Are Freerolls tougher than Real Money Tourneys?

[RiverLord90]

I find freerolls to be a mixture of good players and fish. So, if I pay attention well enough, then I know to get out of they way for the good players and wait for the fish to give me a bunch of free chips.

Good strat. I try to do the same. The fish that get lucky eventually run out of luck when they continually make bad plays.

 

[RiverLord90]

Na.. buy in tournaments are def. more difficult.

Much agreed.

 

[RiverLord90]

It is a lot different, different people playing.

Yeah, higher variance, easier play.

 

[RiverLord90]

Freerolls are tough in the sense that you have a lot of players that are playing for fun. This means that it is much harder to know what to expect from them. When you get into real money tournaments, you're able to get a much more general idea of how your opponent is playing because it is closer to optimal.

Yeah, that variance adds to the degree of difficulty significantly. I like the CC freerolls because they feel like real money tourneys; you have a lot more serious players playing good poker.

 

[RiverLord90]

Easy answer - Yes - as there are more runners to minefield through

I think this makes the variance higher but I think the freerolls themself are easier and softer.

 

[RiverLord90]

Freerolls attract different types of player, who join the tournament with different motives. Beginners come to learn, without risking anything. Matured players join to explore and experiment with their range of play and other strategies. Building a bankroll is another good reason for many players.

With so many conflicts in play and so many diverse approaches to the game, it is not an easy job to reach at the top until and unless you know how to proceed in such conditions.

Yes, variance in these freerolls is much higher as compared to real buy-in tournaments. It is expected because some of the players attending freerolls don’t even bother to chase the prize pool. They have other objectives.

I'm definitely the vet exploring my range and building a BR. And yeah, that's exactly why I made this thread, because of loose fish players who don't know or care what they're doing make terrible play after play and suck out. But I find adjusting your game to these freerolls and players help tremendously.

 

[RiverLord90]

Easy answer for you - buy-ins are definitely tougher and the higher the buy-in the tougher they are.

I agree, real $ is tougher.

 

[RiverLord90]

I agree with you, I play a lot of freerolls because I do not have the courage to make deposits, because I have already deposited the account, so I have only to play the freerolls. the game in a paid tournament is very different because the players know what they want and the freerolls are very amateur and that most of the time they are only to play or pass the time so you end up losing with a good hand for very bad cards of the adversary .

This is standard variance. You should adjust your game to extremely nitty TAG ABC poker and you should make it deeper in. I made the mistake of trying to play freerolls as if they were real $ tourneys and kept losing early. I adjusted my game accordingly and now I'm having more success making it ITM. I'm trying to build a BR completely from freerolls so I won't have to make a deposit. I'm at $26 so far, I'm hoping to get to $100 by next week!

 

[xbronk]

if you're right it's harder to freeroll where you do not know what to expect from your opponent that you think if you play all in anger with a premium hand and ends up being a trashy hand and you ran hand in hand with nothing and it was not a good bluff in the CC freeroll this does not happen only on Thursdays haha ​​the truth I seldom see the people of the club in the freeroll on Thursdays I think it's a lot of bingo and that's why not everyone plays on Thursdays

 

[valanddon]

Freerolls are more frustrating because every jerk just goes all in
all the time. It didn't cost them anything so they gott nothng to lose.

 

[Chris Wade]

Started online poker back in 05 was getting to the point where I made deposit with party poker and Absolute. Then 2006 happened and hung in there for a bit with poker stars and Absolute then it all went to hell. After finding Cards Chat the wife had to pinch me prove I wasn't dreaming. Back in the saddle again.

 

[SkorpiosMC]

With many years of experience i can tell you, that percentages of getting a variance are always the same either you play freerolls or real money Tourneys.

My advice is that you should never play freerolls unless there is a decent money there, it's a really a waste of valuable time.

If you cant handle the pressure of putting real money there it's completely ok to play.

 

[KristaK]

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.

please exactly what does "Donking" mean? sounds very negative thing?

 

[playinggameswithu]

I play a lot of freerolls on Black Chip, occasionally on Intertops and Sports Betting when they have them. It seems like the variance in these freerolls are waaay high than real money tourneys since there's a lot more players (many who are bad and/or straight up have no idea how to even play) and no real money on the line making people act crazy in them.

I feel like these variables make it tougher for an above average player who knows what they're doing to come out on top. Maybe not high stakes but micro and mid stakes tourneys are easier for above average players imo.

I usually play freerolls then jam my money into largest guarantee tournaments. So you should cherish these stupid players since in serious MTTs it is like pulling teeth to get chips excluding luck hands where you opponent obviously had just enough inferior hand to lose to you.

 

[TheDude6622]

I tend to find both to have their challenges. A lot more garbage hands play and hit in freerolls at all points in the tournament. Especially when your first hand is AA or KK and get destroyed by a 73 off suit.

I do find it easier to cash in a non-freeroll tournament.

 

[MemphisGrind]

please exactly what does "Donking" mean? sounds very negative thing?

“Donking” or rather a donk bet is when a player bets ahead of the pre-flop aggressor for instance. It folds to the button that opens for x amount. sb and bb call then on the flop if the sb or bb bet rather than checking it to the aggressor that would be considered a donk bet.

 

[radartodd69]

Freerolls are generally tougher than buy in tournaments due to the fact that people are a lot less likely to fold with marginal holdings. I think freerolls have better play later on in a game due to the fact that a lot of the bad players get weeded out within the first 30 minutes to an hour. If you can hold out that long, the play does get better.

 

[puzzlefish]

Freerolls are generally tougher than buy in tournaments due to the fact that people are a lot less likely to fold with marginal holdings. I think freerolls have better play later on in a game due to the fact that a lot of the bad players get weeded out within the first 30 minutes to an hour. If you can hold out that long, the play does get better.

You should distinguish regular freerolls from turbo and super turbo freerolls. The latter is a donk fest throughout as far as to the final table.

 

[mrbond8844]

freerolls ppl just go all in all the time

 

[Rob Hobson]

Since there's a huge amount of players, freerolls are quite tough.

Best of Lucky

 

[valanddon]

Freerolls are tougher because, people go all in all of the time because
it did not cost them anything to get in. They bet foolishly and sometimes
win with junk, ( bad beats ) ( pokerstars) has lots of them.

 

[Rui Ferreira]

In my opinion, yes because the villains do not pay anything for the entry into the tournament, the game becomes more competitive because the players play more loosely
:wavey:

 

[Fishhuntercn]

I think that live money tournaments its better than freerolls,because in freerolls people are not risking anything.But while you are playing for your money,it will be more accurate and interesting