Building a bankroll from scratch through Freerolls - What's your best advice?

lyounssi said:

Hi everyone,
I am relatively new to the online poker community and I'm currently trying to build my poker bankroll from absolute scratch using only Freerolls.
I've noticed that player behavior in freerolls is often very chaotic, with a lot of players going all-in with random cards during the early stages.
For those who successfully built a bankroll this way, what was your main strategy? Should I play extremely tight until the bubble, or try to take high-variance spots early on to build a big stack?
Looking forward to your insights and advice. Thanks!

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be patient with good hands
good hand still can lose a pot
try to play only the premium hands .
good luck...

Gipsystripsy said:

There is plenty of proof that I DO play winning poker simply because I learned the basics, which you might have never even heard of.

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Your most commonly played game on PokerStars is the $0.5 9-man SnG, where you lost $3.13 over 102 games, so basically breakeven. All your winnings on PokerStars come from freerolls and cent-rolls, which are also promotional games, where PokerStars financed nearly the whole price pool. In top of that some of your biggest cashes in the form of $109 and $215 tickets came in games called "$30K Deutsches Spezial Shootout, $30K zusätzlich in Tickets!", which were all-in shootouts with no skill element whatsoever.

Gipsystripsy said:

I also never said that I would play only freerolls forever.

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But you are still doing it 7 years after, you played your first tournament on PokerStars.

Gipsystripsy said:

Nobody is given success for free. You have to earn it through hard work.

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This is true. But mainly playing freerolls, and only playing 424 games over a period of 6 years (your last game on PokerStars was in 2025), is not exactly hard work.

Gipsystripsy said:

I PLAY POKER AS A HOBBY! It's a CHALLENGE for me. I only play a few times a week, so don't come with the usual "long-term blah blah."

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If you play poker as a hobby, then you dont need a bankroll. A bankroll is the business capital, which for profit players need to keep them in the game, since you cant play regular poker games, if you have no money. A hobby players dont need a bankroll, since they can just stop playing, if they run out of money. Or do, what you have been doing, and play freerolls.

OP however asked about "building a bankroll from scratch through freerolls", so I assume, his plan is to try to become a for profit player. And if someone have that plan, then freerolls are largely a waste of time. The difficult part of becoming a for profit player is not to find the first $100 or $300 or whatever for a starting bankroll, especially if you live in a rich country like Germany or Sweden.

Gipsystripsy said:

Just look at my stats. They keep growing consistently, and if I continue following my bankroll management strategy, they'll look the same even after 100,000 hands.

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Yes because you are freerolling the sites, where you play. Your winnings on PokerStars from freerolls and cent-rolls vastly exceed the amount, you have paid in rake for regular games, and most of this rake came from using tickets, that you won in freerolls or cent-rolls. As a side note having to many people with this kind of playing profile is likely a big part of the reason, why PokerStars have cancelled most of their freerolls.

Gipsystripsy said:

I love people like you who keep telling others they're lying. There is plenty of proof that I DO play winning poker simply because I learned the basics, which you might have never even heard of.

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He's not telling you that you are lying. He's just telling you that you are wrong. There is a difference. Lying is an attempt to deceive. You are not attempting to deceive anyone. You genuinely trying to help, but you are mistaken. So it is important that you be corrected so that your advice leads no one astray.

As for poker basics making you a winning player, your pre-flop ranges and your c-bet frequencies, etc at the table has nothing to do with your bankroll and this thread is about bankroll. Furthermore, the term 'winning player' is relative to the stakes that one plays and you admittedly play freerolls and some penny stakes. Perhaps you are a winning player at freerolls but that does not take skill, simply perseverance. Are you a winning player at penny stakes? It looks like not since your bankroll is exclusively built through freerolls.

If you had built up say 50 dollars from freerolls and used that as a a starter, to move on to 2NL and began building that through 2NL grinds, then you could argue that you are a winning player, but you haven't done anything to demonstrate that.

