Freeroll advice

[targetguy1]

once again from a friend of mine




Freeroll Tournaments are the ones with no buy in.
You pay nothing to get in, and get very little for cashing out.
Your really better off to work at McDonalds if you really need the money.
Anyways, I will explain the best way to go about playing a Freeroll Tournament.
F-Stage
People often call this the "first" stage, with that being true,
I prefer to call it the FISH stage.
If you ever played a freeroll, you understand why. More times then not, someone is all in at your table on almost every hand, and usually with some form of junk hand ~Q7s ? 89s ? 44 ?



So lets examine how you should play the "Fish Stage"
We want to start off tight, much like a normal tournament, but there is a catch,
oh a catch on the fish stage? How cute.

In the first couple of hands, ok maybe five at most, we will be pushing all in.
We are going to push all in with AA to A9, KK, KQ, QQ, JJ.
Sounds pretty dumb right? No, what is dumb is playing a tournament for 3 hours
placing 50th and winning a $2 at the most. Burger King pays more.

So we are looking to double (triple) up and make it to the second stage, or go play somewhere else.

The first stage we are never looking to bluff, we are not trying to steal blinds.
Pot sizes are much to small to early, so we want all are chips in pre flop and try to catch some fish with premium hands.

If you think this isn't smart, figure your total earning and divide that by how many hours you played. Now you tell me who is getting their moneyz worth.
So now you have doubled, maybe tripled up, and you are still in the fish stage, now what?
Now you play position and only premium hands.
You limp in with suited or connectors from late position, and fold to anything x3 bb.
You do not bluff or try to steal blinds.

In this stage, some people call it "early" stage, ok I will too.
Here the fish have been knocked out, there maybe 60% - 75% field remaining.
You play pretty much the same as above, but here you start to watch other players, and mark them.
You need to know who is a strong player and who is lucky.
At this point you are looking to pick up some small pots and focus on next stage.

Middle Stage you want to get more aggressive and do some value betting and smart bluffs.
Still playing tight and marking players too. This stage is about getting lucky with cards.
Honestly I do not think luck is in poker, but getting good cards is.
This is the stage that will determine if you will cash out or not. Your asking why here and not on the bubble?
..........well read on

The "Bubble" stage.
Here you are either going to cash out or realize you wasted about 2 1/2 -4 hours of your time.
If you got good cards in the last stage, you can blind out and cash out. If you had not got lucky, well your low stack and going to be going all in.

Low Stack
When your low stack on the bubble, you don't want to tangle with someone with lots of chips and that see your all in as small bet to them, try going heads up with someone close or low stack to yourself and hope for a coin toss. You could even steal their blinds if they are pre occupied about getting to the cash placing. Mind ya, if you get AA, KK, etc I personally would try to slow play it and hope to suck in more players with a "nice" pre flop raise then push all in on the flop. This way you could potentially triple or even quadruple up instead of doubling up. This will soar you into chip stack, and give you great position to play......

Medium -to- High Stack
Try not to get to creative here, if you play smart you should cash out, but you do want to take advantage of low stacks on the table, forcing them to push all in or fold. Blind steals should be common practice here. Try not to get mixed up with someone with another med to high stack, or anyone that could put a big dent into your chips.

Final Table
So you made the big leagues eh?
To bad its a freeroll.
Just relax and enjoy it. Your not gonna be rich if you win, so just have fun at it.

[RocketManAA]

Seems like sound advise to me! There's nothing like the feeling of being at a final table with a huge stack of in front of you. That's a feeling most players never tire of, even in a low payout freeroll.

[Bailyen]

This is great. I like this a lot. It's very sound and practical. I wish I would have known all this when I first started playing poker. I would have skipped some of my "donk" stage.

[targetguy1]

yeah when i first read i thought the same thing.

This is great. I like this a lot. It's very sound and practical. I wish I would have known all this when I first started playing poker. I would have skipped some of my "donk" stage.

[USCTrojans]

This is great. I like this a lot. It's very sound and practical. I wish I would have known all this when I first started playing poker. I would have skipped some of my "donk" stage.

