Freerolls are an excellent way to start a bankroll to avoid having to invest any of your own money out of pocket. Virtually all poker online sites offer freerolls with many sites offering them on a regularly scheduled basis. They will vary in size in terms of both the field and prize pool. Some prize pools will consist of cash, others will be an entry into another tournament and some may even offer entries into live events.
Players Only Poker
Although poker online freerolls are great because they’re “free” to enter, that’s really the downside as well. Meaning, since no one has to pay to enter them, many players do not take freerolls seriously making it more difficult for those who do to play.
So, with the somewhat smaller online poker real money payouts, large field size and super aggressive fishy players, are freerolls still worth playing, let alone possible to beat?
Yeah, they are worth playing and can be beaten providing you have some patience, luck on your side and you follow some of our tips below.
Beat Freeroll Tournaments
Overall, you’re not going to approach the best online poker freeroll much different than you would a sit n go or multi-table tournament. Here is what we would suggest you do.
Double Up or Done
This strategy is one that is used by many freeroll junkies. All this strategy consists of is trying to double up early or bust out. The idea behind it is to avoid playing for several hours only to bust out, miss making the money and waste several hours for nothing.
This strategy is not recommended. The problem with this strategy is that doubling up early doesn’t do you a ton of good. After all, the chips really aren’t worth all that much and certainly not much more than what your opponents have (ICM anyone?). Not only that but just because you double or triple up early doesn’t mean you will make the money. Lastly, you may play poker for several hours and not make the money, but the same thing can happen in a tournament with a buy-in. The key difference is that you didn’t pay to play in a freeroll.
Tight is right
We would suggest the tight is the right approach when first starting out in a freeroll. Many players will be using the double up or done approach which means that players will be busting out left and right. By sticking to only premium hands, you won’t be faced with a marginal decision for all your chips early on.
Willing to flip early on. These hands are flipping against almost all pairs (slight dogs to QQs and JJs) and are really only beaten by aces and kings. Most of the players in a freeroll are stacking off much lighter than this, so AK/AQ is definitely ahead of most players’ ranges. Again, this would be a bit spewy in a tournament or sit n go but is well worth the risk in a freeroll.
Don’t bluff
In a freeroll, we will almost avoid bluffing altogether, even continuation bets. Players are calling and willing to stack off too lightly and draw with improper odds. Just think of all these opponents like calling stations, the worst guys in the world to try to bluff. Many will call just for the sake of calling.
Happy playing!
Read more:
Poker Online – Studying Poker Hand Histories
Classify Poker Online Players as Poker Animals