Freeroll Strategy

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As there are a lot of both new and old members asking about freeroll tournaments I thought it would be great if people shared what they thought was the best strategy for doing well in freerolls...so what is your go to strategy for freeroll tournaments?

Personally I like to play strong hands and bet safe early in freerolls. Come mid tournament I like to try and play more hands and bet a little more aggressive but never playing hands that shouldn’t be played. Finally, towards the end of the tournament I like to play a mixed strategy between playing high cards and low cards with some bluffs in between. I use a mix strategy to prevent from becoming predictable when there are only a select number of people especially at a final table. This is a pretty straightforward approach I know but curious how other people go about their freeroll tournaments.
 
In begining just play strong hands. In middle I start try some bluffs and play with some marginal hands.
 
Ive found there are two types of freerollers, super tight rocks waiting for the nuts and super loose fish looking to stack off with anything. Against the super tight rocks you want to steal there blinds often and fold all but your premiums when they 3 bet. The super loose fish you want to play strong holdings against them in position and blast big bets when you flop a strong hand. Dont bluff these guys, they never fold. Generally at the final table the players are semi decent with tight aggressive stats with the odd couple of gamblers who have ran well with huge stats. Just play ICM if there's a lower stack about to bust tighten up your ranges and just be patient but dont be afraid to get it in with your premiums the big stack gamblers will pay you off with much weaker holdings.
 
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It depends on the field and on the bind structure. Take CardsChat freerolls, for example. The players are generally skilled, the field is not that big (even better if it's a FC members only tournament) and the blind structure is not ultra fast so you don't have to shove every few hands just to stay ahead of the blinds. In these tournaments, just use everything you know about poker theory and try to beat the other players.

Now take open freerolls. There will be thousands of players fighting for a much smaller prize pool. Many of them are ultra loose and don't even know there is strategy involved in playing poker. When I play these tournaments I don't even bother playing the first few hands since I know there will be multiple all-ins every time. Sometimes I even skip the whole first level just to be sure the maniacs are gone. After that you can play as usual, but be sure not to be too tight in the preflop play because after the flop is where the skill gap will reward you the most.

If you managed to build a good stack, loosen up your game nearing the bubble and you will definitely steal a lot of blinds. If your stack isn't that great but you are pretty sure you can make it in the money, slowplay every hand and then fold. I know it's not the most respectful way to play and also it's not the best way to win the tournament, but odds are you're gonna get busted if you don't do it. If your stack is too low, wait for good spots to shove. You don't have to get monster hands to do that, if you have reads on the other players and believe they're trying to desperately get in the money, go on and steal their blinds with 72o. If they call and you bust, it happens, you were not gonna end up in the money anyway.

After the bubble, there will be a lot of players shoving again. Mostly they are players that barely squeezed in the money. If possible, try to wait a few hands to do that and you will get yourself a pay jump. If your stack is too crippled already just shove. If your stack is solid you can play good poker now.
 
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I've won a few freerolls and always found that it was best only playing my strong hands early. You'll find lots of shoves and lots of limping early in a freeroll. The field very quickly thins out then you can widen your range with a bigger stack and call a bit lighter. Obviously there is huge variance with often 1000s of runners so luck plays a big role
 
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Cody5991 said:
As there are a lot of both new and old members asking about freeroll tournaments I thought it would be great if people shared what they thought was the best strategy for doing well in freerolls...so what is your go to strategy for freeroll tournaments?
Personally I like to play strong hands and bet safe early in freerolls. Come mid tournament I like to try and play more hands and bet a little more aggressive but never playing hands that shouldn’t be played. Finally, towards the end of the tournament I like to play a mixed strategy between playing high cards and low cards with some bluffs in between. I use a mix strategy to prevent from becoming predictable when there are only a select number of people especially at a final table. This is a pretty straightforward approach I know but curious how other people go about their freeroll tournaments.
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i agree.. MTT you play tight early, conserve chips, then loosen up when near bubble and pay attention to ladders
what i find is that the CardsChat and Radio freerolls have tougher competition than standard/public freerolls but do have smaller fields
seems i do better in $1-3 entries than in private freerolls
 
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Tight-aggressive strategy is correct. In the early stage, you should only play strong and promising hands, and in the later stage of the tournament you can play more aggressively using the collected information on opponents.
 
