How Freerolls Differ From Paid Games, my experience

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ThinkIllcallUwitha5

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I just played my first paid tournament online with a ticket I'd won in a freeroll as opposed to open entry freeroll tournament. The difference was night and day and it felt like I was playing a different game. This was much more enjoyable and strategical than freerolls. But I was stuck in freeroll mode and acting like a donk, while everyone else was being much more conservative.


Mistakes I made in my free-roll practiced donkthusiasm:

Got excited to make a flush on the river and forgot that full house beats flush :0

Assumed that if someone had a flush from the flop, the would not check.

In my eagerness to play, I lost my stack within about the first 10 hands (and this was a normal tournament, not turbo, I really shouldn't have hurried), was down to 20 chips out of 4000...then two hands later got pocket kings but no chips left to benefit from them.

What did I learn? Patience is a virtue in this game. And freerolls are essentially a different, poker-flavored game the same way video poker is.
 
nenaviju poker

nenaviju poker

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It's okay you will still have a lot of tournaments ahead, the main thing is not in a hurry to play tight first and wait for a strong hand, while you have little blinds.
 
Matt Vaughan

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This is a really really common realization that people find when making the transition from free to paid games. The problem is it's not the same as "moving up stakes" - there is a fundamental difference when people feel there is risk vs when they feel there is NO risk (as with freerolls).

This is why I generally recommend that people start off playing for real money, even if it's only 2nl, 5nl, or whatever lowest stakes tournaments are available to them. Freerolls can somewhat stunt your growth in that a lot of times they teach poor habits.
 
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ThinkIllcallUwitha5

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This is a really really common realization that people find when making the transition from free to paid games. The problem is it's not the same as "moving up stakes" - there is a fundamental difference when people feel there is risk vs when they feel there is NO risk (as with freerolls).

This is why I generally recommend that people start off playing for real money, even if it's only 2nl, 5nl, or whatever lowest stakes tournaments are available to them. Freerolls can somewhat stunt your growth in that a lot of times they teach poor habits.

Great point Scourrge, and I would agree with you now that I have experience with both. I even knew, going in, that I should be more conservative to match what I expected from others in a paid tournament, but I took it from 1000 to 990 and they were all about 10, very measured and even, and as a result I lost big. Another problem with freerolls that I forgot to mention is that either they're turbo or they're not worth the amount of time you invest in them (ACR On Demand). I had got used to playing with blinds increasing every 5 minutes and never having more than 20BB no matter how well I was running, and that sense of haste made me overshoot by a lot instead of waiting for good cards.

Also, the paid game is the one with the aspects that I enjoy. I had just got really frustrated with poker yesterday after lots of freerolls, wondering how I'd ever thought this was an interesting game, and I thought I'd just use up my ticket before giving it up for a while, but this brought back my enjoyment.
 
Brandlad

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Normal games means a lot of Patience with enough fold strategy and a calm mood and utilisation of Positions very well.
St and Turbo games means Push and Fold.
Never play Normal games with the mindset of St games.
 
neverbluff

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Freerolls tend to play like paid entry micro stakes tournaments when you get further in the tournament. I get the idea of practicing when money is involved, but you can get a lot of value/practice out of playing freerolls. Just realize that you will have to adjust as you move up in stakes. Your best bet is to develop a strong GTO based strategy, and adjust based on the loose, passive opponents you find at the micro stakes. Then when you fight stronger opponents, you won't have to completely change your game.
 
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alannalmeida

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I really got your point

Amazing post mate, i really understand everything have put into here. Now i'm better than this, but sometimes i do same mistakes as when i started to play poker on line.
 
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ThinkIllcallUwitha5

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Freerolls tend to play like paid entry micro stakes tournaments when you get further in the tournament. I get the idea of practicing when money is involved, but you can get a lot of value/practice out of playing freerolls. Just realize that you will have to adjust as you move up in stakes. Your best bet is to develop a strong GTO based strategy, and adjust based on the loose, passive opponents you find at the micro stakes. Then when you fight stronger opponents, you won't have to completely change your game.



This is a good point. If you can wait a few orbits til all the maniacs have bashed their heads together, it slows down a lot. Problem there is that another player might have got lucky and octupled up by calling bad shoves from donks and I'm way behind them. But you get what you pay for :cool:
 
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ThinkIllcallUwitha5

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Normal games means a lot of Patience with enough fold strategy and a calm mood and utilisation of Positions very well.
St and Turbo games means Push and Fold.
Never play Normal games with the mindset of St games.


Sorry, I'm not familiar with all the terms yet, does St mean "single table"?
 
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You typically don't see real strategy until you're deep in the freerolls (final 2-3 tables) and most of the field who lacks experience are already knocked out. When you switch to paid events, you have to basically start from scratch knowledge wise. Like others have said if you can, mix freerolls with micro buy-ins just to get some experience and apply it to helping you make deep runs in freerolls.
 
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ccmonrivah

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actually i was telling my sister,i play freerolls n cash game,but im very conservative n play all games the same,like they are all monies,til i get mad,a than play stupid,i got lots of patience:beerglass:beerglass
 
eberetta1

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I hope you win another ticket soon, so you can get back in that poker arena and try your luck.
 
eberetta1

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I hope you win another ticket so you have a chance to try your luck again soon.
 
Martin Carreira

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I think there is a lot of difference. In the FREE tournaments many players go in all hands with trash hands because they cost nothing to enter the tournament and go with any hand. We have many risks of being eliminated with bad beats. In contrast, in a tournament with an entry in USD players do not try to make a profit and play it in a better way. regards

 
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CallmeFloppy

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I will play freerolls differently than I do a buy in tournament. I will generally see a wider range of hands in a free roll. I am willing to take more chances and will make larger bets in a free roll. If I am wrong and I get knocked out, sure, it sucks, but I didn't lose anything. If I win, I got more chips which I will need for a game that has more variance.
 
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corieaddison

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Yes, Freerolls will differ greatly from paid tourneys. And the higher the paid tourney, the better the players on average. But Play the game that you enjoy at the stakes you enjoy and go from there. I usually try and play the most aggressive I can possibly play because this makes the game more fun for me.

Good Luck Out There!
 
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