Forget Freerolls

[Cam54]

Almost every bit of money I have online started with freerolls .. the one exception is BOL where they forced me to deposit if I wanted to keep playing .. I kind of feel that they changed the rules on me ...as this was not stated anywhere when I started playing there ..but oh well so be it ...all that said I think they have a place if you are trying to start from scratch, and get practical experience learning to play ... it can be done ... but I am not a fan of them any longer .. it gets frustrating trying to crawl through a huge field of horrible players ...

I haven't seen nor am I able to play in the ones that were being shown with such high payouts, haha that may be different : ) ... the only ones I play now are from CC for fun, and in the US where we have few choices if we want to play at all .. otherwise I don't feel they are really worth my time .. much easier to grind cash games after a while, for me at least ...

 

[MemphisGrind]

Almost every bit of money I have online started with freerolls .. the one exception is BOL where they forced me to deposit if I wanted to keep playing .. I kind of feel that they changed the rules on me ...as this was not stated anywhere when I started playing there ..but oh well so be it ...all that said I think they have a place if you are trying to start from scratch, and get practical experience learning to play ... it can be done ... but I am not a fan of them any longer .. it gets frustrating trying to crawl through a huge field of horrible players ...

I haven't seen nor am I able to play in the ones that were being shown with such high payouts, haha that may be different : ) ... the only ones I play now are from CC for fun, and in the US where we have few choices if we want to play at all .. otherwise I don't feel they are really worth my time .. much easier to grind cash games after a while, for me at least ...

Yeaaaa, they screwed you. Because I’ve been playing on BOL for a good bit and I’ve never deposited.

 

[UncleConRon]

My opinion

Heres how I got into poker. It was blackjack. The casino was Grand Portage, Minnesota. Gary Paro was manager. It wasn't much buy-in. I walked off with the most the casino ever had done to him as manager. Heres the Canadian kicker. Quarter to half your bet as tip. In Grand Portage it was half my bet cause I didnt want to change colors of chips. The goal really was to fill up tip box without a lot of buy-ins. But the casinos closed up there so I walked with money. I did it twice in Thunder Bay, canada and twice in Grand Portage. Max betting a third of the way through and not much buy-in. It got me on line witch led to a pokerstars, Fulltilt, and partypoker dance. Witch started with the MSN casino pacific poker. They just kept raising me up the latter. Eventually coming down a little and winding up on ACR and intertops. See the luck needed to play cards.

 

[thetick33]

The quicker you can learn to play a decent game of poker the better. Cut your teeth on Freerolls by all means as a learnibg process, but leave them behind once you progress.
Start playing cash games, and at the highest stakes you can afford. This should remove the poorer skill players amd the all in merchants with no hand. You'll be playing in a different class of players who know and understand the game and hopefully will prove to be more profitable for you

profoundly disagree 100 MILLION PERCENT


i never deposited on any site until 2017 first one ive done 3 deposits by the way since then two different sites...

Anyway my poker career has started online in 2003 I have withdrawn over 100 bucks on over 60 sites..... I used freerolls to start on each site etc...

freerolls are a grind yes but if you multi table like me running 3 or 4 freerolls a day is awesome.... a lot of times this is the one place you can win some money back smaller fields etc...


take notes learn your opponents.... I am not sure where you are saying or stating (incorrectly imho) that there is a higher degree of play.... I play everything from freerolls to 1-2-3 dollar games up to 100 dollar buy ins at times..... 109 is highest by in in last 4 years.... satty to some in that range for 200k gtd's etc..

anyway ive seen good players at every level and ive noted bad play ON Every Level period....

ive played up to 5/10 ring also and same thing....

There is sooooo much cardschat can offer any player regarding freerolls is a ton more for NON USA players but still is at least a freeroll daily here for usa and anyone else.

anyway is my two cents freerolls made me a small fortune so ill always play them


also for me is about playing with people I know and like etc... especially the ones here

gl all on the felt and in life happy holidays

p.s. in last 5 weeks on freerolls alone ive won over 500 bucks .... they must be a terrible thing to do lol

 

[SSorin18]

Freerolls are good for training while you might still win a free ticket to a good tournament where you can play even more relaxed since you're not playing it from your normal money,but it's something won for 'free'

 

[Cam54]

Yeaaaa, they screwed you. Because I’ve been playing on BOL for a good bit and I’ve never deposited.

