Is it worth pushing at the start of a Freeroll?

[PPT]

The first few hands of a poker freeroll seem to be dominated by pushing - sometimes with people with really duff hands. If you have a decent hand (preferably at least Ace-high) is it worth joining in with the pushing or not?

On the one hand it feels like its not 'proper poker' but on the other hand it feels like if you lose you only lose a few seconds in the tournament and if you win you move on with a decent starting stack.

Is that dodgy or acceptable behaviour in your eyes?

 

[fundiver199]

If people are in fact going all in that wide, it can be completely fine to call relatively wide as well, especially if you are closing action or only have 1-2 players to act behind you. Its a freeroll, so you cant lose, and taking a "go strong or go home" approach, until you are near the payouts, can certainly make a lot of sense. From there on you should play like a normal tournament though.

 

[gon4iypes]

I often join the shove fest and get lucky with really crap cards...you can get lucky and triple up or more and have a nice stack to build on. But I don't ever do it light in CC tourneys ... much better players here and your light little hand will fly up in youe face !!!! lol

 

[GRIN281289]

Depends on the type of tournament, if the blinds are growing very quickly, you need to use your good cards as much as possible, it is desirable that no more than two players participate in the all-in, then there will be more chances of winning.

 

[GeckoAA]

For most freerolls you almost have to join in the shove fest because the blinds are going up so quickly, so my thought on those is to get up or out fast. I still make sure my shove hands are at least fairly decent and position is good to use also. I agree with gon4ipes above - that CC tournaments not not like typical shove fest freerolls in the least, they are taken much more seriously thats for sure.

 

[pirateglenn]

I think you have to accept that if you are going to push all in early at the start of any freeroll, you can be sure of several things - 1. Many recreational players shove at this point with garbage 2. Ranges are out of the window and luck is more of a factor therefore. 3. Position has minimal value and the total tourney entrance numbers become a factor as its normal for a good 60% of freeroll entrants to be speculative, set miners, flush fishers with a view that accumulating a early stack is worth a punt rather than post flop play.

 

[mateuszjason]

I dont think so that is a good idea. Freerorols are freezout at most of them so in my opinion is to much risk. You risk about 100-200bb at first levels.

At most of time everyone folds, and You will get only blinds. when someone calls you probably with better hand. so is not good idea. but remeber is my opinion im not a pro, only love game playing since 10 years

 

[Recreationalplayer]

I wait for punters to push with wide range and call with premium hands.

 

[mina271]

It depends on what kind of freeroll you are in. If blinds are very fast, for example every 3 minutes, then you have to start pushing pretty quickly, but then the place where you sit and what kind of cards you play also play a role. I am of the opinion that regardless of whether you play a tournament for money or with play money or freerol, it's all poker and you should just do your best.

 

[Zapahlohotrona]

In the freeroll at the beginning of the tournament, I will only do this with pairs of aces, kings, queens and ace-king.

 

[Gutshot Gus]

I am usually playing on a 20 to 22 VPIP. I like to wait for a premium hand and exploit the sliders then. I don't like jumping in the mud hole and playing bingo with nuthin.

 

[poliaris747]

There is no need, wait 10-15 minutes until weak players quit the game

 

[nuttea]

The first few hands of a poker freeroll seem to be dominated by pushing - sometimes with people with really duff hands. If you have a decent hand (preferably at least Ace-high) is it worth joining in with the pushing or not?

On the one hand it feels like its not 'proper poker' but on the other hand it feels like if you lose you only lose a few seconds in the tournament and if you win you move on with a decent starting stack.

Is that dodgy or acceptable behaviour in your eyes?

\In short, if you think that the poker room is deliberately helping weak or bad players in freerolls, then you have problems at the level of poker analytics. You may think that he is lucky because he is drunk (and he really can be drunk) or he does not care about the result. However, remember that he will not win the tournament anyway, sooner or later he will be knocked out of the fight. This is why you shouldn't use this strategy. It's simple. Mathematics is not on your side, and at some point it will settle with you. And the more you play like that, the faster it will end and not in your favor.And you don't lose as often as you think. Just write down the hands when you call a random all-in with the best hand. You will immediately notice that more often than not, "everything is according to the odds of the bank", as expected. And if you succumb to weakness and push with any hand, you will very soon run into an opponent's call with a monster hand and leave the tournament. Don't believe me? Try to play several freerolls in a row like this. It won't cost you anything anyway.

