Is it really worth playing freerolls?

hilary antonik filho

hilary antonik filho

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I hope this post generates hundreds of comments, think with great affection and if you can, leave your opinion here.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but I'll give you a tip here: Look at the time I stayed in the tournament and the prize I won.
In my opinion, it's worth it yes, all my bankroll is formed in most freerolls
 
Like2Play2

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If a lot of Time is what you have, like in my case, playing freerolls keeps my mind busy, and sometimes I do get lucky.
Like the time I finished first at $300. CC weekend freeroll and cashed in $57. That was a lot of fun.
I think that TIME is the big factor.
 
rock0001

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of course it is worth it considering that you can win money without investing any of your own.
 
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fundiver199

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One of the problems I see if you are playing too many freerolls is, it can establish some bad habits. One needs to make huge adjustments while playing against players who aren't thinking. If the goal is to get better at poker, most freerolls are definitely a waste of time. Pick & choose wisely.
This is a very good point, which I 100% agree with. Its important to know how to beat bad players, because they are always going to be, where most of the profit comes from. But its equally important to learn to at least stand your own against good players AKA "regulars", who will always be there, if or when you start playing for just a bit of real money. And if you only play freerolls, you just dont learn that. Its a bit the same as cash game players playing 100.000`s of hand at 2NL before even attempting to move up. This is just not nessesary, and it will slow down your development, if you are a talented player.

Another problem with mainly playing freerolls is, that it does not train your mental game. In freerolls you cant lose, so you never have to deal with that feeling, that now X % of your bankroll is gone due to some short term bad luck or some bad decision, you made. You also dont build any track record. So even if you have played like 1.000 freerolls and won 500$, you have no idea, if you are able to beat any kind of normal games. We have seen people in the forum, who spend lots of time building up a "bankroll" playing freerolls. But when they finally moved into real games, they quickly lost motivation, and we never heard from them again.

So for all these reasons freerolls should mainly be seen as a free entertainment. They are not for learning the game, at least not buyond the very basics like understanding hand rankings and reading boards. And they are also not for making money or "building up a bankroll". There are other and faster ways to do that including a job at McDonalds ;)
 
Poker Orifice

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I hope this post generates hundreds of comments, think with great affection and if you can, leave your opinion here.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but I'll give you a tip here: Look at the time I stayed in the tournament and the prize I won.

When I began playing poker online I was able to make a couple of deposits to two of the bigger sites at the time (Fulltilt & pokerstars) for ~$350. The very first game I played was a $1 tournament, 970 entrants. I placed 2nd for $114. LOL I WAS HOOKED ON THE GAME!

I continued to play micro buyin MTTs & Sit 'n Gos but I also included 'freerolls' (Cardschat had some great games back then (2008, but their freerolls sometimes had as many as 4,000 entrants in them). There were so many sites back then, so many forums and so many GREAT Freerolls (many of the freerolls were much more lucrative, LOTS of added prizes!!). I preferred the games that were held by forums as the skill level was a bit better and I was able to learn while playing in them.

Eventually it came down to whether or not the game was worth my time invested in it. Maybe I just wanted to play it for fun? Maybe the time commitment didn't matter at all. I guess the question could be, what are we hoping to get from playing freerolls? And does that make them worth playing?

If you're interested, I'd like to help you out. If you have any questions or if you can think of a way in which you think I could help you with learning to play poker, just let me know. It would be my pleasure to help you!
 
gravii2011

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If you're a novice player and don't have a bankroll to play for money, then freerolls are definitely worth playing, as they can attract you in terms of money plus a good workout before playing for real money.
 
Highfish

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In my opinion, these freerolls are a waste of time. You sit at the table with mostly 1000 or more idiots. The common play style is all in with any two. The structure of such tournaments also encourages this.
I wish everyone a lot of fun with it. :giggle:

However, those who are able to make a small deposit should do so.
For example, there is the possibility to play satellites for a dollar or less to get access to quite attractive tournaments.
There, you usually have to deal with only a hundred or even fewer idiots. ;)

However, if you like to play freerolls, have a lot of time and think you can build up a bankroll with it, I wish you good luck.

