Freeroll Tournaments Strategy

Hundreds of thousands of players play freeroll tournaments every day. They are a great way to get accustomed to the software at a poker room and they give you a chance to win a little real money without risking any of your own.

Freeroll strategy is different than other tournament strategy, and I would never suggest playing regular tournaments the same way I am getting ready to tell you to play freerolls. This is very important, so I will repeat it. Do Not play multi table and satellite tournaments using these freeroll strategies. One other thing, this is not the only strategy you will find for freerolls. It is the one that I use when I play them. One thing to realize about playing freerolls is that the reward, even for the winner, is often very small compared to the time it takes to play. A good holdem player can make between one and two big bets per hour playing ring games, so if you play 5/10 holdem, in the three or four hours it takes to play a big freeroll you could easily win $50 or more playing a ring game. So playing freerolls is a great way to start playing poker online, but your ultimate goal should be to get to the point that it actually costs you money to play them, in wasted opportunity at a ring game or real tournament.

As most freerolls have at least 1,000 players, with 900 of them being complete maniacs, I often throw caution to the wind. I push any advantage I think I may have, no matter how small, and back it up with my whole stack. If I am not able to double up at least two or three times within the first hour, then I realize that I will have to be very lucky to have any chance to win. Where I play tight early in regular tournaments and try to steal late, I do just the opposite in freerolls. This is the only way I have found to have much chance to see the money positions. Please realize that I did not say that I start playing like my competition, and you shouldn’t either. I still try to find situations that I believe give me a small advantage. Early in a regular tournament I will pass up a 51 or 52% advantage many times in hopes of finding a better spot to get my money in the pot. In a freeroll, I will push in even if I only have a 50-50 shot.

On the other hand, if you are playing freerolls to practice your tournament skills, you should play the way I describe in the multi table tournament section. A word of caution though; you need to be prepared to be amazed and disgusted at times with the level of competition. Forget about bluffing and learn to accept the fact that freeroll players will call off half their stack with J8s and other such garbage. You will take many bad beats, but you can learn a lot about how not to play and about dealing with a maniac.

I strongly suggest playing a few freerolls when you are just starting, but make your goal to be able to quickly convert to real money play and become the best player you can be. It will be much more profitable in the ling run.