Gipsystripsy said:

And honestly, I'm glad there are still players like you who think success is measured only by the number of zeros in their bankroll.

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In the context of 'winning player', actually yes, success is 100% measured in winnings.

Gipsystripsy said:

Before you can walk, you first have to crawl. A LOSING player dreams about sprinting while making fun of someone who's still crawling. Nobody is given success for free. You have to earn it through hard work.
If you want to make money with poker, you MUST master these basics first. Otherwise, you'll never reach the level you're talking about. That's exactly why my advice about freerolls could be very valuable for new players.

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Fundiver is probably the smartest contributor to this forum and reading his posts, it is clear that he has much experience playing micro stakes poker. You can't tell someone how to make money at poker if you have not made it yourself. You have 120 dollars from freerolls and you have not managed to grow that bankroll in real money stakes, so you have not made any money at poker. Not trying to be rude, but a cat walking on your keyboard can make 120 dollars at freerolls if it plays long enough. Why should anyone take your advice on making money at poker, let alone fundiver?

Playing freerolls long enough can teach you how to beat freerollers (people who don't give a damn about their stack or their bankroll), but even with that experience and knowledge, the variance in freerolls is so high that your skill edge will only be a small advantage. However, once you move to 2NL, a lot of those players do care about their stacks and bankrolls and your freeroll skill edge won't help you much there neither.

You talk about hard work. You need to grind. Playing 2 or 3 freerolls per week is not work. You need to play every day and if you don't have the time to play 5 or 6 times per week, then those 3 or 4 hours that you have once or twice per week you need to have 2 or 3 or 4 tables open and grind. You need to be playing 2cent cash and 50cent or 1dollar tournaments, and play and play and play to keep that volume up, grind and work.

Gipsystripsy said:

All my stats below were earned through freerolls. And GG offers daily freebies, which are fantastic for starting a bankroll.

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Agree, for STARTING a bankroll, but not building one. Once you have 50 or 100 bucks, you need to move on to real money or you're not trying.

Gipsystripsy said:

I PLAY POKER AS A HOBBY! It's a CHALLENGE for me. I only play a few times a week, so don't come with the usual "long-term blah blah."

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But it IS long term if you want to be a winning player. The better players ONLY beat the variance with volume. That is literally how it is done. You admit that you only play as a hobby, casually a couple of times per week. That is wonderful. Poker is a great hobby, especially if you only play freerolls, that is a lot of hobby fun. But you are not qualified to advise newer players and that is why fundiver counters your advice - not to put you in your place (as you have arrogantly tried to do to him), but to correct the misguided information that you put forth.

A bankroll is simply the ratio of money kept behind to survive the variance of the stakes that one plays, and going by your advice in this thread, you do not understand that, therefore, you should not be advising new players on bankroll.

Sorry if this hurts your feelings, but it has to be said.

Building a bankroll from freerolls definitely takes patience, but it can be done. My approach is to play fairly tight during the early stages because so many players are willing to go all-in with weak hands. Instead of getting involved in marginal spots, I wait for strong starting hands and let the overly aggressive players eliminate each other.

As the field gets smaller and the wild action settles down, I start opening up my range more, especially when I can steal blinds from players who are just trying to survive. I also think it's important not to become *too* tight. If your stack starts getting short, you'll eventually have to take a calculated risk rather than blind away.

The biggest lesson I've learned is that consistency beats chasing big stacks every tournament. Cashing regularly and making good decisions will grow your bankroll over time, even if it feels slow at first.

Good luck with your freeroll journey! It's a great feeling when you finally build enough of a bankroll to move into the micro-stakes.

lyounssi said:

Hi everyone,
I am relatively new to the online poker community and I'm currently trying to build my poker bankroll from absolute scratch using only Freerolls.
I've noticed that player behavior in freerolls is often very chaotic, with a lot of players going all-in with random cards during the early stages.
For those who successfully built a bankroll this way, what was your main strategy? Should I play extremely tight until the bubble, or try to take high-variance spots early on to build a big stack?
Looking forward to your insights and advice. Thanks!