4bet or all in with premium hands
Dont bluff

This is the best strategy
 
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Best advice I can give is that when the bubble is near people tighten up . Waiting to make that final table . Change your gears once it gets down to 27 players . build up enough chips to steal blinds on the bubble . harder to do when your the effective short stack.
 
Play only with big hands and do not try to get bluft just fold when you feel that way
 
I find it best to duck most all-in situations early in a freeroll, unless I have AA, or KK. Hold on until the wild all-ins die out. Then play a tight range until the blinds go up. Here you switch to aggressive and play more hands and bluff more. Build your stack here, then at the final tables use some caution as the aggression level picks up there, and try to catch bluffs.
 
Cody5991 said:
As there are a lot of both new and old members asking about freeroll tournaments I thought it would be great if people shared what they thought was the best strategy for doing well in freerolls...so what is your go to strategy for freeroll tournaments?.
Click to expand...
Freeroll players should read this thread 😀
How to Win CardsChat Freerolls!
 
my strategy is not to fall into the all in with those who usually start the freerolls, I try to be very calm but trying to increase my stack before the blinds rise a lot and then I can not do anything, I like how many play strong hands, but also I like to follow my instinct and risk myself with other cards, because you can not always win with strong cards
 
Cody5991 said:
As there are a lot of both new and old members asking about freeroll tournaments I thought it would be great if people shared what they thought was the best strategy for doing well in freerolls...so what is your go to strategy for freeroll tournaments?

Personally I like to play strong hands and bet safe early in freerolls. Come mid tournament I like to try and play more hands and bet a little more aggressive but never playing hands that shouldn’t be played. Finally, towards the end of the tournament I like to play a mixed strategy between playing high cards and low cards with some bluffs in between. I use a mix strategy to prevent from becoming predictable when there are only a select number of people especially at a final table. This is a pretty straightforward approach I know but curious how other people go about their freeroll tournaments.
Click to expand...


This seems like a good strategy... its tough to know which players are playing seriously and which arent. Hence strong hands early to weed out the fish.
 
The best strategy is play tight and very aggresive with premium hands, you don't need too much tecnique, they will pay your raises too much!
 
all good advice. However, may also want to account for field size. May pay to be aggressive early if payout zone is less than 10%.
 
In freerolls, I try to stick to a tight-aggressive strategy. It is important to be patient and play only good starting hands.
 
too many crazy bingo players in freerolls in my opinion,you can try to play solid but people call raise or go allin with everything and anything and hit miracle flops so its :/
 
Freeroll is a tournament like any for me the only difference is that the villains play more loosely because they are not losing money so you will have either the luckiest account in the game😛layingba😕😀
 
You'll realize that you don't have to change you game that much compared to micro and low stakes. The reason being is that in micro and low stakes the re-entry causes players to play carelessly. You need to weather the storm until you find that you're seeing less multiway pots. When players tighten up you need to open your range and play with more aggression. I've taken to logging all my hands and doing over if my hands are +EV or -EV. If you follow this you'll see deeper runs in any tournaments
 
I see players advice to play quality hands early. Nope!! I play bs hands early trying to double or triple up..........early. So what if you get knocked out in the 1st orbit. What have you lost? Absolutely nothing, it's a freeroll. I hate to have a couple or 3 hours invested and then get knocked out. I want to have some chips in my stack after 3 hours of grinding. Now when I go all in the people that have also invested their time also have something to lose. Playing poker while having nothing to lose is not real poker.
 
Play tight until u have +20bb, after that u have no options, have to take risks.
 
All members: You can pretty much play any hands. Try to double up as soon as possible. Even if you get eliminated early you have nothing to lose. You can try another time.

FRC: Only play strong hands. Most FRC members will play more carefully and less loose.
 
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