Just my 2 cents. gl at the tables.
 
Eduard0Felipe

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If you're a novice player and don't have a bankroll to play for money, then freerolls are definitely worth playing, as they can attract you in terms of money plus a good workout before playing for real money.

O @fundiver199 e o @Highfish aparentemente discorda de você, leia o comentário logo acima e abaixo do teu.
 
perrywh

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I won a freeroll once! Had a good time! Got a new nick name, Donk and made new friends! So all in all I think they are worth the time!!!!
 
dzsire

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Absolutely worth playing on freerolls.
You are not risking your own money, you can practice, develop and even win money, all for free. Need a better option?
 
Eduard0Felipe

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One more to count, 3h 10, but I'm happy with the result, I beat a huge field, I was between 7.5%, it's usually a good number, but I don't know if I'll play again, again, the information is here, low limit, what do you think?

PS: Luckily, I know outs sometimes hit so go ahead, don't worry because I played correctly, just over 30 BBs, he opened 2, pattern 3 bet 6, she lead, 14bb in the pot, hit the flop , c bet 7bb, he shoved, easy call, K of spades, wow, dreamy hand, he was doing great in the tournament, it was the double for FT, he had taken 3 AK earlier, the deck was helping. In the end... There were 2 freerolls, the first one I paid for.
 

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psanto

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I hope this post generates hundreds of comments, think with great affection and if you can, leave your opinion here.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but I'll give you a tip here: Look at the time I stayed in the tournament and the prize I won.
I like playing freeroll, but don't expect much.
 
x patrice x

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Is it really worth playing freerolls?

a)Well, if it is primarily about poker, there is nothing better than doing this in a freeroll!

One should not forget:
... to play poker "just so" - no way! To do this, you also need game-oriented like-minded people and a platform to realize this.

All of this offer freerolls and also the possibility of a win.
--> to generate something out of nothing is always worthwhile!


b)If the question aims at the actual value that I can generate with my poker game, i.e. the relationship between invested costs (buy-in) <--> invested time <--> yield/profit, I cannot answer this.

Especially not, this can be generalized, because these are personal parameters and freerolls are always undefined.
Whether it is a freeroll with 1000 players and a prize pool of $ 10 or 10 players with a prize pool of $ 1000 makes a difference.
--> However, everything remains at your own discretion whether it is worthwhile to play a freeroll
 
mushthebush

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I have read a lot of confusion about this subject and would like to clarify the numbers as some others may already have.

Freerolls are free to play and real money to be won. Besides money, there's also experience to be gained. Easy as that. It doesn't matter how much. So the ROI is infinite really, cause the investment is nil, therefore the return is whatever you gain.

Now, if you know you're good and you know what you're playing and you have the bankroll to spare and play with it, then play for whatever you can afford and grow your money accordingly. But that's what they call a poker player not a hobbyist.

However, if you knew what you were doing and had the capital to do it, you would not be here asking this question.

My advice is play as many freerolls as you can until you gain the knowledge, experience and bankroll to be able to advance in your chase of the poker career. Even more so, play freerolls if you're simply playing poker for fun because you're not losing your personal money. Simply because if you were just confident in your abilities (that you probably lack) you would go ahead and lose your money, just like in trading for example. This is not an activity based on feeling but it's rather based on quick mathematical decisions. 1 extra point for ploaying freerolls, without wasting your money.

As in every single job you get, start this poker job from the bottom, as in grind the toilets with a toothbrush first before you start having a clue what this "poker" job is and you will eventually advance in your poker role.

I see many people getting upset because they lose with AA 5-6 times in a row or their KK don't hold, or the straight turns out to be the loser on the river. Now, this is poker, it's a long-term job, not an instant gratification scheme. You play AA 100,000 times and you will win about 70,000-80,000 times. and then you notice the difference. If you haven't even played 100,000 hands in total, you are not entitled to judge those few AA you ever played.

