Are Freerolls tougher than Real Money Tourneys?

[antonis32123]

Well , real money and freerolls for me are almost the same , except for some players at the freerolls that have the habit to play a lot more aggressively and with a greater range of cards , especially at the beginning and especially after the first stage of ''all-ins'' when some ( how many depending on the pizepool , the entrants , the blinds , etc ) are trying to build stack very quickly. . These players are the minority , but I have seen the same players at the micro tournaments , players shoving at the beginning to double up , etc, so for me no difference as I said .

Furthermore , in freerolls with a big prizepool or small players field , like the CC ones (which by the way have decent/excellent members/players/freerollers and that makes these freerolls unique), I really feel them equal to other or better than some other tournaments , without the disantvantages/negative characteristics I mention before

 

[proud2Bwhack]

Trying to play a lot of flops and be tricky is an art form everyone thinks they are capable of, but few really are. I agree with the person above who said variance in Freerolls may be LESS than reg. low level MTTs, there are just so many times I get dealt on good hand and I wind up with a 3x-4x stack 5 minutes into a freeroll. what this then does is allow you more mistakes, and more chips to endure variance in the hands to follow.

To the person writing this I would say, dont take it for granted that you are doubling and tripling up in these freerolls so easily, When you play low level MTTs keep an eye on how often that really happens when people even have something as small as $2 on the line.

The frustrating thing about freerolls is going in thinking you are going to be the tricky flop bluffer only to have everyone shove over you preflop. My advice on that would be to get a 3x or 4x stack by shoving and taking your knocks occasionally, and then go to that strategy, keeping your Preflop raises small so you can fold them off if shoved on.

Adjust, use your imagination, and then enjoy those freerolls, I think they are one of the biggest benefits of playing online...

 

[gabpoker]

I think there is a big difference in variance and how tough a field is. The larger a filed is the more variance there is but that doesn't mean they are tougher fields. The higher stakes you go the percentage of bad players will go down so the games will start to get tougher.

 

[liuouhgkres]

I mean there's loose passive and then there's batsh*t insane aggressive field which freerolls basically are.

I wasn't complaining at all, I'm glad to be able to play free for real money, I was just saying they are tougher because of higher variance. But I agree, sometimes you can exploit people blatantly donk shoving every hand and double or triple up off of them, or they can suck out and take you out with a bad beat.

There are some exceptional situations, but donking is never solution to anything. Whenever I see someone donking I mark him as a fish immediately and take note. Because people never donk with balanced range, so when they check they usually have very weak range.

In freerolls you need to play conservative TAG style early on and loosen up later. Actually in late stages freerolls become soft and mushy like an apple pie, because all monkeyments are out and you are left with a very passive, stationary field.

 

[Ovuvuevuevue]

You said it yourself, the only thing different about them is the higher variance. In the early stages of a freeroll if you flop top pair or two pair and go all-in you will for sure get one caller and often two callers. There's a lot of money to be made against people who don't understand odds and are generally worse at the game. Adjust your strategy accordingly to maximize your profit. Actual tournaments with buy-ins are different because players have something to lose so they play more cautiously.

 

[UncleConRon]

My opinion

I think freerolls are harder then real money tournaments. It seems like when your down to the final thirty the competition is the same as real money. Here is the trick to get to the final thirty you have to go through the people that stink and they could get a donk win. With real money you just get into the tourney right away.

 

[hookmeout]

I recently started playing at ACR. It's a crapshoot. All in for nothing but those folks kill themselves. I play tight sometimes villian rags beats my strong pairs. I am gaining valuable experience

 

[xx02pl]

I think non-public freerolls are tougher than small stakes Real money tourneys, because they are many good players in them

 

[radartodd69]

I think freerolls are a lot tougher especially at the beginning. A lot of people tend to go all in preflop at the beginning of a game until they win a few pots. Some not all will tend to calm down when they get a chip stack to protect. I think if you can make it past the first 2 hours of a freeroll, the play gets a lot better. You can't beat the price of a freeroll and if you make a bankroll out of it, you really have something to brag about.

 

[duson]

Freerolls are definitely tougher than buy-in tournaments in the early stages because people will play aggressive and nitty at the same time. Strategy isn't really a thing until what feels like half the field is gone and then you can start playing your style.

 

[spr0ck3t]

They're definitely higher variance than cash tournies because of the Huge fields and generally shallow cash bubble, but since they're free you can try and pick some spots to get all in against a couple people with premium hands early, and find another one to play when they flop a full house with their 83o against your KK.

 

[RiverLord90]

Well , real money and freerolls for me are almost the same , except for some players at the freerolls that have the habit to play a lot more aggressively and with a greater range of cards , especially at the beginning and especially after the first stage of ''all-ins'' when some ( how many depending on the pizepool , the entrants , the blinds , etc ) are trying to build stack very quickly. . These players are the minority , but I have seen the same players at the micro tournaments , players shoving at the beginning to double up , etc, so for me no difference as I said .

Furthermore , in freerolls with a big prizepool or small players field , like the CC ones (which by the way have decent/excellent members/players/freerollers and that makes these freerolls unique), I really feel them equal to other or better than some other tournaments , without the disantvantages/negative characteristics I mention before

Those crazy all in players can make it easy to double triple or quad up early on sometimes. So that would be good to run into the same kind of players in the micro stakes. I have played in a few of the CC freerolls here and have to agree, the dynamics are waaay different than normal ones, they actually feel like legitimate tourneys!

