Building a bankroll from freerolls

[sCATpoker]

Lots of good advice above..myself i would stay away from play chips that route is time consuming and teaches you to play bad if you ask me...stick to private freerolls where the number is lo. Or public ones where the payout is decent enough to make it worth your time if you do cash. Personally i wouldnt play in a publically open freeroll (unless just killing time) unless first place was at least 100 dollars . played for several years winning a few and always getting drunk overplaying my BRM or lack there of would be a better word for it seems like i would consistantly win about 30 bucks or so average than have one too many on the weekend and blow it like clockwork on the weekend while drinking. about six weeks ago got tired of the same cycle so i made a spreadsheet to keep track of everything. Been sticking to my BRM plan 5% max buy in for ring games and 2% max buy in for tourneys...and yes i still get drunk but only allow myself to play on freerolls while drinking because i play like a dumbass when i do. Been working pretty well so far in the last six weeks
starting with a $3.50 win on the public bodog 500 i currently have got my bankroll up to 438 dollars. granted it was spread out over several sites (but mostly on three) have had little trouble moving it around. via freinds that are willing to trade cash on one site for cash on another (dont recommend this , unless it is with someone you are confident will follow through with the swap) so been playing several lo dollar buy in mtt (with a chance at a decent payout in relation to my bankroll) and playing ring games nlhe and plo/8 between tourneys. Also another rule i have made for myself buying in for 100bb to whatever ring game fits into my BR if i end up more than 2 buy ins for the day i quit and just play freerolls or points games...for example...my bankroll is $438 so that limits me to a max buy in of around 20 bucks into a ring game(10c/20c max) if i were two lose two buy ins consecutive or end up 40 bucks down for the day . I would quit cash play for the day and just play freerolls . My theroy on this is if youre running bad enough to drop 10 percent in one day it probably isnt your day and your mind frame is probably going to be a little upset at the loss. So just quit regroup and try again someother day...usually though if i lose one 5 percent buy in i will move down in my stakes. to like 5c/10c ring game just to avoid being stuck playing freerolls for the rest of the day. Ive done what i think is ok for me the key for me was to start charting my action on the spreadsheet after i did that i realized what an idiot i had been blowing my little roll consistanly playing drunk. which if i hadnt god only knows what it could of been over the last several years.

 

[Mr_Gone]

This is great info. Thanks

 

[Cheese]

PKR freerolls are the way to go. A lot of people might not agree with me. But there 10 cent giveaways are a great way to play for money with no risk. 10 players, first gets $0.06 and second get $0.04. You can play 1 every 20 minutes as long as you have less then $1 in your account. Then they got 12 cent buyin level 1 SNGs. 1st gets 40 cents, and 4th gets 12 cents back. Plus u get a PKR point for every cent of rake.

 

[Slow Roll Poker]

Building a bankroll from freerolls definitely isn't easy. It takes good poker playing to do so.

Playing the CC freerolls would definitely help especially with the $200 prize pools and how often they are.

The key to freerolls is to outlast the donkeys and play good poker until the end.

Good luck with your bankroll and I hope you can build something decent.

 

[jh1spartanfan]

I've built my whole bankroll from freerolls, got up to about $650. So, it is possible. Here's some tips:

First, build your bankroll up a little bit before you try to play real money games. At least to about $5 or $10.

Second, now, this will seem weird and you probably won't want to do it, but before you play real money games take a little 5-7 day break. Why? Freerolls and real money are a lot different. If you just jump in you'll do a lot of the same things you do in freerolls and you'll get crushed. Even if you're a good player when you do things enough they become habits and you want to get out of your freeroll habits.

Third, follow good bankroll management. At first, it will be impossible, but once you can, you need to follow it. It's easier said, then done, because you feel likes it's free money, but if you don't follow bankroll management then you'll be back to playing freerolls.

Hope that these help.

 

[Mortis]

BelgoSuisse would be the one to talk about building a bankroll from nothing, here, as he actually did the Ferguson Challenge and went from $0 - $10,000.

Me, I've went from $0 - $450 by following correct bankroll management and the advice from some of the best threads here.. but ended up losing most of it by straying from that path and entering into a lot of the MiniFTOPS games last year in the fall, and not cashing in one of them.

Two of the best freeroll games to get into on full tilt poker:

1) CardsChat Freerolls: Absolute best freerolls there are. Good quality players with an average of 130-150 players during our Tuesday and Saturday freerolls. They are $200 freerolls that usually pay out the top 18, sometimes top 27 if there are enough players, and the first one out ITM gets $2, with the winner getting either $46 or $54 (again, depending on the amount of players)

2) Full Tilt Facebook Freerolls: Full Tilt's facebook holds 400 player max $100 freerolls. About 10% of the field cash, and would give you a nice little addition to your baby bankroll. You have to keep an eye out on their facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/fulltiltpoker

 

[ballers101]

Yeah I cant wait to become a CardsChat Freeroll member, but until then I have to learn to play properly play poker, I think I'm going to lose so easily.

