Man freerolls are so frustrating

Aleksei

Aleksei

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I'm flat broke so I've been playing the BCP 50kg super-satellite freerolls. I play a bunch of them (several a day if I can), but I haven't placed in a single one. I keep varying my strategy to see what hits -- I've so far tried:

-Smallball (runs into the problem that I have basically zero fold equity and my M is never higher than like 25 unless I'm running like God),
-Limping in a bunch with implied-odds hands like SCs/SGs, SBs and SAs (has high IOs because you usually get callers if you shove in with anything, but I just usually have to give it up when some idiot shoves pre),
-Playing super ABC tag-nit (get blinded out and/or sucked out on because again I have super-shitty fold equity).

The biggest problem I guess is that the levels are just like 5 minutes long and you start out with 33BB, so your skill edge is minimal, but still, there HAS to be a correct strategy I can take here. Any ideas?
 
Beanfacekilla

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I'm flat broke so I've been playing the BCP 50kg super-satellite freerolls. I play a bunch of them (several a day if I can), but I haven't placed in a single one. I keep varying my strategy to see what hits -- I've so far tried:

-Smallball (runs into the problem that I have basically zero fold equity and my M is never higher than like 25 unless I'm running like God),
-Limping in a bunch with implied-odds hands like SCs/SGs, SBs and SAs (has high IOs because you usually get callers if you shove in with anything, but I just usually have to give it up when some idiot shoves pre),
-Playing super ABC tag-nit (get blinded out and/or sucked out on because again I have super-shitty fold equity).

The biggest problem I guess is that the levels are just like 5 minutes long and you start out with 33BB, so your skill edge is minimal, but still, there HAS to be a correct strategy I can take here. Any ideas?

Man freerolls are tough. Sounds like a very tough blind structure also.

I would try and play somewhat nitty. No bluffing. Get it in with big draws, and hope to catch perhaps?

I feel eventually you will have some run-good, and make it deep. Just keep plugging away at them.

I know this probably doesn't help much. It may even be bad advice. I don't know. freerolls sure are tough.
 
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Zin

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Most freerolls are rough going, players going all in most hands, suck outs are the norm etc...
 
steveiam

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For me it's getting past the early stages. Once you are in mid to late stages the poker starts to settle down and you can start to make some moves. TAG early and then widen your range later. I have won a couple and placed in quite a few but also bombed in quite a lot.
 
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jacky138

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Its really hard to win a freeroll with so many players and so little spots, but there are a lot of players who go all in with any type of hand and people whose away, you can use them to your advantage.
 
JohnBoyWWFC

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The fields will be big and you will have to dodge a ton of mines to get anywhere in them and mostly they are not worth your time. I assume you are in the CC freeroll club, where prizes are better and fields much smaller? If not, get in it. Use the rest of your time reading and learning instead of wasting hours trying to win a few bucks in a freeroll.
 
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inflnlte

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You really have to play different in freerolls. Playing really tight will help. Not winning freerolls doesnt mean you are a bad player. Big fields and only a few people will win so its hard to make it deep. A good strategy would be to play really reckless in the first 10-15 minutes and try to double-triple your stack. A lot of times, these all ins that donkeys do are a strategy to keep playing or then just go to the next freeroll.
 
naruto_miu

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These are turbos for staters (so you'd need more luck to be withyou).
Secondly as JW pointed out, fileds are huge so you got to dodge more mines..
Last and final part to these is you must do it over again (hence 2 stages)

I tired these acouple of times, and the real big issue I find is that (honestly it's not worth your time)...I understand the "what if" aspect to it..The reasoning your playing these in the 1st place (Is A), your broke, (B), It's becasue it's a super Satty to a bigger event)...Yet realistically speaking, the odds of you making it in the 1st satty, and placing in the 2nd satty are so slim, that honestly speaking it's not really worth it for your time, to try in these...

As JW pointed out, your best bet is to play the CC free-rolls, and just work from it slow and steady...

