3 useless strategies in freeroll tournaments and 1 that works

Originally Posted by Warrior1961

Hi everyone.

I read this strategy on the networks (in a Facebook group) and I found it interesting to share it.


3 useless strategies in freeroll tournaments and 1 that works

...Good advice....

I would love to read your opinions and comments.

Thanks for always being there.

Best regards from Buenos Aires.

Originally Posted by Warrior1961

Hi everyone.

I read this strategy on the networks (in a Facebook group) and I found it interesting to share it.


3 useless strategies in freeroll tournaments and 1 that works

1 - Go all-in in each hand
How many times have you been eliminated after facing the typical player who risks his stack in each hand? It will be at least a dozen, right?
Have you ever wondered why this happens? Are you facing a player benefiting from the room? You should know (and if we do not tell you again) that poker rooms do not help any player for several reasons and the first one is that they do not care who takes each hand or tournament, their benefits are the same.
If you think the software is "rigged" and that the room is interested in a worse player taking a hand, you must understand that you are completely wrong.
The reasons why a player acts in this way (betting on each hand) may be because he is not in the best conditions to play or because being a freeroll does not care much about the result and wants to enjoy the action.
But you should not worry about this type of player since acting in this way will never win a tournament, even having all the luck in the world. Although when facing an all-in and losing to such a player you can think that this strategy can be a winner, this is not the case, a player who goes all-in in each hand will never win a tournament.
Mathematics and odds are totally against this game strategy. Who plays like this, each hand that disputes is closer to falling eliminated, being his options to reach the practically null prize positions.
If you think that we are not right and that the software is tricky, we recommend that you write down each of the hands in which you go all-in to realize that it is much easier for you to take the bet the stronger your hand is. If you write a high enough number you will see that this is so.


2 - Bet on bluff
A major mistake that many players make in freeroll is to bluff. If you play such a tournament, you better not even think about bluffing.
Why shouldn't you do it? He thinks that a freeroll tournament is a specific tournament with its own characteristics.
Of the nine players sitting at the tables, three of them may have minimal knowledge of poker, three others will probably be playing other tournaments at the same time and will not be too attentive to what happens and the remaining two may not be too aware of the game.
The vast majority of occasions when you risk your chips with a bluff will receive a call from one of the opponents, usually having a better hand than yours (since you bluff bluffs).
In the freeroll tournaments a lamppost can rarely be carried out successfully, being a mistake to adopt this strategy in this type of tournaments.
If you want to succeed in freeroll, avoid the lanterns in your game.

3 - Play manual
After reading the previous point, you are probably thinking of playing wisely and making all the correct movements, but that you do it cannot prevent the rest of the players from making incomprehensible movements.
To play in the freeroll is not necessary to forget all the strategy articles read, but it is also not convenient to follow his advice to the letter since this type of tournaments is very different from the rest. Logic is not usually applied in freeroll.
Have you read in several strategy articles that a 3-fold rise in the big blind can help you take the pre-flop boat? Forget this in freeroll as these climbs to steal the boat do not work in these tournaments.
Another case is when there is a short player all-in and you try to reach the showdown by checking in the streets. In freeroll this never works because there is always someone who will try to hold your hand even on the river, the logic in these tournaments shines for their absence.