Click to expand...

The first advice that I can give you is to learn what a bankroll is and what it is for.

Your bankroll is not your winnings. Do not confuse this. Most players believe that you win and the winnings add to your bankroll and that;s that, so your bankroll = your winnings. Even I used to believe this but it is not true. Your bankroll is the amount of money in your account that allows you to survive variance (bad luck).

If you know the player blackrain79 Nathan Williams (he has TONS of video content on youtube about smashing micro stakes). There is an article on his site where he posts his winnings for one month. He was up @44k playing mostly 5cent/10cent cash grind. This means that on average he profits 40k per month x 12 = 480k, let's round up to 500k per year. His bankroll must be massive, right? Probably not. here is why.

So what is blackrain's bankroll? I don't know but I will guess. Let's say that he starts the month with a bankroll of 100k. At the end of the month he has 140k. He withdraws 40k to pay his bills, buy groceries, maybe get a new car or travel. Next month his bankroll is ... 100k.

So why 100k? It is to protect his account in case he has a bad month and loses 40k, he still has 60k. Then he has another average month and is back up to 100k. See? And sure, sometimes he will have a great month and be up 90k. He can just make a bigger withdrawal and continue with 100k. His WINNINGS in a year are 500k but his bankroll is still 100k, see?

So let's say that you play freerolls for a few months and eventually win up to $50. That is 100 buy-ins to 50cent MTT or SnG (or just 12.5 buy-ins at 4$4 each to sit at 2NL with 200bb). Let's say that you do fairly well and after a couple of months you are up to $70. You can leave that money in your bankroll (because there is much variance at such low stakes, probably a good idea) or if you really want you can withdraw $20 to buy a case of beer and continue at the same stakes with $50 bankroll. Or if you are smashing your stakes you would leave the money in the bankroll to build up until you have $120 or so and move up to higher stakes.

Semprini said:

He's not telling you that you are lying. He's just telling you that you are wrong. There is a difference. Lying is an attempt to deceive. You are not attempting to deceive anyone. You genuinely trying to help, but you are mistaken. So it is important that you be corrected so that your advice leads no one astray.

As for poker basics making you a winning player, your pre-flop ranges and your c-bet frequencies, etc at the table has nothing to do with your bankroll and this thread is about bankroll. Furthermore, the term 'winning player' is relative to the stakes that one plays and you admittedly play freerolls and some penny stakes. Perhaps you are a winning player at freerolls but that does not take skill, simply perseverance. Are you a winning player at penny stakes? It looks like not since your bankroll is exclusively built through freerolls.

If you had built up say 50 dollars from freerolls and used that as a a starter, to move on to 2NL and began building that through 2NL grinds, then you could argue that you are a winning player, but you haven't done anything to demonstrate that.



In the context of 'winning player', actually yes, success is 100% measured in winnings.



Fundiver is probably the smartest contributor to this forum and reading his posts, it is clear that he has much experience playing micro stakes poker. You can't tell someone how to make money at poker if you have not made it yourself. You have 120 dollars from freerolls and you have not managed to grow that bankroll in real money stakes, so you have not made any money at poker. Not trying to be rude, but a cat walking on your keyboard can make 120 dollars at freerolls if it plays long enough. Why should anyone take your advice on making money at poker, let alone fundiver?

Playing freerolls long enough can teach you how to beat freerollers (people who don't give a damn about their stack or their bankroll), but even with that experience and knowledge, the variance in freerolls is so high that your skill edge will only be a small advantage. However, once you move to 2NL, a lot of those players do care about their stacks and bankrolls and your freeroll skill edge won't help you much there neither.

