How you get through early stages in freerolls?

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Samplz22

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Hi,

Do you sit tight and wait for strong hands like JJ+ or try to win pot with hands like KJ, Axs, and 22+?

I personally like to shove with AJ+ and TT+ specially if I spot a player who goes all in loosly. In early stages position does not mean so much. If you survive to the mid game you can play more ABC poker and stop going all in.

What is your favorite way to approach freerolls? Assuming that tournament speed is hyper/turbo and stack sizes are small at the beginning.

Sorry about typos.. I know that there must be some.
 
SillentHunterZ

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Usually on beginning i go aggressively, it's much easier to harras opponents when you have bigger stack, but that's also a two edge sword, sometimes i lose early, happened that i lost in the first 5 min.
 
EvertonGirl

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I tend to play tight in the early stages, but not just hands like JJ+

I don't see the point in shoving just because you have a strong hand especially in the early stages. Poker is about patience and shoving monsters makes your opponents fold and why do you want that. Obviously you can call a shove especially in a freeroll and small stakes as you get a tonne of fun players who will shove with all sorts of chit.
 
eetenor

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Hi,

Do you sit tight and wait for strong hands like JJ+ or try to win pot with hands like KJ, Axs, and 22+?

I personally like to shove with AJ+ and TT+ specially if I spot a player who goes all in loosly. In early stages position does not mean so much. If you survive to the mid game you can play more ABC poker and stop going all in.

What is your favorite way to approach freerolls? Assuming that tournament speed is hyper/turbo and stack sizes are small at the beginning.

Sorry about typos.. I know that there must be some.



Thank U 4 posting

Of course it all depends on stack size and villain tendencies. If I have enough bb I continue to play a post flop game as I then have the skill advantage.
If I just shove pre it turns into coin flip situation most of the time.
There are times when shoving is correct but in games with multiple callers knowing ranges exactly is near impossible. The push fold charts assume your V fold hands that do not get folded in freerolls.

Shove and move on to the next freeroll is a fine strategy especially if you are playing in multiple tournaments at once.

Hope this helps
:)
 
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Samplz22

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I tend to play tight in the early stages, but not just hands like JJ+

I don't see the point in shoving just because you have a strong hand especially in the early stages. Poker is about patience and shoving monsters makes your opponents fold and why do you want that. Obviously you can call a shove especially in a freeroll and small stakes as you get a tonne of fun players who will shove with all sorts of chit.

Becouse it is freeroll I tend to shove more. You just cant do much effect to some players by raising big. There is almost always that one guy who likes to go all in specially in the situation when there might be good time to steal pot. This is why I like to be the one who is making the shove. Maybe this this is just my imagination but this is how I feel. :D
 
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DancingNancie

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I push my strong hands very hard early. Yesterday AA got me busted early in a freeroll because K7 off wouldn't let go. I don't mind that as it holds on more often than not. I also like to see cheap flops and play post flop as well to get made hands against hands like AA that wont let go.
 
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angelamsmith05

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Patience, patience and a lot more patience:)
 
EvertonGirl

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Becouse it is freeroll I tend to shove more. You just cant do much effect to some players by raising big. There is almost always that one guy who likes to go all in specially in the situation when there might be good time to steal pot. This is why I like to be the one who is making the shove. Maybe this this is just my imagination but this is how I feel. :D

I personally wouldn't be the shover, I like them to shove into me so I can get it in good. I think we should use a freeroll as a practice play and play the way you would any tournament to try and beat the fun players, and when you do this in the long term then you can finally move up.

Me, I will always be a micro stakes playeraplayer I don't put enough volume in. :D
 
Vallet

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I try to play seriously. It doesn't matter if they are freerolls or not. I never push when the stack is comfortable enough. To be eliminated at the beginning of the tournament is a shame for me.
 
