Freeroll Madness

[SpaceMage]

Hi,

As a player that plays freerolls I notice there are five stages to a freeroll.

1. Tournament madness were a lot of players go all in with any hole card hands at the initial start of the tournament. Primarily to gather as any chips as they can for later on in the tournament.
2. Tournament cool down where either the all-iners have the large stack of chips they were after or have busted out.
3. The bubble where you are relatively healthy as you have managed to avoid the all-iners or a bit battered after the bloodbath of the initial phase of the tournament
4. Within the bubble where the blinds are ramping up severely in a rapidly scale to blind you out of the tournament without even participating in any hands.
5. The final table where you are either one of the high stack chip leaders who have progressed well through the tournement or the battered remains of the short stackers who have crawled through the previous stages.

How do you all deal with each of these stages and particularly how do you ensure your one of the un-battered chip leaders at the final table?

 

[Andrew Popov]

In poker, the element of chance is quite large. In such a game consisting mainly of All-Ins, your result will depend solely on the layout of the cards at the showdown. There is no place for subtle actions, calculated bets, and even a bluff will only be taken by the blind. The game with maniacs turns into a lottery - who is lucky.

 

[63burner]

Dealing with the stages, and then variance.

Since it is a freeroll, and your time dynamic, you may be one of the maniacs in the first stage, no time to build a stack, if you are on a tight chain, time-wise.
If you make your stack sufficiently, you can play real poker, loosely, though.
The toughest stage is after you've fought your way to a decent stack, but you aren't defending the blinds, holding back a little to get closer to the money.
The right before the money stage is tough, also, knowing when to take the all-in chance to get a rung higher on the ladder, etc
Luck and variance determine how you play the stages, stack size, etc.

 

[Subel007]

Ig is freeroll ))

 

[Akuana]

Since I am a beginner, I was advised to play tight and thoughtful strategy. This is what I use at all stages, even in freerolls.
I tried to play aggressively a few times - it can be fun, but I'm not happy with the result. Only if I don't have the time and inclination to play thoughtfully.
At the beginning of the tournament, I got burned many times with AA and KK, so at the beginning of the tournament I play these hands very carefully and sometimes even fold.
Such decisions allow me to reach prizes more often. However, I think that with such a strategy it is difficult to get to the final table.

 

[TaigaMaster]

if the tournament is with big blinds, then at first there is no point in rushing, if it’s super turbo, then you won’t stay without a move for a long time and you’ll still go all-in, in the middle of the tournament, the main thing is patience to get to the prizes, and then, if you’re lucky, show the best game

 

[Arnakk2424]

Hi,

As a player that plays freerolls I notice there are five stages to a freeroll.

1. Tournament madness were a lot of players go all in with any hole card hands at the initial start of the tournament. Primarily to gather as any chips as they can for later on in the tournament.
2. Tournament cool down where either the all-iners have the large stack of chips they were after or have busted out.
3. The bubble where you are relatively healthy as you have managed to avoid the all-iners or a bit battered after the bloodbath of the initial phase of the tournament
4. Within the bubble where the blinds are ramping up severely in a rapidly scale to blind you out of the tournament without even participating in any hands.
5. The final table where you are either one of the high stack chip leaders who have progressed well through the tournement or the battered remains of the short stackers who have crawled through the previous stages.

How do you all deal with each of these stages and particularly how do you ensure your one of the un-battered chip leaders at the final table?

I played a lot of freeroll when I came back to poker, I dont play them much often but I still did.

1. This is the place I dont mind gamble with the crazy guys already. In high % of the time if they go all in with 50+BB they dont have a big hand but a nice hand. If the same player raise 3-4BB, he have a MONSTER HAND.
When I mean gambling I mean, AJo can be enought to call, a 60BB shove.
Its not optimal play, but I prefer to bust early in a FF then having 8BB at the bubble and play for $0.03.
2. Still inclined to call, at this stage I have stats / note on the guy
3. I dont play for $0.03, I pressure the guys that are STALLING (yes peoples are stalling, use there timebank, etc. to make the cents)
4. Same as 3, they just want to scale up
5. At this stage a lot of thing can happen because the stack are very low but I usually dont mind beeing agressive to get the blinds and antes. Depending on the room, you have to finish in first or second place to worth your time spends


what you think spacemage ?

 

[odonob]

I play tight at the start and try to pick moments to go all in. Final stages will largely depend on your run of cards. Sometimes you can stack up relatively easily. Sometimes you just limp in.

 

[SpaceMage]

Thanks for your replies. Great advice from you all.

I'm in that phase where I'm trying to migrate away from playing a lot of freerolls towards trying to up my game sufficiently to consistently cash in the headline tournaments of the site I play on. Appealing thought to be able to win a full week's or month's freeroll payout in the span of three to five hour period playing a headline tournament.

Playing a combination of freerolls, low-buy-in tournaments (which give marginally better payouts but not much more than FFs), and satellites. The satellites give me access to some of the higher buy-in tournaments.

Starting to get tired of busting out of a FF holding a pair of aces to someone holding 9/2 unsuited when the community cards come out 6-7-8-10-5 rainbow. And getting to a place where in a span of a few hands going from a healthy stack and startin to gain traction in the tournement to being cut-off at the knees when huge blinds and ante sweep past me.

I normally finish somewhere in the middle of the prize-pool . So, not min-cashing but still not high enough to get the highest payouts. $0.50 to $3.00 cashes are good when you can only afford to deposit a small amount each month but I'd like to be doing better. Although I've reached the final table enough times to make playing some of the tournaments worth while. Won $109 and $55 tournament tickets and double digit $ on various occasions.

I've tried the avoidance method and the calling their bluff method. Mostly transitioning from the avoidance method to the calling their bluff method as the blinds and antes make it more profitable to participate in the hands.

 

[Zapahlohotrona]

The first hour in the freeroll all-ins are extremely dangerous) With any card. As a rule, before the break, the number of participants is halved - precisely because they go all-in with any hand. Then more adequate poker begins. Without luck, you still won't win in the freeroll.

 

[Arnakk2424]

Without luck, you still won't win in the freeroll.

Without luck you will not ever win a tournament. When someone go all in with K6o and u have AJo, its a amazing opportunity to go all in that you will not ever met in a "real" tournament.
If you get beat, that it, you loose your 66% vs 33%.

 

[YuriDitz]

At the beginning of a freeroll, I usually go all-in when I see some good cards. Then it depends on the circumstances, if I'm on the verge of busting, I'll play very aggressively and often go all-in.