Transitioning from Freerolls to Buy Ins

At the end of the month, I am going to switch from (mostly) Cards Chat freerolls to $1.10-$5.50 MTTs. What adjustments should I take into account?

Over the past 6 months, I have been playing mostly freerolls. I have dabbled in SnG and MTTs and even cash games. But my focus was to improve before moving into buy ins.

I have gone as far as I can go in freerolls. I have a $500 bankroll from freerolls, and currently lead the US side of the quarterly Leaderboard. I don't feel the transition will be difficult, but there are factors that can catch me unawares.

My hope is you guys (and gals) will help me think of issues I might face before they cost me money.

tl:dr Any advice for someone moving from freerolls into buy in MTTs?

Since you can now actually lose, it becomes important to not play, when you are not on top, like if you are sleep deprivated, hungover etc. And also game selection. Some event might tend to be softer than others for whatever reason. And maybe most important to avoid tilt in various forms, when you are losing, and for instance 20% of your bankroll is gone. Because this will invariably happen, unless your bankroll managent is overly conservative. Good luck

Hope your not planning on quitting freerolls the hangdude?
Even if had $50,000 sitting there in front of me I will still be opening 5 or 10 windows and playing freerolls until I die +EV all the way.
Yes but seriously your well rolled though for $5 games with 100 buy ins and take a couple of shots at the higher levels with 50 buy ins, Watch for overlays or withdraw and deposit again to take advantage of deposit offers and bonuses if available,
Play only when in good form have time and you are feeling fresh,properly fed and not tired like fundiver said good luck.:top:

I would stay away from cash games in the beginning. It can eat up your winnings quickly. Focus on MTT. Patience is by far the hardest skill to conquer. It is easy to get eliminated because there is a higher tendency of players overusing an "all-in" approach. Good Luck

Hi! I think you will succeed. I see that you are serious and thoroughly prepared. Few people move so smoothly and diligently from freerolls to playing for money. Start by selecting tournaments that are as similar in dynamics and structure as possible to the freerolls you have played. Good luck to you!

What about rebuying and add ons. Should I go in aggressive, prepared to rebuy if I get a bad beat? Or should I play more conservative and stick to one and done entry?

Having a positive balance in the freeroll games, I think you can easily join the tournament games for money.

I won Like 34$ on freerolls but still playing buyins of 0.01. Hard to get that step

First I would like to say that I dont think you should give up the CC freerolls. You can still play them and buy in events at the same time. It has been fun and extremely frustrating (since I cant beat you) playing against you in the freerolls and think you should stick around.

As far as the question goes I think you need to attack the buy ins just like you attack freerolls meaning you probably dont play scared playing freerolls since you cant lose anything so dont play scared playing any sized buy in event. You have the talent and know you have the talent to succeed so play your best always and everything will take care of itself.

My personal side of things is that I play micro events only along with freerolls and seem to do a lot better in freezeout events than I do in rebuy events. Freezeouts are harder to find but I feel as though even in micros it stops opponents from playing crazy more than events they know they can click a button and be right back in the action after making a stupid call (I like stupid calls but it prevents bluffs and of course they will suck out on you from time to time). That is just my view of things and you may not run into that. I honestly say you are better than me and may profit more from people doing stupid things as I am unable to recognize when it occurs and you are able to. Hope you do well in your journey but will close by saying you should still play the CC freerolls as they are one or two per day that you can still probably fit into your poker schedule and will give a boost to your roll.

poker tiers

playing for different stakes in poker requires discipline and the ability to put into practice all you have learnt in your long journey to where you are at right now, all players have bad days and good days the difference is good players know when to take a break and relax and reduce the tilt element as much as possible

300HPGOD said:

First I would like to say that I dont think you should give up the CC freerolls. You can still play them and buy in events at the same time. It has been fun and extremely frustrating (since I cant beat you) playing against you in the freerolls and think you should stick around.

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I will still dabble in the CC freerolls. I'm just not going to play every single freeroll, as I have the past couple months. Three or four days a week, I'll be there.

And you seemed to have stuck around longer than me at the final table tonight. Nice game.

As far as the question goes I think you need to attack the buy ins just like you attack freerolls meaning you probably dont play scared playing freerolls since you cant lose anything so dont play scared playing any sized buy in event. You have the talent and know you have the talent to succeed so play your best always and everything will take care of itself.

My personal side of things is that I play micro events only along with freerolls and seem to do a lot better in freezeout events than I do in rebuy events. Freezeouts are harder to find but I feel as though even in micros it stops opponents from playing crazy more than events they know they can click a button and be right back in the action after making a stupid call (I like stupid calls but it prevents bluffs and of course they will suck out on you from time to time). That is just my view of things and you may not run into that. I honestly say you are better than me and may profit more from people doing stupid things as I am unable to recognize when it occurs and you are able to. Hope you do well in your journey but will close by saying you should still play the CC freerolls as they are one or two per day that you can still probably fit into your poker schedule and will give a boost to your roll.

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Where do you find freezeouts? Best I've seen is about one hour late registration/rebuy (most are two hours LR). It's hard for me to go over two hours without a major mistake.

Thanks for your kind words.

Where do you find freezeouts? Best I've seen is about one hour late registration/rebuy (most are two hours LR). It's hard for me to go over two hours without a major mistake.

