There’s a lot of talk about freeroll tournaments these days – reasons why you should play them, and reasons why you shouldn’t. But let’s talk about a few mistakes that beginners make – and let’s see how to avoid them.
Personally, I am an advocate of freeroll tournaments. I think they are a great way for beginners to practice, to identify poor betting patterns, to hone strategies, and – primarily – to begin the practice of calculating pot odds and implied odds. For more experienced players, freerolls can be a fun way to kill some time.
That being said, how can a beginner stay alive in these tournaments? If you’re new to the game, or aren’t a seasoned player, the odds are most assuredly against you. I know of pros that occasionally play freerolls for fun – but that doesn’t mean you should assume that all is lost and throw in the towel. After all, the best way to improve your poker game is to play against people who are better than you are.
You’re also going to encounter a veritable onslaught of terrible poker players in freeroll tournaments – when you can start spotting them, you’re on the right track.
Some common mistakes, and a few tips:
- Right in the beginning of a tournament, a lot of players will try to “buy the pot” by overbetting with a mediocre hand – or even rags. This happens a lot before the flop in the first few hands of a tournament. This type of player will go all-in, and there are invariably people who will be irritated by this kind of move and who will call. Don’t be one of those players – don’t overbet just to double-up in the beginning, and don’t call a player who does it to you, even if you were dealt a decent hand and want ...