Yeah I 've heard that same story from more than a few at this point actually ... still don't understand why they did that, and it cheesed me off for a minute, but I like playing their site .. works heads and shoulders better than any other one I have ever played at except for PS and Full Tilt a long time ago ... I mean it was only 25 bucks lol who cares ... less than what I have won there, so yeah I know it was not the norm to do that ....

 

[Worak]

Much to the contrary

The quicker you can learn to play a decent game of poker the better. Cut your teeth on Freerolls by all means as a learnibg process, but leave them behind once you progress.
Start playing cash games, and at the highest stakes you can afford. This should remove the poorer skill players amd the all in merchants with no hand. You'll be playing in a different class of players who know and understand the game and hopefully will prove to be more profitable for you

I have to disagree here.
First,MTTs and ring-games are completely different formats and therefore hard to compare. Then you're playing a way worse opposition in freerolls than in any ring Game-at the micro stakes- even more on higher buy-ins. As said before you can easily win 1000$ + in a year through freerolls and/or cash added micro MTTs.

During my last complete year of playing online poker (2013) I accumulated 1230 $ that way - and I wasn't even really good at playing.


Try to take note of every hand your opponents play and start capitalising on their mistakes.
Always remember that you want to play against the idiot and not the pro.

 

[narc]

Freerolls are easier than betting games. If you have a good hand, and play against who goes All-In with weak hands, you are better than most of these players. And even in expensive games there is bluff, never forget All-in with 72 is not a bad move if you make the other go FOLD.

 

[bellicoso]

The quicker you can learn to play a decent game of poker the better. Cut your teeth on Freerolls by all means as a learnibg process, but leave them behind once you progress.
Start playing cash games, and at the highest stakes you can afford. This should remove the poorer skill players amd the all in merchants with no hand. You'll be playing in a different class of players who know and understand the game and hopefully will prove to be more profitable for you

I thought this as well a few months back but, now, I have to disagree with you.

There was much more (still is) for me to learn which is applicable even in a shoot-em-up environment like a freeroll. I went back to some more learning material and playing freerolls almost exclusively. Playing cash games with a bunch of good players wasn't at all profitable. In fact, they ate my lunch! It'd be better to be able to single out weak players in a cash game... Anyway, I thought I knew a lot and then realized I didn't. So, back to the lessons and freerolls for me. But that's just me.

 

[redmast]

You are right about the freeroll. This is just the beginning for the player. But most players will not be able to profit in cash tables. And it will be 75%. Read the statistics. Before you play cash tables, think carefully about whether you are ready.

 

[maxi_j]

Start playing cash games, and at the highest stakes you can afford.

I`dont know. Maybe 3-4th stake from bottom would be better. In other hand if you can afford and can beat yes you should play it.

 

[AntA_KO_v]

Disagree here big time $2000-$10000+ a year can be made from freerolls and the buy in games you win after cashing in freerolls.
Look at this freeroll for example on partypoker this Saturday forgot about it you must be joking my alarm is set.
I am no stranger to putting in volume on much higher stakes and serious games just think you should play both and not miss any value at all example below,
All the freeroll is just another screen open when have 5 or 6 screens open anyway.
While you should grind higher stakes when you can frankly am alarmed by overlooking anything that is +EV in your poker schedule.:hahaha:
Happy new year to you and yours rigor mortis.

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comletely agree! =) for example yesterday I cashed 27 cents in Sick_nerd freeroll on PartyPoker, then invested it in $0,25 spin and won $1,25. now I will invest it in $1,1 tour =) wish me luck!

 

[eberetta1]

I have a real life. So many times I start a freeroll, then all heck breaks loose which will pull me from the game. I like the freeroll more than a cash game, because I wont be out any funds if I have to walk away from the game.

 

[mountainfox]

Yeah I agree that they have crazy all in players in freerolls. But, I still love playing because they are free. If you think they are a waste of time, then no one is stopping you from playing them.

 

[luskata27]

I think freerolls are a good way to build a starting bankroll.And in a slow way to gain some discipline

 

[keithmaki]

FREEROLLS

I totally disagree! Any tournament you can play for free and win money is a no brainer.
You may have to change your style of play to a more bingo ish range and worry less about position but its easy money for a skilled player.

Just because you are capable of winning or placing in a freeroll is not enough of an indicator that you are playing a superior game and you should make the jump to low/mid/high stake games.

