Reasons why you should not play freerolls for learning poker

[mina271]

Everyone is different and everyone should ask themselves why they decided to play a freerol. Do you want to learn something or do you just want risk-free fun. It is true in some freerols there are a lot of people who go all in with scrap. But you see the same thing in the micro tournaments, only there it costs money and if you are new to poker you should really invest as little money as possible. If you think that you can make big money with poker without any experience then you will see very quickly that this is not the case but that you can lose everything very quickly. Maybe there are people who lose the fun of poker because of the aggressive nature of players in freerols, but I don't think it would be any different if they had played for money. If you can't handle it then you shouldn't play poker. That might sound tough, but it just happens that you always have to reckon with the one or the other allin idiot who goes with garbage allin and then wins on the river

 

[Pibo1797]

You Will never learn poker in freerolls and in a cheap tournaments in those tournaments almost all the participants don't know how to play so they go all in with Bad hands they make Bad calls. Also i think that no one cares the tournament because they don't pay to play

 

[Joselmb31]

I think it's the same everywhere, even here in the forum, when you play private tournaments you have villains who 3bet 72 out of position. And they even go all in pre-flop in the first few hands of the tournament with middle cards looking for luck. Personally, I do not share the way these players act, but there are them everywhere.

 

[Bugi]

I play freerolls and enjoy them. I think freerolls are a good opportunity to learn how to deal with all types of players and all types of situations.

I don't see any reason to avoid them. If the day comes that I move up and leave them behind I won't regret the experience of freerolls.

 

[johnnylawford]

this is why I don't recommend freerolls for learning poker:

1-All in or fold mechanism:
2- Bad Players, Bad Beats:
3-Waste of time:

I think these are all true, as a counterpoint here are my pros of freerolls:

1 - Ground up learning - Just like learning how to play a video game you'll probably lose most or all of the time if you constantly try to go up against better opponents. If you begin by playing against and beating bad players by applying sounds fundamentals and go from there you're more likely to win actual money games than if you keep re-buying into games you can't beat. Logically speaking, wouldn't you want to play against bad players before trying to take on good ones? Also, spoiler, bad beats are a regular occurrence in poker if you are playing a sound strategy, so you'll probably want to get used to it early.
2 - Teaches you to enjoy the game versus chasing money - If you can genuinely enjoy playing freerolls you're more likely to be okay with grinding microstakes (spoiler: quality of play in microstakes isn't that different from a freeroll). Beating mid-stakes without some experience with lower stakes is pretty tough, so the best course for most people (not rich/willing to punt off $100s of dollars learning) is to start low and slow before going for the big wins. Also, spoiler, any non-turbo tournament poker game takes time, so if you're concerned about how long a free roll takes then you might want to try cash or sit and go games as they don't require the same time commitment.
3 - No risk play - For people with addictive personalities this is the most important -poker is still risking money, and if you tend to go on tilt or have trouble with bank roll management you'll burn a lot of real money (especially if you stay a losing player). Playing freerolls forces you to learn to manage a micro bankroll -even if you bust it you can start over without having lost anything other than the time you committed to freerolls.

If you're willing to drop money on building and rebuilding a bankroll while you learn, more power to you, but if not CC weekend freerolls are a good chance to play for decent cash with no risk.