should play more seriously until you have a chance to make money without spending

How many players do you know that do this? Players who you know at both formats? If I run to a bad player, they are bad at both. Just as well a good player. I do give you credit for the keen sense of observation to see a difference or no difference.

Hi, as my concern, i change my play according the limit. So i play a bit loose in freeroll tournaments then "with my money" at stake. Perhaps all players do the same. It does not make the difference if you win or lose because you do not put money in that tourney, plus that the money pool is not so attractive to fight for (usually).

Originally Posted by oanacosmin777

Hi, as my concern, i change my play according the limit. So i play a bit loose in freeroll tournaments then "with my money" at stake. Perhaps all players do the same. It does not make the difference if you win or lose because you do not put money in that tourney, plus that the money pool is not so attractive to fight for (usually).

Freerolls tournaments are typically hyper turbo with poor structure. Played adjust more to the loose side when this is the tournament structure.

"Fear of loss" plays a big role in poker. With freerolls, participants have nothing invested so there is no fear of loss. As a result, play tends to be much wilder than regular tournaments. All you can really do is adapt your play and try to trap players who are making these wild plays. Hey, at least it's not costing YOU anything either !

Hi,because many people play relaxed when playing freerolls but when they pay the buy in they tend to be more concentrated..In my case,I always do my best no matter if it´s a freeroll, tournament,cash.....

When players have nothing at stake they are going to shove whatever tickles there fancy. You just have to play very ABC poker and very robot like. With a sprinkle of suited connectors and such IN POSITION. One thing I do think it improves on is dealing with bad beats and patients once you step into risking something of value.

I guess your right. You play more serious in money tournaments. It really isn't because of me but the other players. To show courtesy to other players I don't talk much with real money. This actually hurts my game because the silent mind games usually get me.

For me, this is also a mystery)).
In my opinion, if this is a hobby, you will try to play at a good level, because you are interested. If you earn, then more responsibility for the game.
There are only beginners who in a couple of minutes threw chips and went about other things at the same level. And they justify their game "is it a freeroll or a microlimit, or is it a low limit."
But sometimes I see players who play 3-5 years and continue to play at the level of escaped clients of a psychiatric hospital. They play for 2-3 minutes and go to rest. But sometimes they play an hour or two until they fly to the next allin.

First off all not everyone playing freerolls are broke or complete beginners. I have won 1.500$ in tournaments on 888 Poker, and I still play some of their freerolls. Why wouldn't I? Its essentially free money. However I do of course need to value my time, and this is why, I do make some adjustments in freerolls. I dont want to spend an hour just trying to min-cash for 20c, so I deliberately adopt a "go strong or go home" style of play.

Also as someone said already, most freerolls are hyper turbos, so if you dont build a big stack quickly, you are going to be blinded away. Finally other players will tend to stack off more liberally, which allow us to profitably widen our range a bit. So for all these reasons I am one of those players, who do use a more aggressive style in freerolls.

I will answer for myself , because I am bored.
And I like the mentality in every buy in ''go hard or go home''.At least I try to play more marginal spots after ITM phase in buy-in MTTs but in freerolls I take more risks early on.I have nothing to lose , right?

I am not one of those guys though who open jams 100bbs+ or donk shove 300x the pot because they hat their top top, that's ridiculous even in a freeroll game but ok, just show love to those people.If you have those tendencies in your game they might be second nature to you and it will be catastrophic for your overall performance.

Originally Posted by akmost

I am not one of those guys though who open jams 100bbs+ or donk shove 300x the pot because they hat their top top, that's ridiculous even in a freeroll game but ok, just show love to those people.

I am not doing it myself, but I have seen people open jam 100bbs+ and get called by the most ridiculous hands. So its actually not a bad way to get maximum value, if you have a premium starting hand early in a freeroll.

By contrast if you open to the standard 3BB, you usually get 5 callers, and your AA or KK often end going up in smoke, because someone hit something. Or your AK missed the flop, and against 5 players you cant really do anything other than check-fold.

It depends on the type of freeroll. If the entry is free, there are many players entering hang out. No aspirations of winning.

Originally Posted by fundiver199

I am not doing it myself, but I have seen people open jam 100bbs+ and get called by the most ridiculous hands. So its actually not a bad way to get maximum value, if you have a premium starting hand early in a freeroll.

By contrast if you open to the standard 3BB, you usually get 5 callers, and your AA or KK often end going up in smoke, because someone hit something. Or your AK missed the flop, and against 5 players you cant really do anything other than check-fold.

Haha yes I know , maybe the players who open jam 100bbs+ know something better than us.
Generally I want to go post flop and reduce as much as I can the high variance spots-in every tournament- but in some phases -open jamming into 2 shorter stacks / bubble phase - is one way play.