You talk about hard work. You need to grind. Playing 2 or 3 freerolls per week is not work. You need to play every day and if you don't have the time to play 5 or 6 times per week, then those 3 or 4 hours that you have once or twice per week you need to have 2 or 3 or 4 tables open and grind. You need to be playing 2cent cash and 50cent or 1dollar tournaments, and play and play and play to keep that volume up, grind and work.



Agree, for STARTING a bankroll, but not building one. Once you have 50 or 100 bucks, you need to move on to real money or you're not trying.



But it IS long term if you want to be a winning player. The better players ONLY beat the variance with volume. That is literally how it is done. You admit that you only play as a hobby, casually a couple of times per week. That is wonderful. Poker is a great hobby, especially if you only play freerolls, that is a lot of hobby fun. But you are not qualified to advise newer players and that is why fundiver counters your advice - not to put you in your place (as you have arrogantly tried to do to him), but to correct the misguided information that you put forth.

A bankroll is simply the ratio of money kept behind to survive the variance of the stakes that one plays, and going by your advice in this thread, you do not understand that, therefore, you should not be advising new players on bankroll.

Sorry if this hurts your feelings, but it has to be said.

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I agree with you, but did you notice that the original poster was talking about exactly this topic? You also argue that "just because you haven't achieved or proven something yourself, you have no right to talk about it." I do agree that I misunderstood the term "winning player." But I still think it's inappropriate when someone, no matter how wise or smart they may be, starts giving advice that has nothing to do with the actual topic being discussed.

You can look at it like this: for many Americans or Canadians, buying into a live cash game with $500 for one evening is nothing unusual. So he is speaking from his perspective, which may very well be valid, but it completely misses the point of this thread. Many people, especially on this forum, and especially the original poster, are in a very different situation. As he explicitly wrote, he is at the stage where he wants to know if and how it is possible to make money through freerolls.

What is the point of asking someone how to get from A to B on foot if an "experienced person" replies by saying you shouldn't waste your time walking and should just buy a car or a horse instead? Do you understand why that frustrates me? I definitely became too emotional in many of my replies, but it also wastes unnecessary energy when someone picks apart every single sentence I wrote and tries to disprove it from a very limited point of view.

Reading your opponents is also part of poker. That is a skill as well. And in this case, even if he is right with many of his tips, they are not very relevant because probably 90% of the players here who play freerolls are simply not in the same financial situation. That's why I adjusted my comments to fit exactly that topic.

And I also have to disagree with you on one point. Even though I admit I was wrong about the term "winning player" and I understand that it is something measured over a huge sample of hands, it still seems to me that you are focusing too much on a single phrase while completely missing the bigger picture. I'm honestly surprised how everyone jumps on those $120 instead of looking beyond that.

I've been playing poker since 2010, and I've had other accounts besides the one I posted. Those accounts are no longer active, and some of them were on Full Tilt Poker. Different time, different era. But even then, I would have preferred if we had stayed on the actual topic instead of constantly throwing numbers around just to sound more knowledgeable or superior.

I'm genuinely happy for you if you live in Canada and can afford to invest hundreds of dollars in poker. But that was never the point I was making. Regardless of whether I can personally prove it or not, I believe it is absolutely possible to become a winning player in the long run by starting with freerolls, as long as you stick to proper bankroll management. The 5% rule can work if you also pay attention to many other aspects of the game and approach poker professionally.

That's all I was trying to say. At no point did I claim that I am the ultimate proof that freerolls lead to success. This discussion only started because someone chose to criticize me instead of staying on the original topic. In the end, everyone has a point in their own way, and this endless back and forth achieves nothing except forcing everyone to defend their own opinion.

Gipsystripsy said:

I agree with you, but did you notice that the original poster was talking about exactly this topic? You also argue that "just because you haven't achieved or proven something yourself, you have no right to talk about it." I do agree that I misunderstood the term "winning player." But I still think it's inappropriate when someone, no matter how wise or smart they may be, starts giving advice that has nothing to do with the actual topic being discussed.

