I have never been a professional, but back before Black Friday I was a serious amateur with a HUD and two "big" screens playing up tp eight tables mostly on Full Tilt. It took a while, but I finally got my bankroll back. .Since then, I have not put a dime of my own money on a poker site of questionable legality, and stopped playing online altogether for many years.
I am certainly not suggesting anyone to entrust all their retirement funds to any poker site, not even the regulated ones. But "not wanting to put a dime" seem like an extreme overreaction to me. If you deposited something like 500$, you could already play decent games like 5,5$ MTTs rather than waste your time (frankly) on silly
freerolls. A bad evening in the local casino can easily cost you more than 500$, even if you play 1/2, and especially if you also spend money on food or drinks.
I have found I enjoy playing live more than robotically flowing an ICM calculation. I find they are not very reliable when playing low stakes as most freeroll gamblers play too loose.
But then you simply adjust the ranges accordingly. In order to make good adjustments, you need to know, what you are adjusting from. And I agree with you. In this situation I would not jam all the
hands, ICMizer suggest, because I think, its likely, that one or more opponents in a freeroll are going to call to wide.
But the real issue in this hand is not about your range but your line. As I and others have said already, you should never call in this situation with any hand. The only exception would be, if you wanted to take a very exploitative line and call with AA or KK in the hope, that someone behind will shove on you. Otherwise you play push or fold, and this is just as fundamental as always coming in for a raise rather than a limp, if we are first to enter the pot from any other seat than SB.
The line, you took here, is a typical recreational player line. Trying to see a cheap flop, because your priority is to have fun rather than win. And obviusly folding is no fun. Thats why nearly all recreational players play to many hands and usually also play them in a passive way like this.
And its completely fine to be a recreational player. But if that is the case, there is no reason to share hands to a
poker forum. Just go to the local casino, have fun talking to the other players, flirt a little with a pretty cocktail waitress, and maybe you get lucky and win some money as well. Its all good, and it does not require strategic analysis.
I guess the point is there is more than one way to skin a cat and they are all fun. I knew middling ace a was questionable jam and I would have folded to a shove. trying to ladder my bankroll up.
Putting in almost 20% of your remaining chips without even seeing a flop is absolutely terrible and the very reason, why we never cold call with such a short stack. If its not profitable to jam, then calling will lose you even more, and you should just fold.
Villain opted to min bet with 88 and then call with two over cards on the flop and call a raise. Did anyone expect her to have a pair of 8s? I thought I was going to lose to a better ace, not to a 2 outer on the river.
I am a little surpriced to see something like this on the final table, because now there are payjumps, and even though it was originally a freeroll, that tend to make people at least a bit more serious. But when you phrase it like this, I get a sense, that this is basically just a bad beat story. Which is ok, but there is a dedicated forum for those, so maybe consider posting there next time