They are difficult to find. On ACR there are a handful (not exaggerating, literally a handful as in 3 or 4 lol) that run daily. They might all be knockout tournaments but there are a few there. Betonline has none that I know of that are regularly scheduled but there are some that special events that come up more than you think. There was one this past Monday that was great with a 10k starting stack and 15 minute levels. For those you just have to scan the lobby and hope. I did say they were hard to find and wasnt kidding but I do not look in the low stakes for them so maybe there are more around the $6-15 buy in level. I just put that in my post as it took me a while to figure out that freezeouts fit me more than rebuys. Wanted to pass that along to you as well as it may fit your game more too and could save you time and money of figuring it out. Good luck again and from your post Ill still see you around the freerolls once in a while next quarter.

Good Bro
must continue your game Champion! players with smaller Buyns are always crafting some Freerolls

Congrats for your nice BR, that's discipline!

The level of play in the cc freerolls is good, taking that into account and being a CC tournaments winner like u, I think you should continue playing in the tournament line.

Try to play micro tournaments, or buy in 10% of your BR or you could try some sit & go, games similar to the ones you are playing and without risking your BR.

Good luck on your next step!

Players tend to do crazy things in freerolls that they don't do when they paid real $ to enter.
So, pick your spots carefully.
Wait for opportunities -- not always superb hands, but places where you can get into a pot cheaply with the chance of outdrawing the field.

For example: You're BB with -- the somebody min-raises and gets 3 callers.
You can enter a 7.5BB pot for only 1BB more -- you would be surprised at how often that turns into cash.

(in my case, I'm surprised at how rarely, but that's another story)

thehangdude said:

What about rebuying and add ons. Should I go in aggressive, prepared to rebuy if I get a bad beat? Or should I play more conservative and stick to one and done entry?

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look at the rb/a mtt structure. sometimes, if the add-on is large enough, you can buy-in during the add-on break, take the add-on option, and start with a decent sized starting stack. if you buy-in before the break, you can do a buy-in + re-buy + add-on for even more big blinds. but, that really depends on how many extra big blinds you get. if it's only an extra 5 bbs, then it's not worth it imo.

if it's at least 25+ bbs starting with just a regular buy-in + add-on, then i'm fine with that. after that, it plays like a freeze out.

thehangdude said:

Where do you find freezeouts? Best I've seen is about one hour late registration

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888 Poker have several MTTs without rebuy or reentry. Late registration vary from 70 minutes (the new "classic" series) to more than 2 hours. pokerstars also have some, where there is late registration but one bullet per player. And then of course they have the SnG MTTs, which are truly freezeouts. But I think, you cant play on either site, because if I got it right, you are based in the US?

thehangdude said:

What about rebuying and add ons. Should I go in aggressive, prepared to rebuy if I get a bad beat? Or should I play more conservative and stick to one and done entry?

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R+A tournaments require an adjusted strategy, because the value of chips go down, when the add-ons are purchased. So the first goal in these is always to make it to the add-on break, so that you are able to buy these discounted chips. Its basically the same as going to a store, when they have sale. There are basically two approached, which makes sense:

1) Buy in just before, late registration closes, fold a hand or two (unless you pick up something really good of course) and then purchase the add-on. You gain a 100% sure edge this way, because you pay less for your chips than, what its worth. So its basically the same as registrering in the last minute for a tournament with an overlay.

2) Be there early, if the field is soft, and rebuy as many times as nessesary to make it to the add-on break. This gives a higher chance of cashing or winning, and skill edges will show more, but you spend more on each event, and on average you pay more per chip due to the rebuys.

Whichever method you choose, dont play higher than 2,2$ R+A with a 500$ bankroll. The 100 X rule does not apply to this format due to the add-ons.

I would still continue playing the freerolls and you can still play the buy ins as well but make sure you stick to bankroll management to be successful.

HungryLyan said:

I would still continue playing the freerolls and you can still play the buy ins as well but make sure you stick to bankroll management to be successful.

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Mixing in CC freerolls, when you are playing with a 500$ bankroll and say a 3$ average buyin for other events, can certainly make sense. At least if we are talking about the platinum level, where you dont have to compete with 2.000 players for a small price pool.

It might not increase your hourly winrate, if you are a solidly winning player, but it will increase your ROI and reduce the risk of significant downswings, because you essentially continue to add money to your bankroll, every time you cash in a freeroll.

The fear that you might lose money will slow down your game.But I wish you good luck!!!

The cost is chance now, from Zero yo loose real money si You should ve carefully, You better Star playing low-low, cash 01,02 sng 0.25, 0.50, 1$. And moving up ir You get better and better

The important thing when going to a higher limit is that you need to adhere to bankroll management.

Adrianlovera said:

The cost is chance now, from Zero yo loose real money si You should ve carefully, You better Star playing low-low, cash 01,02 sng 0.25, 0.50, 1$. And moving up ir You get better and better

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For someone, who already have a lot of experience in the CC platinum freerolls, I think, this would be a waste of time. Stakes this low are either for fun or practice, and he practiced already with the freerolls. Also what is even the worst, that can happen here? He might lose some of his 500$, but then he can just go back to freerolls to build it up again. If you are serious about online poker, then at some point you need to give it a shot and play for money, which is not completely meaningless, and 2-5$ MTTs are still very soft.

If you doing good in freerolls, specially if you doing good in CC freerolls,you will be good in the micro stakes to, maybe even better. You have solid bankroll to survive variance, and in your place I wouldn’t be afraid to go on the next level. I wish you good luck, and that gods of variance be on your side.