Strategy that DOES work in freeroll

Once it has become clear to you that traditional and usual strategies do not usually work in freeroll tournaments, that there are too many players that do not follow logic, it is time to try to find a way to take advantage of the aforementioned.
Here are a series of tips that will help you in freeroll.
Clean whenever you can. This recommendation is difficult to find in the strategy articles since cleaning is not the best move at poker tables with real money. In freeroll tournaments, every time you open your hand with a bet on starting positions you usually find a player behind who resumes strong or even does all-in.
If you meet with AK, JJ or superior couple, a premium hand, it is advisable to bet since it is normal for a player to see your bet with cards worse than yours.
As a general rule, the best option is to clean and wait for rivals to make mistakes. The closer you are to the button, the better option is to clean, to finish all-in if you improve after the flop and have double pairs or trio (or set) since many players are able to see strong bets with only one partner or even less.
See bets (and not re-raise) with the highest pair and the best kicker. Even if you are used to playing aggressively, we recommend that on boards like AJ953, with AK, just call and don't try to force too much.
It is possible that you find a player with double pairs or with a miraculously completed project, but there are also options for the opponent to have a worse hand than yours.
Top pair with the best kicker is usually the best hand, but that does not mean you have to risk too much.
Go all-in face with a monster. If you find a pair of jacks or better as an initial hand, it is not worth trying to optimize these by slowplay or some strange movement.
The best thing you can do with this type of initial hands is to put your chips in the center and wait. In this type of tournaments it is normal for some player to see the bet with clearly worse cards than yours, which will allow you to see your stack grow.
That said, in freeroll tournaments it is convenient to adopt a loose-passive style of play, just the opposite of what is usual in tournaments and tables with real money.
As soon as you have managed to grow your stack, it is convenient that you be cautious again to avoid the madness of the rest of the players making you risk more than necessary.
Following these simple rules, the chances of succeeding in freeroll tournaments are much greater, so it is harder to feel the usual frustration you feel after falling eliminated after some strange movement of a rival.
Remember that freeroll events are different from the rest because players do not have to invest their own money, so it is necessary to follow a different strategy than usual.



I would love to read your opinions and comments.

Thanks for always being there.

Best regards from Buenos Aires.

Originally Posted by Warrior1961

Hi everyone.

I read this strategy on the networks (in a Facebook group) and I found it interesting to share it.


3 useless strategies in freeroll tournaments and 1 that works

1 - Go all-in in each hand
How many times have you been eliminated after facing the typical player who risks his stack in each hand? It will be at least a dozen, right?
Have you ever wondered why this happens? Are you facing a player benefiting from the room? You should know (and if we do not tell you again) that poker rooms do not help any player for several reasons and the first one is that they do not care who takes each hand or tournament, their benefits are the same.
If you think the software is "rigged" and that the room is interested in a worse player taking a hand, you must understand that you are completely wrong.
The reasons why a player acts in this way (betting on each hand) may be because he is not in the best conditions to play or because being a freeroll does not care much about the result and wants to enjoy the action.
But you should not worry about this type of player since acting in this way will never win a tournament, even having all the luck in the world. Although when facing an all-in and losing to such a player you can think that this strategy can be a winner, this is not the case, a player who goes all-in in each hand will never win a tournament.
Mathematics and odds are totally against this game strategy. Who plays like this, each hand that disputes is closer to falling eliminated, being his options to reach the practically null prize positions.
If you think that we are not right and that the software is tricky, we recommend that you write down each of the hands in which you go all-in to realize that it is much easier for you to take the bet the stronger your hand is. If you write a high enough number you will see that this is so.


2 - Bet on bluff
A major mistake that many players make in freeroll is to bluff. If you play such a tournament, you better not even think about bluffing.
Why shouldn't you do it? He thinks that a freeroll tournament is a specific tournament with its own characteristics.
Of the nine players sitting at the tables, three of them may have minimal knowledge of poker, three others will probably be playing other tournaments at the same time and will not be too attentive to what happens and the remaining two may not be too aware of the game.
The vast majority of occasions when you risk your chips with a bluff will receive a call from one of the opponents, usually having a better hand than yours (since you bluff bluffs).
In the freeroll tournaments a lamppost can rarely be carried out successfully, being a mistake to adopt this strategy in this type of tournaments.
If you want to succeed in freeroll, avoid the lanterns in your game.