 

[asiancurse]

Freerolls aren't easy there hard...especially the 150$ public ones. You got to be pretty damn lucky to win those.
I'd suggest playing freerolls until you reach 20-50$ or just deposit money. 50$ is really not that much. If your not a winning player I'd suggest you don't even play.
Unless you play private freerolls, public freerolls are a waste of time.
When you get 20-50$ Grind 1$ SitnGos til you get 200$
Do the 100 buy in rule because everyone has downswings and its varience.

 

[pcgnome]

Yeah I cant wait to become a CardsChat Freeroll member, but until then I have to learn to play properly play poker, I think I'm going to lose so easily.

It may be worse to have no confidence than too much confidence.

Either way an experienced player will pick up on weaknesses, and exploit them.

good luck

 

[brackdog]

A great bankroll builder is the series of 50+ freerolls that Full Tilt has been running in conjunction with their wsop Fantasy League each summer. To get in, you have to pick winners in each of the WSOP events. The top 2000 fantasy players in each event get to play a freeroll with a $1K prize pool. Many players don't show for the freeroll, and it's usually 300-400 players competing for 90 or so cashes.

I suck at picking the WSOP winners but I usually manage to get into 5 or 6 of these freerolls every summer and make $30-40.

Use your tournament ticket to play the Daily Dollar, more prize money and more cashes/entries.

 

[midgetfactory]

well, my $35 bankroll is mostly from freerolls, Ive built it up in just 4 days, Ill try to do some nice bankroll managment to have some profit. It was not difficult to build it up, there are some really nice freerolls in full tilt which I play almost every day... freerollchamp for example, in which I took second yesterday and 3rd two days ago.

what freerolls are you playing? 4 days to get 35 bucks from freerolls is pretty impressive...

 

[jazzaxe]

It is possible to do but it takes a while unless you can win a big tournament through a satty. Getting through the cash microstakes is tough because of the variance. If you know how to play, make a couple of deposits to boost your bankroll so you can get out of the micros.

 

[WINNINGHAND79]

before i came in and started playing privite freerolls, i struggled like everyone else... i had nothing and coudnt get anywhere!!!!

out of these freerolls i have built up my BR to over 60$. i know that is not alot, but out of 25$ freerolls and not placing 1st ever..hahaha. its not too bad i think. i stake a few ppl and lost a bit. but i was able to build from nothing into something

 

[arrytus]

been building off freerolls since august- but i should note i've not played more than once or twice a week since the middle of october. got about 200 bucks on three sites. i don't play the FT or UB open freerolls because they aren't worth the time. I've yet to take my winnings and play in sngs or mtts because i prefer cash games but don't quite have enough on any site to play at the blind level i feel comfortable at since i refuse to play anything less than .25/.50 but prefer .5/1-1/2. but then again i'm not a great player. i'm sure other players get up to hundreds of dollars within a week with one decent win and then sngs

 

[arrytus]

A great bankroll builder is the series of 50+ freerolls that Full Tilt has been running in conjunction with their WSOP Fantasy League each summer. To get in, you have to pick winners in each of the WSOP events. The top 2000 fantasy players in each event get to play a freeroll with a $1K prize pool. Many players don't show for the freeroll, and it's usually 300-400 players competing for 90 or so cashes.

I suck at picking the WSOP winners but I usually manage to get into 5 or 6 of these freerolls every summer and make $30-40.

Use your tournament ticket to play the Daily Dollar, more prize money and more cashes/entries.

i've definitely got to look into this.thanks for the heads up... but i guess i've got wait for 6 months

 

[thebigdawg]

i've definitely got to look into this.thanks for the heads up... but i guess i've got wait for 6 months

Same here.

Like I said CC has good freerolls, and pokereviewlist has $100 freerolls at PS. They relase the password for them in there message board (freeroll section) about 5 or 10 mins before they start. There on Mondays and Wenesdays at 3oclock est. Around a 1000 - 1500 get in them and I think top 144 got paid last time.

 

[twoturntablez]

I now have an online roll that for once has been maintained properly and increases albeit gently.

I played a couple of pokerstars and full tilt freerolls per night for months. Relatively often I would cash in something because I always seemed to have around $10. I would do ok and win a few 9 or 19 $1.75s then let it ride and enter a tourney for half the win or the entire win. I continued in this style for some time, fully knowing all about bankroll management but not managing to excercise it. Enjoying playing whilst drinking, a losing style for me but it was enjoyable nonetheless. Freerolls and bourbon have a slightly >ev though hehe.