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He was speaking exactly about the topic. If someone does indeed wish to establish a bankroll with which to play real money poker with it is probably easier to just pay $50 bucks out of pocket than to try to build it through freerolls. Not that there is anything wrong with trying to start a bankroll from scratch through freerolls but his advice was to just pay $50 and it is probably good advice. It is certainly valid advice from an experienced player.

As he also said, - and this is 100% true - that there is no bankroll needed if one wishes to only play freerolls, since there is no risk to your money, there is no cushion needed to absorb any variance. So if one wants to build a bankroll, it is to eventually play for real money.

Gipsystripsy said:

Many people, especially on this forum, and especially the original poster, are in a very different situation. As he explicitly wrote, he is at the stage where he wants to know if and how it is possible to make money through freerolls.

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Yes, and the answer to that is sure, go for it, since all that it takes is perseverance. Even the world's worst player will eventually earn $100 freerolling if he plays long enough (however many years) and he will do it completely risk free.

Gipsystripsy said:

What is the point of asking someone how to get from A to B on foot if an "experienced person" replies by saying you shouldn't waste your time walking and should just buy a car or a horse instead?

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Because if the OP studies up and puts his study to practice, he should get the basics down fairly quickly and be reasonably competitive at 1c/2c. If that is the case, he can just send $50 to his real money account and not waste time trying to bingo $50 up in freerolls, however many weeks, months that may take. You may disagree with that but it is perfectly logical and valid advice. If someone asks, what is the fastest way to walk from Seattle to San Francisco, you don't think that, 'just take the train, it will be quicker safer and cheaper,' isn't good advice? Because it WOULD be quicker, safer and cheaper.

Gipsystripsy said:

And I also have to disagree with you on one point. Even though I admit I was wrong about the term "winning player" and I understand that it is something measured over a huge sample of hands, it still seems to me that you are focusing too much on a single phrase while completely missing the bigger picture. I'm honestly surprised how everyone jumps on those $120 instead of looking beyond that.

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What exactly am I missing here?

Gipsystripsy said:

But even then, I would have preferred if we had stayed on the actual topic instead of constantly throwing numbers around just to sound more knowledgeable or superior.

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Which numbers thrown out are invalid to the topic?

Gipsystripsy said:

I'm genuinely happy for you if you live in Canada and can afford to invest hundreds of dollars in poker.

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I don't have hundreds of dollars to play poker with. I am a working stiff low income guy, but that's beside the point, whatever.

Gipsystripsy said:

I believe it is absolutely possible to become a winning player in the long run by starting with freerolls, as long as you stick to proper bankroll management.

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And the counter to that which we are trying to explain is that bankroll management is irrelevant in freerolls. Bankroll is simply a hedge against the risk of variance and since variance in freerolls poses no risk, bankroll is irrelevant. There is no bankroll management when playing freerolls, so bankroll management skills are not learned nor even practiced when freerolling. So when you say, 'play freerolls and learn to manage your bankroll," it is a completely uneducated remark. The big lesson on bankroll management is to learn just how big of a chunk variance can take out of your bankroll so that you don't just jump up stakes the moment that you get a couple of big cashes, and since freerolls never threaten a single penny in your bankroll, there is no lesson learned. There is no management. Winnings are winnings. Bankroll is bankroll. So sticking to proper bankroll management in freerolls is a fallacy. There is no bankroll management necessary in freerolling. There is no such thing. That is your error that fundiver pointed out, as much for the OP (or anyone else) as for you.

Now if your advice is simply to 'play freerolls until you have $50," that itself is valid and I don't think anyone has countered that specifically. I have not at least. But what fundiver recommended is that he firmly believes that it's just quicker to pay $50 bucks and go straight to 2NL if you have any game at all, and he would know better than I (he's a far more experienced player than I) but he's probably right.

