MemphisGrind
Think Bink
Bronze Level
Guess I'll take a stab at this..
I've currently got $148.89 across 3 sites playing only free rolls I started the challenge in Late September. It's not a "decent" bankroll by any stretch of the imagination matter of fact my live bankroll is over a hundred times that amount. However, it is a bankroll acquired starting with free rolls and that is what your post is concerning.
I recommend checking out my "Freeroll Challenge $0-$1000" In which you will get some insight into "how" to play freerolls, which freerolls to choose, and lessons learned while playing freerolls. Personally I'm going to wait until $1,000 before heading to the micros to do a $1,000-$10,000 challenge playing micros. Reason for me waiting is because I want to have the answer of how long it takes to make a $1,000 playing freerolls only.
To answer your question on Bankroll management, at minimum get $50-$100 in your account before playing 2NL. If you're going to be playing MTT's try and keep 100-200 buy ins in your account, for instance you can start playing .50 MTT's around $100. If you fall below the buy in amount go back to freerolls until you reach $100 again. Do whatever it takes to not let yourself touch the money in your account. It will take will power, and patience but it does you no favors to make money in freerolls and then blow it.
If you have an external source of income like a job, or side income and you are going to allot yourself a "budget" to play poker on then the bankroll management doesn't apply to you, you can simply pick your "allowed" or budgeted amount and play whatever stakes and whatever games you choose. Once your out of money, just wait until your next budgeted deposit, and try again. You will obviously not be profitable going this route, but it is good for learning, and having fun.
If you want more direct responses on how to win playing freerolls, I'll gladly dive in deeper to help out.
Good luck!
MemphisGrind
Think Bink
Bronze Level
So, from what I've noticed. The biggest mistake players make in freerolls is overvaluing their hands. There is a fine line between being able to exploit this, and learning to fold when the price isn't right.
As far as exploiting this goes, if you're leading the action getting Max value in these spots is important, especially in spots when you flop well like two pair + you will get paid off by TP or even MP a large majority of the time. recognizing these spots is very important so you can exploit these players that will pay you off light.
On the other side of it, when you flop decent but have a player betting crazy amounts at you, it's okay to fold. Even if you fold the best hand. Being the better player, you will have more profitable spots in the later parts of the tournament. "bad" players like to get their money into a high variance scenario early on in tournaments to make the tournament "easier" to navigate. So by making a few "tough" folds and picking better spots you will make it further and cash much more in these free rolls. I know it looks enticing to snap off the 200bb shoves early on and you see these players quadruple up in the first hand and think man, that could be me.
What you generally don't see is that these players that quadruple up the first hand will generally be busted before late reg. is even over with. It's much better to wait until antes are involved and the fold equity starts going up to start "making moves" and navigating through the tournament building your stack then.
As far as early on you want to stay away from multi-way pots. Against bad players or stations play a standard ABC poker strategy. Be patient, and pick good spots. Once the late reg. is over with and the chips become more valuable start evaluating stack sizes, and make your money off the shorter stacks, and stay away from the bigger stacks. Late in the tournament when fold equity is through the roof, play to win. Keep your image as tight, but steal, and 3 bet at a fairly high amount. If you start noticing that you are getting it in and you're not ahead every time, you need to evaluate your range. You will bust with the best hand a large majority of the time, but this is part of the game. Over the long run, you will come out ahead.
Tournaments can not be won in the first few hands, but you can absolutely lose them in the first few hands. Protect your stack until it's worth something.
As far as exploiting this goes, if you're leading the action getting Max value in these spots is important, especially in spots when you flop well like two pair + you will get paid off by TP or even MP a large majority of the time. recognizing these spots is very important so you can exploit these players that will pay you off light.
On the other side of it, when you flop decent but have a player betting crazy amounts at you, it's okay to fold. Even if you fold the best hand. Being the better player, you will have more profitable spots in the later parts of the tournament. "bad" players like to get their money into a high variance scenario early on in tournaments to make the tournament "easier" to navigate. So by making a few "tough" folds and picking better spots you will make it further and cash much more in these free rolls. I know it looks enticing to snap off the 200bb shoves early on and you see these players quadruple up in the first hand and think man, that could be me.
What you generally don't see is that these players that quadruple up the first hand will generally be busted before late reg. is even over with. It's much better to wait until antes are involved and the fold equity starts going up to start "making moves" and navigating through the tournament building your stack then.
As far as early on you want to stay away from multi-way pots. Against bad players or stations play a standard ABC poker strategy. Be patient, and pick good spots. Once the late reg. is over with and the chips become more valuable start evaluating stack sizes, and make your money off the shorter stacks, and stay away from the bigger stacks. Late in the tournament when fold equity is through the roof, play to win. Keep your image as tight, but steal, and 3 bet at a fairly high amount. If you start noticing that you are getting it in and you're not ahead every time, you need to evaluate your range. You will bust with the best hand a large majority of the time, but this is part of the game. Over the long run, you will come out ahead.
Tournaments can not be won in the first few hands, but you can absolutely lose them in the first few hands. Protect your stack until it's worth something.
J
joshua360
Enthusiast
Silver Level
Decent
900 hundred is decent....great actually. I've always played my winnings, never had the will power to let it build up. I've made a few deposits but had no concept of bank roll management. I'm starting the free roll challenge, not going to spend a cent until I build up $1,000. I worked my way up through the venom steps on ACR today, I've got a 200$ ticket to step 5. The on demand free rolls on ACR are tough to get through. Getting in the cardschat free roll club will hopefully help out.