Jumping from freeroll player to mid/high stakes is not a good idea at all.

At micro / low stake cash tables and MTTs you will find no difference in player skill level as the freeroll players(you), however, I would NOT suggest taking your freeroll winnings and playing mid and high level stakes, hoping to find a better game with decent players, unless you have a advanced understanding of the game. These levels are not for learning! You must be able to handle crazy aggression, have a solid understanding on playing ranges, odds, equity, betting, bluffing... people at these stake levels make far less mistakes.

If you think you can just play tight, wait for AA, or good playable broadway cards and suited connectors, you will lose guaranteed!! Know your skill level and stay in your lane or you will just be easy money for players at those levels.

 

[fundiver199]

For me cash games are the best way to learn poker, because a chip is a chip, and stacks are usually 100BB deep, which allow a lot of turn and river play. But I dont recommend skipping stakes. Its best to start at the lowest stake, the site offer, and only move up once you are a winner there. On PokerStars and 888 you can start with 2NL, and maybe you dont need to put in a million hands there, but 20.000 should be the minimum, before you attempt to move up.

It could be argued, that you learn more from playing in tougher games. But for the majority of people I feel, that losing is going to be demotivating rather than jump-start their career as a high stakes professional player. So I highly recommend to play in games, that you beat, and only move up gradually. This approach also lends itself well to learning good bankroll management. You make a deposit once and for all, and then you dont move up, until you are bankrolled for the next limit.

As for freerolls I will play the better ones for sure, especially if I am on the site already. But I dont chase around from site to site to play as many as possible, I dont play at inconvenient times, and if the price pool is very low like 5.000 people competing for 500$, I will usually also pass. I did play a lot of the 3.000$ BLAST freerolls on 888 Poker though and probably won tickets worth at least 100$.

 

[HobokenNJ]

There's a wide range of freerolls out there. If you're lucky enough to find one with decent prizes and a small(ish) field, the play probably better than you expect.

The ones with massive fields (esp. coupled w/ low prizes) do tend to devolve into push-fests.

 

[tauri103]

I always prefer to play on frerrolls for obvious reasons. is that we don't have to put money on it. on some of them the gains can really be significant. of course we are always better paying when we manage to achieve a good resulltat on a paying tournament. but in the long term it is difficult to reach this objective if we do not have a good banckroll. you need at least between $ 200 and $ 250 to participate in $ 1 MTTs. which is not at the door of all the purses. personally thanks to CC, I managed to improve my game beyond my expectations but this is not why I am going to abandon the frerrolls.

 

[SLazarov]

The quicker you can learn to play a decent game of poker the better. Cut your teeth on Freerolls by all means as a learnibg process, but leave them behind once you progress.
Start playing cash games, and at the highest stakes you can afford. This should remove the poorer skill players amd the all in merchants with no hand. You'll be playing in a different class of players who know and understand the game and hopefully will prove to be more profitable for you

totally. cant really learn poker on freerolls

 

[FelixTheLord]

I can't imagine how freerolls are good for a player in general. You can't play a normal poker game since everyone all in with mediocre hand for the first 2 hours of the tournament. I only play them when my 'bankroll' reaches 0. I don't actually have a bankroll since I usually just make 10$ deposit at a time and play a few 4.40 -3.30 tournaments. Maybe I got iit all wrong since I never reached 50$ in order to actually withdraw and turn to profit those money and time I'm putting in poker

 

[Worak]

I can't imagine how freerolls are good for a player in general. You can't play a normal poker game since everyone all in with mediocre hand for the first 2 hours of the tournament. I only play them when my 'bankroll' reaches 0. I don't actually have a bankroll since I usually just make 10$ deposit at a time and play a few 4.40 -3.30 tournaments. Maybe I got iit all wrong since I never reached 50$ in order to actually withdraw and turn to profit those money and time I'm putting in poker

I suggest reading some articles in Bankroll management. 4.40$ is far to high with 10$.
Try 0.10$ instead.

 

[FelixTheLord]

I suggest reading some articles in Bankroll management. 4.40$ is far to high with 10$.
Try 0.10$ instead.

I don't think there are tournaments that small on pokerstars

 

[Worak]

I don't think there are tournaments that small on pokerstars

0.02$ - 900 Player MTT is available.

 

[Raphael Zabel]

Freerolls are good for those who are just starting out. Over time, each person will enjoy more than one type of game and will level up according to their knowledge and bankroll.