Yeap I agree and I am ok with a check fold play when deep stacked in the early stages , you can't do much multiway. You will have many opportunities in future hands to gather chips.
But I won't open 10x in order to take down a few chips or play heads up post flop

when players play in the freeroll they don’t think about losing chips / money, they just shove any hands, which means you just need to play with good hands and hope that you win, you don’t need to look for any strategy, sooner or later you will win!

Many players do not take freerolls seriously because it costs them nothing ...! and because they play recreationally without expecting anything ...! and others because they simply like to play "Bingo" in these tournaments ...!

Originally Posted by Erik moraes

should play more seriously until you have a chance to make money without spending

As thankfully there are many different freerolls if play a serious freeroll schedule on many sites one can play very loose and have some fun while growing rolls on 10+ different sites,
Depends on the freeroll though some have to be played more serious than others as greater prizepools.
Sometimes if have 7 or 8 games running from 0 to $215 buy in games there is a huge difference in how you approach these games while open shoving Q10 suited is ok in the freeroll under the gun probably as ok now less screens to focus on
I would never do it with serious buy ins.
Where the seriousness comes in is putting in a huge volume of freerolls and sticking to the schedule regardless of whether your bust even or you have access to thousands of dollars and regulary playing bigger buy in games.

Originally Posted by Erik moraes

should play more seriously until you have a chance to make money without spending

I like to take a serious approach always when playing, even if it's a freeroll.
Knowing the opponents will play looser than average though I make some adjustments

1) Try to see as many cheap flops as possible because implied odds are very high

2) Use overbetting and call down lighter postflop than you would in a regular MTT (this doesn't mean calling down with bottom pair, just slight adjustments)

3) Call ALL-INs preflop wider than usual, somethig like 77+ AJ+ (just because people shove any two doesn't mean you need to call A2o QJo etc, since they will always move in everyhand you can wait for a spot where you'll be a 70% favorite)

4) Bluff a lot less in the early going, people don't like to fold, so why bother bluffing

5) Ramp up the aggression on the final table but not before. (In normal tournaments we would ramp up moving to the bubble but since the payouts are so small many players don't care about them, they do however care about the difference between a $1 cash and a $20 cash).

My approach with freerolls as with most small buyin events is to be selective, but to go for MAX VALUE when given an opportunity (ie a strong hand or an overly loose opponent) and once your stack is built you can pick people off for big chunks of chips. Patience as always and emotional control are key to achieving this.

A reason people play so loose is because of the opportunity cost of time, yes if you invest no time, then really you are losing nothing, but if you 4x your stack suddenly it may be worth taking seriously. The only consideration is that this can create bad habits and can you 'turn it off' after getting yourself into a gambling mode? If yes, go for it.

As always the best approach will be personal because it depends on how you value your time, skill, and enjoyment of the game. I hope you'll find these tips helpful either way

If you'd like to learn more about freeroll and small stakes MTT strategy I'm streaming a $50-$1Million http://twitch.tv/gripsed which has lots of small stakes action

If you'd like an in depth guide on how to win tournaments of all types check out http://gripsed.com/free where you can get over 6 hours of my most popular MTT strategy programs absolutely free!

Let's Get Stackin!

The fact that many players are strongly expanding opening bands! To adjust to account for all play looser. Although the course and maniacs in such tournaments missing.

Freerolls bring out all sorts of players and most times the bad players will play the same whether it is a freeroll or a buy-in tournament. However, more skilled players that want to play solid poker will at times play way looser or more 'bingo' style in freerolls usually because they are trying to 'match' the style of the other players at their table.

Originally Posted by Erik moraes

should play more seriously until you have a chance to make money without spending

Not a serious game can be found in any tournament. Perhaps there is no mood. Maybe the card is not coming. Maybe the player stopped by to start the Allin and see the result. It happens to me. I'm not a robot to play the same in all situations. I used to run ollin won a lot of chips and then I think you need to play seriously. As a result, I won the freeroll many times in different rooms. But with the entrance for the money did not win a single tournament. Maximum 3 place. Then I started 3 allins in a row and in the first minutes I collected 8,000 chips from a stack of 1,500. Then I played seriously, because it was easier to crush other players with the stack. It was safe for me to go to bluff, they were welcome.

there is no invested money so there is no fear of loss and philosophy is double up or die

I'd say people don't play seriously in freerolls early on since busting early and winning nothing is better than busting close to the bubble and losing nothing, wasting a lot of time in the process. If you can build a strong stack early, it becomes a lot easier to survive those later stages where the blinds get higher. Since they have nothing to lose (and time to possibly gain), I can definitely see some of the appeal of punting off early

Its free to play low prizes, turbo structure,a lot of players,so many people only gamble in freerolls.

because its a freeroll and they have nothing to lose I guess this is the reason

Because they don't lose money if they get eliminated, so they can risk more.

Playing a freeroll badly is better than not playing it at all. It is always +ev. Me for example, i mostly have no time to play with high attention in tge freeroll. But skipping it wouldnt do me any good. So better donking than not playing.

