How Many of you Never deposited and turned free roll $ into a lot?

I like freerolls, great entertainment. When you play 10 tourneys and finish in the money 1 time. Cool getting a good feel. Then you get to where you are confident, your game is getting solid. Next step you consistently make the money and now you final table 1 out of 10 money finishes. Man you are just about there. And then you final table regularly and you find that out of every 10 final tables you are winning outright 1 time you are going to be ready.

I have used online PKR to pay for a lot of computer equipment. But it is time consuming. Since I started playing again (10 year break since black Friday) in October the roll among various sites is up around 180. Hand full of CC final tables but no wins yet. 3 roll wins on one site. Big difference from CC to those open rolls. There are some real players here.

azforlife said:

bravo.. were you buying in any tourneys or just playing freerolls, at the begining?

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At the very beginning just freerolls. Then when I started playing the micros and was on a downwards swing I'd drop back to freerolls only. You can see me on sharkscope if you are interested in my path (Redrydinhood) and I play on ACR. I have a little more in my account than sharkscope says cause I have extra money from cardschat tourneys I've cashed in that ss doesn't record, plus I have earned rakeback. Make sure you sign up for the best rakeback on the site you play on, once you move out of the freerolls. GL!!!

Amanda A said:

At the very beginning just freerolls. Then when I started playing the micros and was on a downwards swing I'd drop back to freerolls only. You can see me on sharkscope if you are interested in my path (Redrydinhood) and I play on ACR. I have a little more in my account than sharkscope says cause I have extra money from cardschat tourneys I've cashed in that ss doesn't record, plus I have earned rakeback. Make sure you sign up for the best rakeback on the site you play on, once you move out of the freerolls. GL!!!

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Nice upward looking graph, you barely went on a downswing, thanks for sharing. I'll see if I can do that at rakeback sites, usually see the offers for new accounts. Keep chugging, inspirational for freeroll grinders, you definitely practice BRM unlike some people ;]

Zapahlohotrona said:

I made a deposit 2 times for 5 dollars. Sometimes I managed to reach 150 dollars, but I withdrew them. So I play, I don’t make deposits. If I manage to win something, then it’s good. If I lose, then I play freerolls.

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Never deposited, playing for a year and a half, got from 0 to 500, broke until 10, and am still playing everyday, with more that 500,000 hands played just at PS.

I made a deposit many times, but I didn't win anything from this, but I manage to win from freerolls))

I'm slowly approaching 1k on one site, mostly playing free roll tournaments 1-2 times a week. With slightly better final table luck I could have just as easily been around 5k for the same time period.

The problem with freeroll tournaments is that large fields are high variance and often there just aren't that many tournaments.

Amanda A said:

I've never deposited and have around $2300 in my ACR account, working my way from freerolls to micros and some low buy in tourneys. Cardschat have the best freerolls and $ added tourneys! It's taken me a long time so it's probably not ideal, but I'm committed to developing my game, being a winning player and hopefully moving up the stakes. GL!

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i have done that also. the downside of this is that it takes a lot of time

This whole "never deposited and still ended up making a lot of money from poker" thing might be a cool story, but I have never understood, why people are so obsessed with it. To succeed in poker you need to invest a lot of time. So why is it important to not invest even a small amount of money? In you plan on starting a business, then surely you dont expect to be able to do that without investing a single dollar?

However there are plenty of people, who began in the micros and eventually made it all the way to the top. Not because they avoided depositing, but due to determination, talent and hard work. Doug Polk came on to the 2+2 forum years ago seeking help, because he found it difficult to beat 2NL. Today he is co-owner of one of the best training sites and a poker room as well, and he has made millions of dollars playing poker.

Freerolls are nice but if the bulk of your gains aren't from actual tourneys your growth is not only highly capped, but also has a low ceiling.

There are plenty of good EV spots out there with consistent overlays or solid promotions that sticking to freerolls will not get you.

ExMoroccan said:

i'm really interested in some stories about going from freeroll to something to get inspired

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Building up a substantial bankroll with absolutely no deposits can be done...and I'm sure it has been done many times...myself included. I still play freerolls and enjoy them…I just completed my zero to $1000 goal for the third time…it took several months…I started with freerolls, won a few, some top ten finishes and many $1 prizes…then I played some micro cash games…if I was playing 5/10 cents, I always bought in for the max and played until I busted out or doubled my money…I found that if I kept playing after doubling up, I would get reckless and cocky and end up losing. Once I built up my bankroll to $200 to $300, I played 10/25 cents, increasing to 25/50 after hitting $500.

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Lodestone said:

Freerolls are nice but if the bulk of your gains aren't from actual tourneys your growth is not only highly capped, but also has a low ceiling.

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Thats exactly the point. If you are brand new to poker, you can learn something from playing freerolls or play money games, but the learning process is highly capped, because the competition is so weak and often play like, its not their own money, because its not. So to grow as a player you need to test yourself against some more serious competition. And also learn to deal mentally with the idea of having losing sessions, weeks or month, because thats the reality of poker, especially tournament poker.

Lodestone said:

There are plenty of good EV spots out there with consistent overlays or solid promotions that sticking to freerolls will not get you.

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Another excellent point. One such example of a good EV spot is the SnG leaderboard on ACR Poker. Currently you need to collect around 90 points per week to get back $50, but lets just round it up to 100, because you dont want to miss out by a few points, and the exact number vary from week to week. If you play On Demand SnGs, which are the ones running most commonly anyway, you get dubble points, and then you earn 2,5 points per dollar paid in rake. So basically you get back $50 for paying $40 in rake = 125% rakeback.

I have been playing on and off on ACR Poker, and when I reactivated my account earlier this year, I deposited $800, which allowed me to instantly compete for the leaderboard. Whereas had I insisted on "grinding it up from freerolls", or perhaps starting with a minimal deposit like $100, I would likely still be stuck playing freerolls or microstakes games and not be able to contend for the leaderboard. Or for that matter find MTTs with an overlay, like the 6.05 am CET $21 hyperturbo had yesterday.

My first no-deposit bankroll was on 888poker a few years ago. Another site where I built a relatively large bankroll was the defunct Copacabana Poker. But the opportunities were very good back then. Nowadays, the only places I know of to make money with freerolls are CardsChat, 888poker, and GG Poker. If anyone knows of other interesting ones, please share them here, if possible.

ExMoroccan said:

i'm really interested in some stories about going from freeroll to something to get inspired

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im cash game player but like the freerolls also (most of time becasue im broke and have nothing else to do )
when i make money from freerols i go to cash games win time to time a lot but i cant stop myself with
going to higher stakes when i have the money so, shortly i broke all the time after few days all the time.