We all pass through the "donk" stage I guess, only difference is that the ones who stay in that donk stage forever are constantly bad beating me up, agrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!

[NeverWinHere]

once again from a friend of mine




Freeroll Tournaments are the ones with no buy in.
You pay nothing to get in, and get very little for cashing out.
Your really better off to work at McDonalds if you really need the money.
Anyways, I will explain the best way to go about playing a Freeroll Tournament.
F-Stage
People often call this the "first" stage, with that being true,
I prefer to call it the FISH stage.
If you ever played a freeroll, you understand why. More times then not, someone is all in at your table on almost every hand, and usually with some form of junk hand ~Q7s ? 89s ? 44 ?



So lets examine how you should play the "Fish Stage"
We want to start off tight, much like a normal tournament, but there is a catch,
oh a catch on the fish stage? How cute.

In the first couple of hands, ok maybe five at most, we will be pushing all in.
We are going to push all in with AA to A9, KK, KQ, QQ, JJ.
Sounds pretty dumb right? No, what is dumb is playing a tournament for 3 hours
placing 50th and winning a $2 at the most. Burger King pays more.

So we are looking to double (triple) up and make it to the second stage, or go play somewhere else.

The first stage we are never looking to bluff, we are not trying to steal blinds.
Pot sizes are much to small to early, so we want all are chips in pre flop and try to catch some fish with premium hands.

If you think this isn't smart, figure your total earning and divide that by how many hours you played. Now you tell me who is getting their moneyz worth.
So now you have doubled, maybe tripled up, and you are still in the fish stage, now what?
Now you play position and only premium hands.
You limp in with suited or connectors from late position, and fold to anything x3 bb.
You do not bluff or try to steal blinds.

In this stage, some people call it "early" stage, ok I will too.
Here the fish have been knocked out, there maybe 60% - 75% field remaining.
You play pretty much the same as above, but here you start to watch other players, and mark them.
You need to know who is a strong player and who is lucky.
At this point you are looking to pick up some small pots and focus on next stage.

Middle Stage you want to get more aggressive and do some value betting and smart bluffs.
Still playing tight and marking players too. This stage is about getting lucky with cards.
Honestly I do not think luck is in poker, but getting good cards is.
This is the stage that will determine if you will cash out or not. Your asking why here and not on the bubble?
..........well read on

The "Bubble" stage.
Here you are either going to cash out or realize you wasted about 2 1/2 -4 hours of your time.
If you got good cards in the last stage, you can blind out and cash out. If you had not got lucky, well your low stack and going to be going all in.

Low Stack
When your low stack on the bubble, you don't want to tangle with someone with lots of chips and that see your all in as small bet to them, try going heads up with someone close or low stack to yourself and hope for a coin toss. You could even steal their blinds if they are pre occupied about getting to the cash placing. Mind ya, if you get AA, KK, etc I personally would try to slow play it and hope to suck in more players with a "nice" pre flop raise then push all in on the flop. This way you could potentially triple or even quadruple up instead of doubling up. This will soar you into chip stack, and give you great position to play......

Medium -to- High Stack
Try not to get to creative here, if you play smart you should cash out, but you do want to take advantage of low stacks on the table, forcing them to push all in or fold. Blind steals should be common practice here. Try not to get mixed up with someone with another med to high stack, or anyone that could put a big dent into your chips.

Final Table
So you made the big leagues eh?
To bad its a freeroll.
Just relax and enjoy it. Your not gonna be rich if you win, so just have fun at it.

Some good information there thanks TargetGuy!!

[bouks999]

thanks for the advice i find myself getting donked in most free rolls.

[PANAMHIEST]

Very good post and great advice. This is exactly how someone would want to play, as long as you dont get donked out. Thanks for the post and I look forward to reading some of your future advices.

[roneill33]

basically sit tight for a bit only play really good hands AK AA KK QQ ect till the donks knock them selves out :P

[jefftib2000]

Great strategy I'm defiently going to use this the next time I play a freeroll. Maybe I will cash in the money in my next freeroll using this.

[slicky111]

Good Stragety. Thanks.