900 hundred is decent....great actually. I've always played my winnings, never had the will power to let it build up. I've made a few deposits but had no concept of bank roll management. I'm starting the free roll challenge, not going to spend a cent until I build up $1,000. I worked my way up through the venom steps on ACR today, I've got a 200$ ticket to step 5. The on demand free rolls on ACR are tough to get through. Getting in the cardschat free roll club will hopefully help out.
azforlife
Legend
Bronze Level
Very impressive! How though???
Andrew Popov
Legend
Bronze Level
You can start playing at the tables with real money as soon as you have enough to start the session. Accumulate 5-7 BI for a start - and go!
Such a bankroll is certainly not sufficient from the point of view of a conservative BRM, but you can start the game and continue to replenish it with the help of freerolls.
naydanazar
Rock Star
Silver Level
I divorce myself from the freerolls, started on the partypoker, at the moment it turns out well and there are good satellites (I recommend) ..
S
spr0ck3t
Rock Star
Silver Level
Memphisgrind answered this a lot more in depth than I can, but I started in November with freerolls and am now playing .50 / $1 SnGs/MTTs with about a $110 bankroll as of tonight.
I'm not exactly flying through my own $0-$100 challenge but it's definitely possible to work up a micro bankroll from freerolls (especially with great community ones like cardscaht's)!
I'm not exactly flying through my own $0-$100 challenge but it's definitely possible to work up a micro bankroll from freerolls (especially with great community ones like cardscaht's)!
S
spr0ck3t
Rock Star
Silver Level
Actually - I might have one thing to offer about bankroll management (I also might not; if I'm off on this please correct me!)
100-200 BI for MTTs seems like it might be a little conservative? At 100 BI your risk of ruin is still pretty low, and your chance of shipping a tournament for half of your bankroll is higher. Even taking a shot above your bankroll twice a week for $1 out of your $50 bankroll, worst case scenario, is a cheap learning session. If you're paying your bills with it or you've built up a few thousand dollars, obviously it's super risky - but if your worst case scenario is moving back to the freerolls you just came from, it seems worth it.
I took my first shot at a 'big' (50 cent) cash MTT when I was around $40 and shipped it - that $30 mattered a lot more than the freerolls I'd won, and having to win some freerolls to make it back to $40-50 if I went down to $20 seemed worth it.
You also don't need to drop back to freerolls as soon as you drop below 100BI - I set my personal limit at 50% of my bankroll, and will be slowly raising both that and the bankroll/buyin ratio I'll be playing with as I build up a bankroll worth protecting.
cash game is not my game 
makisaa
Legend
Loyaler
You can create a nice bankroll from the freerolls. Then you can go to mtts micros or to the "sit n go" and try to make profits there. The cash games are more dangerous for your bankroll and they need different strategy. A bankroll of around 100$ is a good start!
K
krezip
Enthusiast
Silver Level
a long time (10years?) ago I played a bunch of freerolls and finally manage to cash something like 10 or 20bucks.
Somehow I managed to turned that into enough money to start participating into smaller tourneys and I took 3rd place in a 5.50 tourney for around 1.6k. After that I ran that up to around 6k USD playing PLO8 and that turned into 12 or so. This all took quite some time though. I think I played a lot of SitNGos at the time and they were pretty soft.
Eventually I stopped because the games got more and more volatile and I hard a hard time dealing with the downswings. I also realized that I'd had so many misses (34rd in the Million, bubbling a final table as the big stock with 3 dominating hands in a row (KK vs AJ, AK vs AT and JJ vs A8) that the winrate (20-25USD/hr) wasn't worth the stress.
Watching a lot again lately and hopefully will be able to play some tourneys again for the fun of it without worrying about building a bankroll or striking it big.
Somehow I managed to turned that into enough money to start participating into smaller tourneys and I took 3rd place in a 5.50 tourney for around 1.6k. After that I ran that up to around 6k USD playing PLO8 and that turned into 12 or so. This all took quite some time though. I think I played a lot of SitNGos at the time and they were pretty soft.
Eventually I stopped because the games got more and more volatile and I hard a hard time dealing with the downswings. I also realized that I'd had so many misses (34rd in the Million, bubbling a final table as the big stock with 3 dominating hands in a row (KK vs AJ, AK vs AT and JJ vs A8) that the winrate (20-25USD/hr) wasn't worth the stress.
Watching a lot again lately and hopefully will be able to play some tourneys again for the fun of it without worrying about building a bankroll or striking it big.
Flight777sem
Rock Star
Silver Level
I think it’s kinda possible but definitely it will be harder to achieve to the decent bankroll , because of you’ll be playing mostly so low micro things. In my opinion, starting and using freeroll as a first step makes sense then you gotta step up.
MatMackenz
Visionary
Silver Level
I have built up a solid bankroll almost exclusively from freerolls and freebies. It will grow rather quickly once you can figure out which games are worth the time to play in.
You want to look at the effective buy-in for the freeroll, which is essentially the prize pool divided by the number of players.
Avoid playing in any game where your eff. buy-in is significantly under 0.10$ (ie: 1000 players/$100) Hyper Turbo Freerolls are an exception as they dont take much time.
You want to look at the effective buy-in for the freeroll, which is essentially the prize pool divided by the number of players.
Avoid playing in any game where your eff. buy-in is significantly under 0.10$ (ie: 1000 players/$100) Hyper Turbo Freerolls are an exception as they dont take much time.