Gipsystripsy said:

That's all I was trying to say. At no point did I claim that I am the ultimate proof that freerolls lead to success. This discussion only started because someone chose to criticize me instead of staying on the original topic. In the end, everyone has a point in their own way, and this endless back and forth achieves nothing except forcing everyone to defend their own opinion.

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No, what you said was false information. We were not discussing opinions on 3-betting range nor icm short stack action etc. People have varying opinions on that and most are equally valid. In this case, you made a factual error and fundiver corrected it. There is a big difference. If I were to claim that 2+2=5 and then you pointed out that I am just plain wrong, and then I were to say "that's just your opinion!" I would look quite foolish would I not? It would not be my opinion vs yours. I would just be wrong. See?

Semprini said:

The first advice that I can give you is to learn what a bankroll is and what it is for.

Your bankroll is not your winnings. Do not confuse this. Most players believe that you win and the winnings add to your bankroll and that;s that, so your bankroll = your winnings. Even I used to believe this but it is not true. Your bankroll is the amount of money in your account that allows you to survive variance (bad luck).

If you know the player blackrain79 Nathan Williams (he has TONS of video content on youtube about smashing micro stakes). There is an article on his site where he posts his winnings for one month. He was up @44k playing mostly 5cent/10cent cash grind. This means that on average he profits 40k per month x 12 = 480k, let's round up to 500k per year. His bankroll must be massive, right? Probably not. here is why.

So what is blackrain's bankroll? I don't know but I will guess. Let's say that he starts the month with a bankroll of 100k. At the end of the month he has 140k. He withdraws 40k to pay his bills, buy groceries, maybe get a new car or travel. Next month his bankroll is ... 100k.

So why 100k? It is to protect his account in case he has a bad month and loses 40k, he still has 60k. Then he has another average month and is back up to 100k. See? And sure, sometimes he will have a great month and be up 90k. He can just make a bigger withdrawal and continue with 100k. His WINNINGS in a year are 500k but his bankroll is still 100k, see?

So let's say that you play freerolls for a few months and eventually win up to $50. That is 100 buy-ins to 50cent MTT or SnG (or just 12.5 buy-ins at 4$4 each to sit at 2NL with 200bb). Let's say that you do fairly well and after a couple of months you are up to $70. You can leave that money in your bankroll (because there is much variance at such low stakes, probably a good idea) or if you really want you can withdraw $20 to buy a case of beer and continue at the same stakes with $50 bankroll. Or if you are smashing your stakes you would leave the money in the bankroll to build up until you have $120 or so and move up to higher stakes.

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Nothing in the original question suggests that the OP doesn't understand what a bankroll is. He asked about strategy, not about the definition of a bankroll. Instead of answering the actual question, you started by assuming he needed a basic lecture.


Your bankroll is not your winnings.
While winnings and bankroll are obviously not the same thing in general, they literally are at the beginning when someone starts with $0. Every dollar won in a freeroll becomes part of the bankroll until money is withdrawn.


I guess that's just some Canadian/American thing, not answering the actual question, but assuming everyone needs to be educated instead.🧌

Gipsystripsy said:

Nothing in the original question suggests that the OP doesn't understand what a bankroll is. He asked about strategy, not about the definition of a bankroll. Instead of answering the actual question, you started by assuming he needed a basic lecture.


Your bankroll is not your winnings.
While winnings and bankroll are obviously not the same thing in general, they literally are at the beginning when someone starts with $0. Every dollar won in a freeroll becomes part of the bankroll until money is withdrawn.


I guess that's just some Canadian/American thing, not answering the actual question, but assuming everyone needs to be educated instead.

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No, you still do not understand. Winnings are never bankroll, even at zero. Winnings are winnings. One may choose to add his winnings to his bankroll at which time they become bankroll and no longer winnings.

This is freeroll bankroll management: Play freerolls until you have $20. Then withdraw the $20 and buy yourself a case of beer.