If you do decided to play these, than just play very tight, and shove preflop with A9s+, as usally you can tell from a few orbits the stations and so forth at the table...That's the best advice I can give you
 
Aleksei

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The fields will be big and you will have to dodge a ton of mines to get anywhere in them and mostly they are not worth your time. I assume you are in the CC freeroll club, where prizes are better and fields much smaller? If not, get in it. Use the rest of your time reading and learning instead of wasting hours trying to win a few bucks in a freeroll.
Well I'm not playing the cash freerolls, those aren't worth my time in the slightest (first prize is like 13 bucks and prizes are paid out to like 1% of the field). I've been trying to sat into the 50kgtd at BCP, where a min-cash would be 2-3k depending on the field (also I just have to dodge 300-400 eliminations usually, rather than 3,000 in cash freerolls like Carbon's)

And, yeah I'm in the freeroll club as of two days ago.
 
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alexb87

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I play really tight at first and take advantage of donks when i do get a hand.. When the tourney gets an hour in it usally calms down alot. but still just be paient and play good hands
 
Chronical23

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Freerolls are a critical stage in everyone's poker career. The buy is increicible odds $0 to win money thats overalll the best odds ever. Freerolls entice so many entrants that its a mayhem and a lottery at times to win... even if it was the lottery though its still much better odds with a max of 5000 players usually versus millions in an actual lotto. I think freerolls teach one of the most basic lessons you will ever learn... Patience. You must wade out the first 25% of trash throwing away hands less than premium of AA, Ak, KK, or Aq. Everyone has the same equoity to win money during the first rounds. Until atleast that percent of the field is gone I'd say gambling won't help. After these first donks are out and the blinds are about 3x higher... now focuse in on your table and see what donks are left and who has been aggresive/passive. These first few rounds of silence has now built us a table image worthy of being folded to when we don't have the nuts against premium shark players. At this stage it's time to realize who will call us with any two cards and who will fold to our all in re raise with jack poop in the hole because they don't wanna give up their sizable chip stack at the current moment to a player that hasn't played any less than premium hands or make the opponent fold because we know they have been folding to all re/raise or arre sitting out at this moment.... ANOTHER KEY IN FREEROLLS... Internet poker has its flaws and there is no harm in exploiing them. If a player is sitting out for a few rounds of blind always always raise to him in the blinds to stop the hand and have his computer fold away his chip stack. :)

One last tip on freerolls is this... TABLE IMAGE this is the practice stage for touney life play a freeroll without multitabling and go into it with the mind of chris ferguson and dominate the playing field using all note taking a strategy given advice. It will help and get you further.

If my advice still doen't help you to win in a freeroll Private Message me for for detailed coaching
 
Aleksei

Aleksei

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Freerolls are a critical stage in everyone's poker career. The buy is increicible odds $0 to win money thats overalll the best odds ever. Freerolls entice so many entrants that its a mayhem and a lottery at times to win... even if it was the lottery though its still much better odds with a max of 5000 players usually versus millions in an actual lotto. I think freerolls teach one of the most basic lessons you will ever learn... Patience. You must wade out the first 25% of trash throwing away hands less than premium of AA, Ak, KK, or Aq. Everyone has the same equoity to win money during the first rounds. Until atleast that percent of the field is gone I'd say gambling won't help. After these first donks are out and the blinds are about 3x higher... now focuse in on your table and see what donks are left and who has been aggresive/passive. These first few rounds of silence has now built us a table image worthy of being folded to when we don't have the nuts against premium shark players. At this stage it's time to realize who will call us with any two cards and who will fold to our all in re raise with jack poop in the hole because they don't wanna give up their sizable chip stack at the current moment to a player that hasn't played any less than premium hands or make the opponent fold because we know they have been folding to all re/raise or arre sitting out at this moment.... ANOTHER KEY IN FREEROLLS... Internet poker has its flaws and there is no harm in exploiing them. If a player is sitting out for a few rounds of blind always always raise to him in the blinds to stop the hand and have his computer fold away his chip stack. :)

One last tip on freerolls is this... TABLE IMAGE this is the practice stage for touney life play a freeroll without multitabling and go into it with the mind of chris ferguson and dominate the playing field using all note taking a strategy given advice. It will help and get you further.