3 - Play manual
After reading the previous point, you are probably thinking of playing wisely and making all the correct movements, but that you do it cannot prevent the rest of the players from making incomprehensible movements.
To play in the freeroll is not necessary to forget all the strategy articles read, but it is also not convenient to follow his advice to the letter since this type of tournaments is very different from the rest. Logic is not usually applied in freeroll.
Have you read in several strategy articles that a 3-fold rise in the big blind can help you take the pre-flop boat? Forget this in freeroll as these climbs to steal the boat do not work in these tournaments.
Another case is when there is a short player all-in and you try to reach the showdown by checking in the streets. In freeroll this never works because there is always someone who will try to hold your hand even on the river, the logic in these tournaments shines for their absence.


Strategy that DOES work in freeroll

Once it has become clear to you that traditional and usual strategies do not usually work in freeroll tournaments, that there are too many players that do not follow logic, it is time to try to find a way to take advantage of the aforementioned.
Here are a series of tips that will help you in freeroll.
Clean whenever you can. This recommendation is difficult to find in the strategy articles since cleaning is not the best move at poker tables with real money. In freeroll tournaments, every time you open your hand with a bet on starting positions you usually find a player behind who resumes strong or even does all-in.
If you meet with AK, JJ or superior couple, a premium hand, it is advisable to bet since it is normal for a player to see your bet with cards worse than yours.
As a general rule, the best option is to clean and wait for rivals to make mistakes. The closer you are to the button, the better option is to clean, to finish all-in if you improve after the flop and have double pairs or trio (or set) since many players are able to see strong bets with only one partner or even less.
See bets (and not re-raise) with the highest pair and the best kicker. Even if you are used to playing aggressively, we recommend that on boards like AJ953, with AK, just call and don't try to force too much.
It is possible that you find a player with double pairs or with a miraculously completed project, but there are also options for the opponent to have a worse hand than yours.
Top pair with the best kicker is usually the best hand, but that does not mean you have to risk too much.
Go all-in face with a monster. If you find a pair of jacks or better as an initial hand, it is not worth trying to optimize these by slowplay or some strange movement.
The best thing you can do with this type of initial hands is to put your chips in the center and wait. In this type of tournaments it is normal for some player to see the bet with clearly worse cards than yours, which will allow you to see your stack grow.
That said, in freeroll tournaments it is convenient to adopt a loose-passive style of play, just the opposite of what is usual in tournaments and tables with real money.
As soon as you have managed to grow your stack, it is convenient that you be cautious again to avoid the madness of the rest of the players making you risk more than necessary.
Following these simple rules, the chances of succeeding in freeroll tournaments are much greater, so it is harder to feel the usual frustration you feel after falling eliminated after some strange movement of a rival.
Remember that freeroll events are different from the rest because players do not have to invest their own money, so it is necessary to follow a different strategy than usual.



I would love to read your opinions and comments.

Thanks for always being there.

Best regards from Buenos Aires.

Originally Posted by CDNMAN 42

Well I certainly agree with your analysis of freerolls and I have adopted similar strategy as you have suggested, however look as I have for an explanation of 'playing clean' or 'clean when you can' I can't determine the meaning so for this dummy please explain the 'playing clean' strategy...thanks

Originally Posted by Warrior1961

Hi everyone.

I read this strategy on the networks (in a Facebook group) and I found it interesting to share it.


3 useless strategies in freeroll tournaments and 1 that works

1 - Go all-in in each hand
How many times have you been eliminated after facing the typical player who risks his stack in each hand? It will be at least a dozen, right?
Have you ever wondered why this happens? Are you facing a player benefiting from the room? You should know (and if we do not tell you again) that poker rooms do not help any player for several reasons and the first one is that they do not care who takes each hand or tournament, their benefits are the same.
If you think the software is "rigged" and that the room is interested in a worse player taking a hand, you must understand that you are completely wrong.
The reasons why a player acts in this way (betting on each hand) may be because he is not in the best conditions to play or because being a freeroll does not care much about the result and wants to enjoy the action.
But you should not worry about this type of player since acting in this way will never win a tournament, even having all the luck in the world. Although when facing an all-in and losing to such a player you can think that this strategy can be a winner, this is not the case, a player who goes all-in in each hand will never win a tournament.
Mathematics and odds are totally against this game strategy. Who plays like this, each hand that disputes is closer to falling eliminated, being his options to reach the practically null prize positions.
If you think that we are not right and that the software is tricky, we recommend that you write down each of the hands in which you go all-in to realize that it is much easier for you to take the bet the stronger your hand is. If you write a high enough number you will see that this is so.