Plus it confuses my Holdem Manager stats in case you track me because you never lnow which side of me you get. I consider this a plus

I think it is because they do not play with their money as they are free tickets, they play so to speak, more fish they make you allin with 3 4of and on the flop two 33 gg come out for me those freerolls are not worth it

Originally Posted by oanacosmin777

It does not make the difference if you win or lose because you do not put money in that tourney.

I can definitely see where some players, and maybe a lot of them, would play that way. For myself, I began playing tournaments because I wanted to do something competitive, so the winning or losing is very important to me. To quote the late oil tycoon H.L. Hunt, "Money is just a way of keeping score."

because at the moment of starting to play the others show a face and avoid the true intentions at the table, such as bluffing or perhaps a strong hand

Personally I switch my style to slow, endurance style. You can simply sit out most of the calamity.

To play freeroll you need to adjuste your plays style.
Too many limpers, "no fear to loose" players, all-in every hand...
At the begging you must play a consistent game. At the bubble the game become more rational.

I agree with fundiver . I also play to generate some extra cash for my casino slot gams and casino bankroll . Freerolls play many people , more or less skilled . Most play very aggressively cause they have nothingto lose in terms of $$$$ , so they try not to invest time for nothing . Having said that , there come some special people who go preflop with 102o after raise , and call on non10 and non 2 flop , and 3bet their 10 on the turn and go all in waiting for the miracle 10 or 2 on the river , special cases needed special care and love

due to the number of players we have to build a big stack to have any chance.
so more than knowledge and skill at the start of a 90% freeroll has to be luck.
if i manage to survive until the end of late registration, i try to play decent poker again, until then i play worse than any.
law of survival.

on free freerolls, people do not think much, they play mainly for luck, besides, they pass in fast mode and there is not much time to wait for the cards to come to you

Freeroll is madness at most times, until the cut off late regist period. It is just trying to get enough BB's to get into the money. This is the time where the big stacks tend to take out those who limp and bully the small stacks to fold.
Time to go wild as it is free, so guilty as charged.

Many players believe that freerolls can not bring real money, and therefore just play all hands in a row. I think this is their big mistake, because with the help of freerolls, every disciplined player can build a decent bankroll in a few months.

psychology. for often many people think that if freerolls then insignificant prizes. See here how to look. Of course, the structure also affects, basically all freerolls are hyper turbo. Hence, more loose solutions

There are more novice players, the fear of losing factor is lost, and they are crowded.

On the other hand, they should change the style of playing, since the tournament has a different imprint, it cannot be played the same as another, it is a skill to adapt to each situation.

Luckily the CC seems to me to be an exception, it is another energy, another wave.

Because they haven't paid anything to play on it, the prizes aren't that big and there are a lot of players. If they get lucky and get a lot of chips by playing different they might try to play normal again, once their chances to cash raised considerably.

there are hyperturbo Freeroll formats where you can play any two

Low cost, long time to in the money & the other players prefer all-in.

Originally Posted by Erik moraes

should play more seriously until you have a chance to make money without spending

The reason is the buy-in, which allows you to play more freely, as well as to hone the tactics of playing poker, where for a mistake you will only get experience, keeping funds in your account. You need to be able to surprise by playing outside the box.

because probably the prizes are usualy too low, like cents, and then they simply dont care

Free rolls should be seriously played to build bank rolls

Originally Posted by Erik moraes

should play more seriously until you have a chance to make money without spending

Hello and I hope all is well with you and yours today
I was wondering if you could elaborate more on how people are changing.
I am using freerolls to hone my game, maybe I am too new to understand. I would also like maybe the foreshadow of what I will be getting into when I start playing for money.
Thanks for your time and the question.

they change their behavior why it is free and they have not borrowed from their own bank if they play with their own money they will play more wisely so they don't care to lose the first one and leave

Its because its free, so it doesn’t hurt. That’s the unconsious reasoning, but ut ignores a cost that doesn’t seem like one but it is always present in our lives: the opportunity cost

Why do players change their behavior in freeroll tournaments?

I believe players change their behavior in Freeroll Tournaments, because they know it's a free tournament, and sometimes they get bored playing, other times it's because they are very aggressive players, and want to intimidate other players on the table, hoping the one they are raising will just fold so they can get their balance up to keep in the game!

I agree with you! It doesn't make a difference if you win or lose, simply because it doesn't cost anything to join them, so why not risk going all in? If you lose, you didn't lose anything other than an opportunity to win part of the small pot! Yes "SMALL POT!" So you are right, it's not really worth the time to fight for a few dollars!

Originally Posted by oanacosmin777

Hi, as my concern, i change my play according the limit. So i play a bit loose in freeroll tournaments then "with my money" at stake. Perhaps all players do the same. It does not make the difference if you win or lose because you do not put money in that tourney, plus that the money pool is not so attractive to fight for (usually).