That's it. There is no bankroll in freerolling. Remember, your bankroll is simply the money left behind in your account to absorb losses due to variance. How much money do we need to absorb losses due to swings in variance at 2NL? Opinions vary, but somewhere between 50-100 buy-ins is the usual answer, depending if we play cash or tournaments or mix. How much money do we need to absorb losses due to variance in freerolling? None, since there ARE NO LOSSES due to variance in freerolling. 100 buy-ins in freeroll is ... ZERO. That is how much we need to play freerolls FOREVER! Bad luck merely means that we still win, ... just slower. Everything that we make is straight profit. LITERALLY beer money. No joke.

So the original question:

lyounssi said:

I am relatively new to the online poker community and I'm currently trying to build my poker bankroll from absolute scratch using only Freerolls.
I've noticed that player behavior in freerolls is often very chaotic, with a lot of players going all-in with random cards during the early stages.
For those who successfully built a bankroll this way, what was your main strategy? Should I play extremely tight until the bubble, or try to take high-variance spots early on to build a big stack?

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And the answer is, your actual strategy at the table itself is irrelevant. You do not need a bankroll to freeroll, so if you want to build a bankroll through freerolls to eventually play real money, then just play the freerolls until you have the money that you feel that you need, whatever that target is, you choose $50, $100, etc. It will probably be quicker to just pay $50 or $100 out of pocket though.

Your answer was to play freerolls and practice good bankroll management. Well, bankroll management means avoiding unnecessary risk with your bankroll, and since there IS NO RISK of loss in freerolling, your answer is just plain incorrect. There is nothing to manage. Just keep playing until you feel that you have enough to move to penny stakes (however long that takes). So you are giving totally uninformed advice.

Gipsystripsy said:

Nothing in the original question suggests that the OP doesn't understand what a bankroll is. He asked about strategy, not about the definition of a bankroll.

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That in itself obviously tells us that he doesn't know what a bankroll is or what it is for. And after all of the posts in this thread, you still make this comment means that you obviously don't understand either. You are literally the blind leading the blind here. Then fundiver comes along and sheds light of poker wisdom on everything for us and you get upset. Don't blame him.

Being patient and disciplined and not playing too high too soon.

Ive done it made over 300.00 so far this year ,Ithink im making about 12 cents an hour,and ive played poker alooong time

Semprini said:

That in itself obviously tells us that he doesn't know what a bankroll is or what it is for. And after all of the posts in this thread, you still make this comment means that you obviously don't understand either. You are literally the blind leading the blind here. Then fundiver comes along and sheds light of poker wisdom on everything for us and you get upset. Don't blame him.

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Congratulations. You've explained what a bankroll is for the fifth time. Nobody was arguing against that. The only thing still missing is an answer to the OP's actual question about freeroll strategy. Perhaps before calling others blind, you should make sure you've actually answered the question yourself.

Yes. It is possible to build from scratch, but with a lot of calm and patience. Don't overdo it to get great results

Gipsystripsy said:

Congratulations. You've explained what a bankroll is for the fifth time. Nobody was arguing against that. The only thing still missing is an answer to the OP's actual question about freeroll strategy. Perhaps before calling others blind, you should make sure you've actually answered the question yourself.

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Wrong again. YOU have been arguing against the definition of bankroll. As far as the OP's question, I have already answered that but I will repeat. His strategy at the tables is irrelevant to his bankroll management. He can play any way that he likes as far as bankroll is concerned. That is the answer. Other than that, just keep freerolling until you have the necessary money to move to real money, although that may take some time.

Semprini said:

Wrong again. YOU have been arguing against the definition of bankroll. As far as the OP's question, I have already answered that but I will repeat. His strategy at the tables is irrelevant to his bankroll management. He can play any way that he likes as far as bankroll is concerned. That is the answer. Other than that, just keep freerolling until you have the necessary money to move to real money, although that may take some time.

