no desire to play for a living as I like my job.
 
elflake

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Of course back then ACR freerolls would only have 70 or 90 people in them. And they had ridiculous overlays on the 50 cent $1 buy-in tournaments.
 
This Fish Chums

This Fish Chums

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Playing Freerolls and Low Stakes Cash Games

When you're playing freerolls or low stakes cash games you have to realize that a lot of the "tricks of the trade" that you learn when playing at professional levels don't apply at the lower stakes. Here's some examples:

  • Bluffing people off hands is a lot more difficult. Many of these players don't see how much they could lose, they see how much they could win. This causes them to call with even marginal holdings. Now it is possible to bluff at such low stakes, but it's a whole different ballgame then higher stakes.
  • Players won't respect your stake size either. They look at larger stacks as an opportunity to double-up, not as an opportunity to get taken out. This is probably why you're able to build up to $5-7, but then come crashing down. Because people with marginal holdings are targeting you and getting lucky doing it.
  • Other players don't respect, or even notice, table image. Playing a tight game is a very good strategy, but thinking that everyone will realize you play tight and will "respect" your larger bets is a fallacy. Play your game, yes, but don't think you can bet larger than normal after you've been playing at a table for numerous rounds because people just aren't good enough to track how you play.
  • Now, on the other hand players will also try to bust you out if you have a small stack. There's something about low stakes players in cash games where they are used to playing tournaments and will risk some of their stack if it means they have a shot at busting you out of the cash game. So buy in with the max amount just like you would if you were buying in to a higher stakes game simply to avoid being a target, as invalid of a strategy that might be on their part.

In all honesty, my personal opinion is to get back to playing against players you were used to playing against before you stopped. If that means depositing and playing at the $1/2 tables then so be it.
 
H

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I would say rise to the challenge. You're obviously capable of it.
Adjust your tactics to accommodate for the rise of bad players, find different spots to build your stack.
It's so easy to build a stack if you're careful with your spots.
And by careful I don't mean waiting for AA, AK etc. I mean knowing you are ahead on your opponents and making the most of it.
The more bad players there are, the easier it is to identify where you can boost your stack. Just pay attention to why you're making that play.
I'm not a particularly good player and I finish ITM regularly in freerolls.
 
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clasrasmusso

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Especially when it comes to low bets, one usually plays more at risk. Where
a little cool and wait in the right hand or raise your bet. Cardchat tournament on Pokerstars is usually played with better poker.
Welcome back.
 
eberetta1

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It is not as easy to make money playing poker as it was pre-Black Friday. It was nothing to make an easy $3,000 a year, now I consider myself rather lucky if I can make around $300 a year
 
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AlbieTross

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Freerolls are difficult in the sense that in the beginning players are crazy and it's completely unpredictable how certain players will play certain cards. Many players in freerolls/low stakes are simply trying to double up early with whatever they have and if they lose, it doesn't really upset them, which is why with a low bankroll poker can be very crucial and difficult to properly execute.
 
bc2017

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Just stay calm and wait for the right moment to pounce. If I'm sitting on something like AA or KK at the very start, I usually risk all in because I'm a clear favourite and with people playing reckless in freerolls, I'll usually get at least one caller if not more and immediately become the big stack at the table. Of course, sometimes luck will go against you but when it's right at the start and you didn't pay an entry fee, I don't mind.
 
steeler1970

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In free rolls tournaments i have learned to just stay in when you are in the blinds with good cards and if not in the blinds i will fold good cards accept if a get like aces kings because like you say way to many people that stay in with anything and win
 
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kasapcho

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the game is so different from back than - now low stakes is harder than middle ones
 
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wacosteel

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Welcome to the club!
To win freerools you need to know that every low pair your opponents have ;they will not fold;because is a freerool so It's hard to win this way.I See AA KK being beated by 33 55 or 77.Luck has to be with you a little bit.


Also, people often will not fold draws. They will call off their whole stack chasing a flush draw or straight draw. Even for a gut-shot (inside straight).
 
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