If my advice still doen't help you to win in a freeroll Private Message me for for detailed coaching
Much appreciated. :) Would appreciate a properly-structured paragraph more though... this seems decent advice, but it was hard to wade through it =\ no offense.
 
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doomvein

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I dont know.. i play hundred 100 times at pokerstars freeroll and never win anything.. :(

I dont know when my chip reach bubble phase, i am always lose big and big .... :(
 
steveiam

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I have cashed quite a few times and won a couple..with a tight strategy and then looser in the later stages..Had to fold a couple of big hands and hit a couple of coin flips but I got there in the end.
 
dirtyoldog

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i play that one alot iether on acr or bcp. i find just be patient it only lasts like an hour and twenty minsand top 40 move on to the nightly one .when you get your spot pounce on it.once you get to like 10000 you can chill and let time tick by without playing and make it.the same with the nightly one top 30 move on and there isnt that many players in that one you can be more patient.the saturday one is a different story i think only 3 peaple win a seat which i never have.i won my seat for this saturday yesterday good luck. but the cc freerolls are the best by far i do well here and your not jumping through hoops to win and its not a donkey shovefest.i just wish we in the states could attend more of them.oh ya i took first in the omoha freeroll on acr a couple nights ago i think i won like 15b ucks there im glad they offer these now.
 
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guppystew

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Great advice given here.
CC rolls are the best way to learn though, apply the advise given and your game will surely improve.
 
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velvetrix

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I have the same issues, I have gotten close a few times, but when the later stages come and you don't have a big stack it's hard not to get pushed around by the big stack bullies. Luck in the first stages, skill towards the end I believe is how you can really have a chance of getting a place.
 
Colbefc

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I play in the points freerolls on PS and although there are a couple of thousand players in them I cash in at least one in three.
I play TAG in them. In the early stages I play very tight, only playing premium hands, unless see an obvious fish, in which case I will loosen up.
In the late middle stages you have got to start gambling, it is no good playing tight when antes come into play, you have to loosen up.
Hope this helps you.
You need luck and skill in all stages in freerolls, they both go together, you cant win a freeroll, or any tourney without either.
 
Propane Goat

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I've been playing Carbon $50 freerolls and almost always find myself limping along with a short stack. I've seen people shove all in with drawing hands multiple times or stuff like A2o, it's more like bingo than poker. I watched the chip leader for a while the other night at that table and this person was raising 10x+ bb every single round against 9 other short stacks, of course he could afford to because he had a stack over 10 times larger than everyone else. I watched him steal the blinds over ten times in a row, then when somebody finally went all in with ~600 chips he turned over 72o vs AJs and still won the hand anyway. I wonder sometimes if I'm just not being aggressive enough and am just a typical fish, especially when I sit there 30-45 minutes in with about the same chips as when I started and there's a whole bunch of people on the leaderboard with chip counts at 10k+.
 
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Well I'm not playing the cash freerolls, those aren't worth my time in the slightest (first prize is like 13 bucks and prizes are paid out to like 1% of the field). I've been trying to sat into the 50kgtd at BCP, where a min-cash would be 2-3k depending on the field (also I just have to dodge 300-400 eliminations usually, rather than 3,000 in cash freerolls like Carbon's)

And, yeah I'm in the freeroll club as of two days ago.

The 50KGTD is a $215 BI. A min-cash would not be 2-3k man.... it would be like $300. BCP pays out a higher % of the field, somewhere in the 18-22% I think. I would avoid wasting your time playing in mega FR's. Why don't you just join more Fr sites and build up a BR the proper way. I would scour site Private lobbies and find more free Private games. Some of these private games are pretty juicy. You should be able with some skill and discipline, to build a $200 BR in 1 month. From there you should branch out into $1 and $2 games. I built a $4000 roll on Carbon from $0 in the span of 6 weeks. It can be done.
 
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