Freeroll Poker: Where The Rules Switch
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Published On:
2/13/2006 5:59 PM
Quick Bio:
Gaia's first poker game was at the age of three. She is a writer by night and plays poker by day. She enjoys the online as well as the live games, although she does maintain the games she plays at home usually have a higher quality of alcohol and better music.
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Whether you are new to the game of poker or a 20-year casino veteran, when you start playing freeroll tournaments you will probably find them daunting at first, for several reasons. As the name suggests, these tournaments are indeed free. While that is undoubtedly preferable to you as a player, it does bring with it a myriad of factors to bring into consideration. Firstly, freeroll tournaments have an incomparably high number of players, mostly revolving around a 1000 give or take, depending on the poker room you have chosen. This means patience is crucial. So if you are accustomed to small hold-em tournaments or sit and gos, brace yourself – this is not a sprint, this is by all means a marathon. Furthermore, once you breathlessly reach that all coveted finish line you will probably be a bit let down by the reward, which usually does not exceed 20-30 dollars, and that’s if you’re lucky. On the other hand, if you are one of those people who take pride in a job well done, well you’ll be dining on the story of how you beat a 1000-2000 other poker players for a very, very long time.
As for answering the question, “What is the best strategy,” opinions vary. Since freerolls require no monetary commitment from the players, you will find yourself playing with the most varied types of players you would encounter in any other poker game. Some people who enter free rolls do it for the sheer practice of playing poker, others for the option of free money (who doesn’t want that?) and every now and again you will find the veteran player, testing his/her skills. This means there is not really one sure bet, so to speak. However, you will find, more often than not, the all – in tactic far more popular at this game than any others.
As annoying as it might seem at first, the thought process behind the bullying –all in strategy is quite obvious really. Taking into account the huge number of players and the fact you have committed no money to the game, why play tight for 2 hours only to see your stack dwindling, finishing at the 100th place? Not a bad feat in its own right but undoubtedly frustrating if you note the prizes start from 20th upwards.
Therefore many players, upon seeing a good hand – and those can vary from any kind of pocket pair, big slick, A-Q, A-J , or sometimes even just a suited hand, decide to take their chances, either raising big or going all in pre flop, thinking they will either intimidate the table thus buying the blinds, or find themselves head to head against another good hand. As we all know when it comes to hold-em, any pre flop, any hand is in with a chance.
Should you happen to lose with this crazy betting – well who cares? You put in zero money and hardly any time at all. But should you win - well that’s a whole other ball game, or card game to be exact.
Once you have built a sizable stack (if you start with a 1000 chips per player, a sizable stack would be 7000-8000 and over) this is the time for tight play. Why? Well, when accounting for the speed by which players drop out in freeroll tournaments it can literally make your head spin. You will find, by exercising a bit of patience, most of the mad players will be eliminated from the tournament. At that point, the play will become a lot more reasonable and calculated, while the blinds climb higher.
That is of course just one take on the freeroll strategy. Some, more conservative players will not submit to the all in, quick-in and out of form play. They will prefer the slow steady climb approach, where the play is tight, position is highly taken into account and only about 2 hands in every round actually come into play. While that might be the rational way to play, if you are among these players, do keep in mind that you will at some point or another you’ll most likely have to commit to a good pocket hand, if not at the price of your entire stack, surely for a sizable part of it.
Remember, the only thing you can be sure about in a no limit free roll is that you can’t be sure of anything. The diversity of player types you will confront will be huge, and just when you think you got the guy sitting next to you pegged as a bully, well that’s when he will turn his cards to show you his beautiful Ace high flush.
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