2 - Bet on bluff
A major mistake that many players make in freeroll is to bluff. If you play such a tournament, you better not even think about bluffing.
Why shouldn't you do it? He thinks that a freeroll tournament is a specific tournament with its own characteristics.
Of the nine players sitting at the tables, three of them may have minimal knowledge of poker, three others will probably be playing other tournaments at the same time and will not be too attentive to what happens and the remaining two may not be too aware of the game.
The vast majority of occasions when you risk your chips with a bluff will receive a call from one of the opponents, usually having a better hand than yours (since you bluff bluffs).
In the freeroll tournaments a lamppost can rarely be carried out successfully, being a mistake to adopt this strategy in this type of tournaments.
If you want to succeed in freeroll, avoid the lanterns in your game.

3 - Play manual
After reading the previous point, you are probably thinking of playing wisely and making all the correct movements, but that you do it cannot prevent the rest of the players from making incomprehensible movements.
To play in the freeroll is not necessary to forget all the strategy articles read, but it is also not convenient to follow his advice to the letter since this type of tournaments is very different from the rest. Logic is not usually applied in freeroll.
Have you read in several strategy articles that a 3-fold rise in the big blind can help you take the pre-flop boat? Forget this in freeroll as these climbs to steal the boat do not work in these tournaments.
Another case is when there is a short player all-in and you try to reach the showdown by checking in the streets. In freeroll this never works because there is always someone who will try to hold your hand even on the river, the logic in these tournaments shines for their absence.


Strategy that DOES work in freeroll

Once it has become clear to you that traditional and usual strategies do not usually work in freeroll tournaments, that there are too many players that do not follow logic, it is time to try to find a way to take advantage of the aforementioned.
Here are a series of tips that will help you in freeroll.
Clean whenever you can. This recommendation is difficult to find in the strategy articles since cleaning is not the best move at poker tables with real money. In freeroll tournaments, every time you open your hand with a bet on starting positions you usually find a player behind who resumes strong or even does all-in.
If you meet with AK, JJ or superior couple, a premium hand, it is advisable to bet since it is normal for a player to see your bet with cards worse than yours.
As a general rule, the best option is to clean and wait for rivals to make mistakes. The closer you are to the button, the better option is to clean, to finish all-in if you improve after the flop and have double pairs or trio (or set) since many players are able to see strong bets with only one partner or even less.
See bets (and not re-raise) with the highest pair and the best kicker. Even if you are used to playing aggressively, we recommend that on boards like AJ953, with AK, just call and don't try to force too much.
It is possible that you find a player with double pairs or with a miraculously completed project, but there are also options for the opponent to have a worse hand than yours.
Top pair with the best kicker is usually the best hand, but that does not mean you have to risk too much.
Go all-in face with a monster. If you find a pair of jacks or better as an initial hand, it is not worth trying to optimize these by slowplay or some strange movement.
The best thing you can do with this type of initial hands is to put your chips in the center and wait. In this type of tournaments it is normal for some player to see the bet with clearly worse cards than yours, which will allow you to see your stack grow.
That said, in freeroll tournaments it is convenient to adopt a loose-passive style of play, just the opposite of what is usual in tournaments and tables with real money.
As soon as you have managed to grow your stack, it is convenient that you be cautious again to avoid the madness of the rest of the players making you risk more than necessary.
Following these simple rules, the chances of succeeding in freeroll tournaments are much greater, so it is harder to feel the usual frustration you feel after falling eliminated after some strange movement of a rival.
Remember that freeroll events are different from the rest because players do not have to invest their own money, so it is necessary to follow a different strategy than usual.