 

[RiverLord90]

Trying to play a lot of flops and be tricky is an art form everyone thinks they are capable of, but few really are. I agree with the person above who said variance in Freerolls may be LESS than reg. low level MTTs, there are just so many times I get dealt on good hand and I wind up with a 3x-4x stack 5 minutes into a freeroll. what this then does is allow you more mistakes, and more chips to endure variance in the hands to follow.

To the person writing this I would say, dont take it for granted that you are doubling and tripling up in these freerolls so easily, When you play low level MTTs keep an eye on how often that really happens when people even have something as small as $2 on the line.

The frustrating thing about freerolls is going in thinking you are going to be the tricky flop bluffer only to have everyone shove over you preflop. My advice on that would be to get a 3x or 4x stack by shoving and taking your knocks occasionally, and then go to that strategy, keeping your Preflop raises small so you can fold them off if shoved on.

Adjust, use your imagination, and then enjoy those freerolls, I think they are one of the biggest benefits of playing online...

I think you're right. I guess I didn't appreciate how valuable much those easy double, triple and quad ups are early on the freeroll tourneys. I know I definitely play conservative even in the micro stakes so I bet others do too. That's a good strat tho the bet small and go from there. Negreanu actually talked about that in one of his youtube videos I watched not too long ago.

An yes, these freerolls are so nice to have while one is saving up a bankroll to start off with. I was just watching other tables play until I saw how many freerolls the WPN has on their various sites. It was good getting back into the game!

 

[RiverLord90]

I think there is a big difference in variance and how tough a field is. The larger a filed is the more variance there is but that doesn't mean they are tougher fields. The higher stakes you go the percentage of bad players will go down so the games will start to get tougher.

That's a good point. I don't really notice aggression until I get closer to the final table or the final table itself. That's when you really notice the tough competition!

 

[RiverLord90]

There are some exceptional situations, but donking is never solution to anything. Whenever I see someone donking I mark him as a fish immediately and take note. Because people never donk with balanced range, so when they check they usually have very weak range.

In freerolls you need to play conservative TAG style early on and loosen up later. Actually in late stages freerolls become soft and mushy like an apple pie, because all monkeyments are out and you are left with a very passive, stationary field.

I agree. People who donk never win. They are money stations for sure. I usually do play conservative TAG but lately have been loosening up my range a bit to a somewhat LAG approach.

 

[RiverLord90]

You said it yourself, the only thing different about them is the higher variance. In the early stages of a freeroll if you flop top pair or two pair and go all-in you will for sure get one caller and often two callers. There's a lot of money to be made against people who don't understand odds and are generally worse at the game. Adjust your strategy accordingly to maximize your profit. Actual tournaments with buy-ins are different because players have something to lose so they play more cautiously.

Yeah I'm starting to see that now, that freerolls are easier because of the donks that call or shove any and everything. I guess you don't see that in real money tourneys. I guess my problem is fish that would donkshove and suck out like crazy.

 

[RiverLord90]

I think freerolls are harder then real money tournaments. It seems like when your down to the final thirty the competition is the same as real money. Here is the trick to get to the final thirty you have to go through the people that stink and they could get a donk win. With real money you just get into the tourney right away.

Exactly. I notice that the game gets serious the closer you get to the final table. That's where all the actual players are. It's those fish donkshoving knocking you out early that frustrating.

 

[RiverLord90]

I think non-public freerolls are tougher than small stakes Real money tourneys, because they are many good players in them

I agree! They are completely different than the regular freerolls. Much better imo.

 

[RiverLord90]

I think freerolls are a lot tougher especially at the beginning. A lot of people tend to go all in preflop at the beginning of a game until they win a few pots. Some not all will tend to calm down when they get a chip stack to protect. I think if you can make it past the first 2 hours of a freeroll, the play gets a lot better. You can't beat the price of a freeroll and if you make a bankroll out of it, you really have something to brag about.

That would be so nice to start a legitimate BR from freeroll scratch! I came close one time, had my BR up to $170 at one point than lost it the next two days instead of taking a break like I should have done.

 

[RiverLord90]

Freerolls are definitely tougher than buy-in tournaments in the early stages because people will play aggressive and nitty at the same time. Strategy isn't really a thing until what feels like half the field is gone and then you can start playing your style.

That's what I was thinking at first. All logic is thrown at the window and never know what the donk that keeps shoving has. Sometimes you can exploit them and double up real quick though! It does start to feel more like a real game once you make it deep into the tourney.

 

[RiverLord90]

They're definitely higher variance than cash tournies because of the Huge fields and generally shallow cash bubble, but since they're free you can try and pick some spots to get all in against a couple people with premium hands early, and find another one to play when they flop a full house with their 83o against your KK.

Man I hate those! It seems to happen far too often for some reason. But like you said, you can get your stack looking pretty nice early on in these games.

 

[pancho_1954]

I do not think freerolls are more difficult than other tournaments, what makes it difficult is those players who love to bet everything with nothing, but even a paid tournament is always more difficult there is a little more seriousness in the game, try to read the opponents to know how to play them I think it's more complicated, get itm in a freeroll can be even easier than a tournament paid that if you add the long records late and you'll also find players who play freeroll mode

 

[Ryan Laplante]

Real $$ is much tougher.

 

[makisaa]

I think that freerolls are easier than money mtts, because you can play more freely, and you can do things that you would think more in a money game.

 

[gwj63]

I think they are considerably harder to do well in.
Not that doing well in a buy in is easy.
I don't really do well in either but I'm practicing trying to improve.