Poker is a big picture, look at it whole and put in the effort. Or don't. No one makes you. It's your decision.

P.S. If you play those Aces badly everytime against multiple opponents in the hand, then your win percentage drops severely and you'll say it's rigged.
 
choprav

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I understand your point here - I guess it all comes down to how much you value your time and utilise it. I only do the freerolls when I'm playing in a paid tournament and if I progress in it, it just ticks over in the background. Also, if someone is poor or skint this money could be great for them, help them enter paid tournaments and win bigger cash later!
 
antonis32123

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Generally speaking ,
Some freerolls worth the time invested , like the ones awarding many seats , like 20 or 25 or 50 seats or even more seats in special tourneys and occasions/promotions/giveaways .

Also these $3.000 or $10.000 special tourneys in ACR nowadays with the $1000 bounties on the streamers' heads for up to 5 re entries. That's some good opportunities , despite the high number of participants (3.000 players or more)

The $300 or $1..000 CC freerolls are a good example of nice freerolls to play . It's good that they are played on Saturday or Sunday , when many other freerolls or other good buyin games (for every bankroll) are in the lobby for you .
You say you'll seat on Saturday evening or Sunday for 5 , 7 or more hours and play a tone of freerolls , freebuys , also cheap sats and sngs or tourneys that you can afford to play .

It's a good deal , if in the end your profits worth it for the time invested.
If not , then ofcourse you should not play freerolls or even no games at all . It all depends how much you want or need or are able to win in freerolls and real money buy in games .
 
mariale_1990

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ok friend, I see it this way: if what you got seems little to you, you shouldn't play that type of tournament, generally free tournaments with a prize of $100 and where more than 1K players are registered are like that, no expect a good prize with many people fighting to win something, I think that even if you won the tournament it would seem little to you because you would have to play more time, what I recommend is that when you go to play a tournament like this you should analyze: prize, number of players and the time that you can invest, if you keep playing those tournaments and you end up thinking that it's not worth it then I think you like to suffer for fun, and I say this with all due respect because I think that in this type of thing you cannot stumble 2 times with the same stone
 
dreamer13

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Freerolls are worth playing when you are a beginner to get your hands on and practice. With some luck and a good game, you can put together a couple of hundred for a further game. In the future, this is a waste of time, not counting the more expensive freerolls at least from 200 USD. Events of this kind have their positive and negative aspects. The advantage is the opportunity to get free experience of playing multi-table tournaments. The disadvantages include the heterogeneity of the public. Free entry makes the game accessible to absolutely everyone, which sometimes leads to too risky, aggressive competitions.
 
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Freerolls are free to play and real money to be won. Besides money, there's also experience to be gained. Easy as that. It doesn't matter how much. So the ROI is infinite really, cause the investment is nil, therefore the return is whatever you gain.
But maybe there is more experience to be gained by playing regular games. Instead of spending 3½ hours on this freeroll, maybe OP could have been on 4 different 2NL cash tables and played up to 1.000 hands in the same amount of time, and maybe he would have learned more by doing that. Or maybe he could have spend the time watching training videos or reviewing past hands, he played. So there is an opportunity cost in playing the freeroll, since we only have a limited amount of time to our disposal. This is not to say, that people should never play freerolls. But as many have said, some freerolls are more valuable than others, and its very reasonable to pass on the less valuable ones ;)
 
Vallet

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I would like to start by saying that playing in the freeroll you have not lost anything. This is already a huge plus. After all, spending a lot of time and losing is terrible. But if you think that the level of play in freerolls is very different from the level at low stakes, then this is not so.
 
wilmer907907

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I can tell you from my own experience that if it is worth it, it is best because you are not risking your money and whenever I reach the final table or win in a free tournament I am very satisfied to have beaten a significant amount of rivals
 
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