I would love to read your opinions and comments.

Thanks for always being there.

Best regards from Buenos Aires.

Originally Posted by eetenor

Thank U 4 Posting.

I will only address the good advice tip.

You have made some good observations about freeroll player pool tendencies. Great job sharing them with us.
You made good points about these tendencies but then suggested actions which are a bit too straight forward to be most effective.

I responded to a post you had about how to get from freerolls to the Sunday million.
I suggested you had to lose more often trying to maximize your hand equity.
The good advice tips you suggest are not how you maximize equity consistently.

Yes you can go on a heater and win several freerolls with these strategies and if you have the right table dynamics they are good.

For the most part though we are risking more equity than we are getting in return when we take some of the actions you suggest.

Your AK example

AK on AJ953 You suggest taking it easy on this board and just calling. In reality if we think we are beat we should fold.

In freerolls you are suggesting the calling strategy in the early stages. We should be 3 betting and 4 betting AK preflop if we can and bet folding it when raised on turn or river.

Here is an example.

80bb stacks.

We have AK UTG

We raise to 4bb Why?
We know our V's do not fold to less if they even fold to that.
We get called by unknown V or several.

Flop AJ9 rainbow

pot 13bb. 2 callers. We assume 1 folds flop for this exmple.

We need to choose a bet size that says we have an Ace. Why?
So we can bet fold if we suspect our V's range to be 2 pair +. Why bet fold?
To protect our stack not the pot. Why protect the stack? We are more skilled and the larger stack enables us to get full value for that skill.

If we check our V may bet Ax 1 pair or Ax 2 pair for pot or set of 99 or Q10 or QJ or J10 etc all of these for a pot sized bet.

When we bet 8bb on flop and get called by V, many more of V's calling hands could be draws and weak Aces than if we check called.

On the turn 5 we bet again 8bb.
V is never folding any draw or single pair Ace. but if V has a big hand V is raising the turn.
Now instead of being 50% sure we are beat we can be 90% sure we are beat. We can now fold even though we will be being bluffed sometimes.

If we follow your advice.

We check call flop V can check back and realize their equity or V will bet half pot 7BB flop. Half pot turn 13bb- half pot river 27bb.
We call and see J9 the same J9 that would have potted flop and we could have folded.
What if the J9 bets pot on flop then pot again on the turn. Do we fold?
Would A7 bet pot flop and turn? What about KJ?
This is a freeroll who can know for sure.

Pot flop and turn if we call is: 13bb +39bb=52bb we have 24bb left pot is 117bb
How do we have any idea what to do in this spot?
We can never know what V has. As you pointed out V's will play like this with A7 but also AJ.

I hope from this example you can see the thought process behind my points.

We are always estimating when we play poker. Some people think that means guessing.

Calling villains bets is guessing it is 50/50.

There are actions we can take that give us enough data to move into the realm of estimates.
By betting in this spot our V's raises will always lean towards value therefore they will always be at least 55-45.
With enough observation you will notice that in freerolls those raises become more like 90-10 value. Yes sometimes their value will be AQ but we must think back to the stack protection strategy in tournaments not the hand equity protection.

What is important when gambling is we act on edges not on guesses.
We will be wrong sometimes but not that often if we know how to get an edge.


Hope this helps

Originally Posted by Warrior1961

Hi everyone.
3 useless strategies in freeroll tournaments and 1 that works
Best regards from Buenos Aires.

Originally Posted by Jon Poker

I found the read interesting and entertaining. It was a good post and I enjoyed it.
Anyhow, basically in short - I think we should apply normal gameplay strategies on freerolls so we do not pick up any foolish or bad habits we would be taking into real money games. Play your game and adjust accordingly as always.