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You're not answering the OP anymore. You're answering a question you invented yourself. The original post is still there. Quote it word for word. If you can't do that, stop pretending the discussion is about bankroll definitions when the OP explicitly asked about freeroll strategy.

Gipsystripsy said:

Quote it word for word.

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I did already. Twice, actually. Scroll up.

Have a good day.

Semprini said:

I did already. Twice, actually. Scroll up.

Have a good day.

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You quoted it correctly. Then you again ignored what it actually asked and answered the question you wanted to answer instead. That's why we're still having this discussion. Once again, must be a Canadian thing. I'm not into that kind of mental gymnastics.

lyounssi said:

Hi everyone,
I am relatively new to the online poker community and I'm currently trying to build my poker bankroll from absolute scratch using only Freerolls.
I've noticed that player behavior in freerolls is often very chaotic, with a lot of players going all-in with random cards during the early stages.
For those who successfully built a bankroll this way, what was your main strategy? Should I play extremely tight until the bubble, or try to take high-variance spots early on to build a big stack?
Looking forward to your insights and advice. Thanks!

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My advice, following the advice that @fundiver199 gave me before:

Freerolls can be a trap most of the time. So, use them without thinking only about building your bankroll. Instead, use them to complement your study—as a field to practice and move on. Eventually, you will need to invest in a platform and start playing micro-stakes or higher, depending on how much money you invest."

lyounssi said:

I've noticed that player behavior in freerolls is often very chaotic, with a lot of players going all-in with random cards during the early stages. For those who successfully built a bankroll this way, what was your main strategy? Should I play extremely tight until the bubble, or try to take high-variance spots early on to build a big stack?

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Gipsystripsy said:

The only thing still missing is an answer to the OP's actual question about freeroll strategy.

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OPs question is a perfect illustration of, why its such a bad idea to try to "build a bankroll from scratch from freerolls". As already explained in this thread by myself and others, you only need to bankroll, if you plan to play poker for profit. So presumably this is his plan. And if his plan is to play poker for profit, the most difficult part is not to find the money for a starting bankroll. That amount can be as low as $50, if this is all, someone can afford.

The most difficult part is to learn the strategy needed to beat the games, he wants to play. Lets say, its microstakes MTTs in the beginning, and then, as his bankroll hopefully grows, also low stakes MTTs, and maybe ultimately mid and high stakes MTTs. Although it should be said, that it is perfectly possible to win significant money already in low stakes games, as this guy proves:


And because OPs goal is to learn to beat regular MTTs, he should be asking questions like these:

"Should I C-bet this flop or check back?"
"Should I bet this river for value or check back?"
"Should I call in this spot with my bluff catcher"
"Should I raise or just call with my draw in this situation"
"Should I fire again on this turn"
"Should I bluff this river and if yes for which sizing"
"Is this a good rejamming spot for 18BB effective"

And so on and so forth. But because he chose to "build a bankroll from scratch from freerolls", instead he is asking, how he should adjust to games with "a lot of players going all-in with random cards during the early stages". And this question is diverting his attention from the questions, he actually need to find the answers to.

Because even in microstakes MTTs you will not commonly see people "going all-in with random cards during the early stages". It might happen now and then but not often enough, that its super important to get your strategy for this situation 100% perfect. And as others have explained, if the goal of playing freerolls is to earn money for a starting bankroll, it does not even matter, how well or poorly you play in them.

If a freeroll pay $100 to 100 participants, then maybe the worst players will win around $0,5 on average and the best players $1,5 on average. So regardless, how well or poorly you play in the freerolls, you are still going to eventually reach your earnings target, whatever it is. Its only a question of, how long it takes. And sure it would be nice to hit the earnings targer sooner rather than later. But the fastest option is still to go in the cashier and make a deposit.

"My advice is to be patient, avoid unnecessary risks, and manage your bankroll carefully. Even small freeroll wins can grow over time if you stay disciplined and keep learning."