On pokerstars I entered the nz freeroll and placed 4th for $11, the next evening I placed 3rd for $15, these tourneys had 700+ entries. A couple of days later I entered and won a $2.20 180 player for $108.

I bought a few Euros when I found that the loosest .01 .02 game was in euros. Played a couple of thousand hands and its 25 Euro.

I cant beleive nobody has mentioned free money offers. I have signed up for and blown a free $20 or $50 on maybe 5 sites before I learnt to play a little better.

I currently have $50 roll on partypoker, have 25k hands at .01/.02, bought myself Hem for $55 with cash I won with the free $50. Earnt the bonus for another $10. Great poker play with a free $50 is a recipe for success. I guess its a no no to advertise where the offers came from so you can easily find them with appropriate google searches. This would be the best advice for someone who wants to play real money without investing. Have a look what you'll be giving away though, for example rakeback may well be worth more than that $50 free so since so many sites are offering these kind of deals, mebbe skip the big 2 till you have won elsewhere then transfer the funds.

Building a free bankroll can be easily done in pubs I think too. I have had a thing about growing my online roll from zero, but am now contemplating putting my live cash poker wins online.

Pub games are soft competition for those who have solid game theory. It would just be a matter of time before you could make a win and good practice. Whilst some of my competitors play once a week, I and a couple of friends knock out thousands of hands a week. I won $500 twice from my local league and also won a $850 seat at the NZ poker champs, entry to these games is free.

Winning at online poker seems takes a long time, without going + or minus $10 us i had played 20k hands, aces had won barely a penny, kings were $-6, AK was killing me but somehow I was breaking even.

Wish i was better.

 

[HU specialist]

Maybe its easy to get a rakeback deal. If youve got some dollars from the freerolls, and you gonna play with it,you get some rake back in your account.

GL

 

[dino]

Freerolls are great when you're starting in game, trying few things without risking any of your money.
But, to be able to cash out, you have to deposit real money first, then play some, to gain more experience, and it's whole diferent game when you're playing for real $$ than freerolls.
When you're good enough to cash out few of them, enjoy it....

 

[bigpick76]

if anyone knows the answer to this as a fact please let me know but i have heard a rumor for a long time that tom dwann (durrrr) started by playing freerolls or just a 50$ deposit not sure how true it is or if its just some urban legend but if anyone knows the truth to this please share

 

[Clutch346]

I'd also love to know if that's really how durrrr started.

All this talk about building from scratch has got me inspired. I've withdrawn all but 1c from my Full Tilt account and am currently playing the following freerolls:

18:25 - Full Tilt -The Daily Dollar Super turbo free roll 7500 players where players start out with need to place in the top 200 for an entry into the Daily Dollar $10,000 guaranteed tournament (which happens to only cost $1 to enter) Sign up opens at 17:55 so be quick.
play money/ tournament/satellite/holdem/nolimit/freeroll

20:35 - Canada Freeroll 2700 people 27 places paid (must be resident of Canada)real money/tournament/cash/holdem/nolimit/freerolls

23:10 - Satellite to the Ferguson 2700 people 100 places paid. rego opens 10min before, it fills fast. Prize is a tournament dollar...not exactly cash, but can be used as entry into some juicier tournaments.
play money/ tournament/satellite/holdem/nolimit/freeroll

At some point, I'd love to add the cardschat freerolls to my repertoire and I'm saving myself for pokerstars; want to make sure I sign up under the best conditions.... might research the free money that sites offer.

 

[naruto_miu]

I for one have done it in the past, and I plan on doing it again...I've made mine up to the likes of 40+k in less then a Month...Is it easy no, but do able for sure

 

[Dunninger]

I for one have done it in the past, and I plan on doing it again...I've made mine up to the likes of 40+k in less then a Month...Is it easy no, but do able for sure

Naruto... you're my hero

Very impressed with your story after reading the big win thread over the past couple of days.. congrats again.. :congrats:

Did you cash it out ? Or give it back ?
:marchmell

 

[naruto_miu]

Naruto... you're my hero

Very impressed with your story after reading the big win thread over the past couple of days.. congrats again.. :congrats:

Did you cash it out ? Or give it back ?
:marchmell

Well not to lie, I cashed out 12.5k Np, and then the 28, and Change well that's all she wrote, you can't play $100/$200 HU (Heads Up), and Plan on just being overly Aggressive every single hand, and not get caught a-couple of times over....Also I thought I was aggressive, I seen some ppl that Made my aggressive nature look like it's just child's play...

 

[IQ 34]

it can totally be done but get in as many freerolls as you can, i won the pokercurious br before that was plenty to get me started. in less than a month i had over 800. was playing smart and sticking to the rules....

but i lost it all, not once, not twice but three times, i got upset having playing in a bigger buy in and felt like i got screwed. br management is key, dont let ur emotions get the best of u