 

[arsenalcho_1]

hi

a good option is to build a bank with freerolls

 

[airvikki]

I often notice that in freerolls, many people push at the beginning of the tournament. As far as I understand, they choose such a strategy to fill the stack at the beginning of the tournament, or there is simply no point in sitting further. But I treat freerolls the same way as tournaments for money, I don't know if it's right or not. But usually those who push with any hand fly out first and remain more serious.

 

[Medina]

It is completely understandable what you are saying,if many participate in a freeroll, and ITM is very far away, absolutely good tactics.
I play freerolls often and have used this method many times.
However, I don’t have a good experience because a lot of people do that, and it only rarely works.
I had more success, if I play traditionally, so it didn't work out for me.
Nevertheless, I understand those who choose this method.

 

[Alizona]

It happened to me last night, on the 4th hand of the tournament I played QTs on the button and the flop came KJx so I was open ended... after a big early position shove and a call, I had no idea what to do. I wasn't getting proper odds to chase my 8 outs (middle position had KJ and flopped top 2 pair so i only had the 8 straight outs), but it was close (8 outs on turn and river is roughly 33% equity)... after 60 seconds I decided "ah the heck with it" and called (or actually I shoved all in for slightly more but opponent is never folding there). I missed. Oh well! There's always tomorrow night, and I didn't lose anything except the possibility of making a cash.

I'd do it all over again tonight if possible. In a 'regular tournament', we probably do want to fold in this spot, but in a freeroll, I think it's silly to fold and I felt a bit bad at taking so long to make my decision.

 

[molokheia]

hi there

exactly!!!

this is the big problem with freeroll

but once you go to middle hands the game improves a lot

so i think its better to go slowly on the begining

rgds

 

[henriquemaduro]

The first few hands of a poker freeroll seem to be dominated by pushing - sometimes with people with really duff hands. If you have a decent hand (preferably at least Ace-high) is it worth joining in with the pushing or not?

On the one hand it feels like its not 'proper poker' but on the other hand it feels like if you lose you only lose a few seconds in the tournament and if you win you move on with a decent starting stack.

Is that dodgy or acceptable behaviour in your eyes?

If its a lot of registers and don't pay that much, u can do that, because little chips will make you go nowhere

 

[Rost]

I think that such a strategy of playing in freerolls in fact has no good prospects. I primarily play freerolls to improve my skills, gain experience and so I always try to be patient, not play with any junk, and make quality decisions.

 

[zerosalex]

I'd you have a good hand. And if your not calling a 3x or 4 x bet.

 

[Pimp 007 x]

I never go all in from the start unless I'm calling one of these people with premium cards. However, I can see why someone would want to go all in on a freeroll from the get go, since it doesn't actually cost them money to participate, and they can either double up and have a better chance at getting paid, or quit and try again at a later time.

Personally, I just love poker too much and enjoy every second of it, regardless if it is freeroll, playmoney or real money.

 

[foran]

if the tournament is long, play it with a good game.

 

[azforlife]

No it's not! Play TAG

 

[Fivefor]

The first few hands of a poker freeroll seem to be dominated by pushing - sometimes with people with really duff hands. If you have a decent hand (preferably at least Ace-high) is it worth joining in with the pushing or not?

On the one hand it feels like its not 'proper poker' but on the other hand it feels like if you lose you only lose a few seconds in the tournament and if you win you move on with a decent starting stack.

Is that dodgy or acceptable behaviour in your eyes?

There is nothing dodgy about playing your chip stack however you choose in a poker tournament.

Since most freerolls have up to thousands of players in them and many time are played at blind levels 5 mins or shorter...like the 1 min blind levels on many 888 freerolls, it is imperative that you should try to build up a large stack as quickly as possible.

Personally I don't like to shove early in freerolls without at least a half decent couple of cards but many in freerolls with shove with any 2 cards simply to try and get lucky and have a bigger stack to start with early. If they go out then they have invested the minimal time possible for something that didn't cost them anything to begin with.

Lastly, who doesn't enjoy shoving 2 crap cards and then sucking out on someone who calls with AA or another big pair or AK and the like. So much fun that that alone makes it worth it sometimes!!