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There are no antes usually so I dont play aggresive, when blinds get bigger and you get antes you can turn on your aggression, I dont recommend to be aggresive in early stages of freeroll
 
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Airles17

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I always try to play strong hands preflop and always play in position.
When I complete the bb, I only get involved if the flop is good.
 
mkdrummey

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I don't treat a freeroll any different to any other tournament, and how I play depends on my mood at the time and whether I can focus or not, and what the structure and prize pool is. It's not like it used to be where if you bust out there's another freeroll coming up. There's far fewer freerolls around these days so it makes sense to make the most of them if you're not one to risk your own cash.
 
perrywh

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Play great hands in position like in any tournament.
 
Psyanide14

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I play tight early unless I got a monster to let the donks that go all in with junk get knocked out first. I’m not about to risk calling someone’s all in with AQ even knowing he probably got something like 95o. Good chance to get knocked out. Once it settles down I’ll open up a bit more knowing I’ll be able to see some flops.

Best of luck.
 
erik_lima

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Usually I play tight and wait for good hands. But it depends of the tournament. If the tournament is turbo/hyper turbo, I play more loose and try to play hands in position.
 
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wulfeman007

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freerolls dont play like larger buyin games
play aggressive ,build chip stack, take some chances ,
bad part is if you try raise nobody really cares and calls then they call it all off on any pair or draws ..you seldom see 4 or 5 in a pot in even small buyin games
but in freerolls anything goes
 
niphon56

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Play aggressive & build chip stack. :)

Don' t fold with packet pairs, even small pairs. :eek:
 
gravac

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For someone is good to play loose aggressive and for others to play tight in the first half a hour lets say, you will need to find what is the best for you and build your stack.
For me I find playing a little tight at the start good in many freerolls, sometime is not that good as I get in situation to have a really small stack and strong fight, but in the most tour staying tight in the beginnings have shown like a good move.
 
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Enimen18

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In regular tournaments I have a very unique style of play. Limp with loose starting hands early, tight/aggressive midway to the end and will even play pots on gut instinct alone sometimes.

But freerolls are a different animal. Blinds go up so fast that I have learned it's best to just play tight and hope I have enough strong hands to build a large enough stack later in the tournament that I can play more aggressive.

bluffing in freerolls is almost pointless. In the rare case that I do get everyone off their garbage hands, it's usually for a pot size that wasn't really worth the effort or risk. Even in late stages of freerolls people still tend to play trash hands like donkeys.
 
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caracaski220

In freerolls for small stakes the play is realy crazy. Players pay all ins with a suited board and conetcions with 27 off. so you have to be really be carefull. I like to call all hands and see the flop chweap when the blinds are low get a nut hand that cant be seen on the board and rack up the chips, so that latter in the middle levels you can play poker and with a stack.
 
Lheticus

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Mostly I try to get all my chips in the middle with a hand that's ahead of whoever's in with me. I tend to find that there are enough loosey gooseys that having people fold to you too much isn't really a worry. Also, since the % of people who get ITM in freerolls is a small fraction of the % in buy-in MTTs, it's much more important to chip up early in freerolls than in those anyway. So, I try to double my starting stack as quickly as possible while taking on as little real risk as I can.

Note that this doesn't apply to CardsChat or indeed most other private freerolls, as the quality of play is higher. Those I'm more inclined to play like standard MTTs.
 
MattRyder

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If I make it past the first hand, which I don't usually, I wait till I get another monster hand to lose with. Works 99.9% of the time. Occasionally (once every year or two) I don't actually lose and go on to take 1st. It's an all or nothing sort of thing. It's also why I've pretty much stopped playing freerolls and most tournaments.
 
Gaviria8

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Depends on the table, I preffer being tight early stages but if I'm playing vs very loose players I'll go to catch them.
 
Poker_Player77

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I tend to sit back for a bit and watch how the rest of the table is playing, with what cards, then play according to that. Sometimes after my initial getting a feel for the table, I'll play aggressive and sometimes I won't. All depends on how I feel I can get the most from everyone else.
 
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freeisfun

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Just play tight according to the tournament structure . Never slow play your value hands . Just bet to get as much value as possible.
 
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